Tag: air fittings

Using Accessories to Boost Your Tools

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I was once on a local theater’s website, ordering tickets to an upcoming show that my wife and I were excited to see. I had the option to pay online and have a digital code emailed to me in lieu of a real live paper ticket. Can you believe they wanted to charge me almost $2 A TICKET for that?!? I adamantly refused (by that I mean I clicked the mouse extra hard on the “Will Call” button before completing my payment)…and saved that $4 (almost) for something REALLY important.

The night of the show, there was a 20-minute line at the Will Call window. Folks who had opted for the digital code were doing a quick scan with their smartphones and walking straight into the theater. I used the $4 I saved to partially pay for a $10 glass of wine from a concession kiosk in the lobby, as a peace offering for my lovely bride. That was indeed “something REALLY important.”

Another time, I was ordering a sump pump backup system for our house. I had the option of paying extra for the deluxe system, which came with all the fittings and a special tool to make installation a bit easier. Even though the ‘deluxe’ system adder was probably a bit more than the cost of the fittings from my local hardware store, I paid the “convenience fee” and got the deluxe system anyway. For the record, during the installation, I realized I would have bought an incorrect fitting at the local store which would have forced an emergency trip while I had the water turned off in my whole house. THAT was an inconvenience I was glad to have avoided.

Similarly, you can buy any EXAIR product with, or without, accessories that’ll make for simpler installation, improved performance, and to ensure it does what you want it to do. Some of these are product-specific, but many are suitable (and recommended) for use with any of our products:

Filter Separators

Good engineering practice calls for point of use filtration for any compressed air operated device. Even if you have the best intake & discharge filters on your air compressor, trace amounts of contaminants can sneak through, pipes can rust, and water vapor that the dryer doesn’t catch can condense. Particulates can build up and eventually clog the tight clearances in many engineered compressed air products, and if you’re using air for cleaning, drying, etc., keep in mind that whatever’s in your air will get on your product. Moisture isn’t always as big of a deal, but it can freeze inside Vortex Tubes, Spot Cooling Products, Cold Guns, and Cabinet Cooler Systems. That’s why we include Filter Separators in our Air Knife, Air Wipe, Static Eliminator Products, Line Vac, Adjustable Spot Cooler, Cold Gun, and Cabinet Cooler System Kits.

Automatic Drain Filter Separators come in sizes from 1/4 NPT to 1-1/4 NPT, for compressed air flows up to 400 SCFM.

Oil Removal Filters

These aren’t always needed, but we have them if your application calls for it. Some of the “usual suspects” are food & Pharma (see above “whatever’s in your air will get on your product”), blowoff prior to painting (the smallest amount of oil on the surface causes a phenomenon known as “fish eye” and it looks exactly like that sounds), or when your compressor is known to have oil carryover.

When properly installed downstream of an Automatic Drain Filter Separator (left,) an Oil Removal Filter (center) will provide clean, oil free air to the Pressure Regulator (right) and all downstream components.

Pressure Regulators

One of our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is to control the air pressure at the point of use to minimize air consumption. In other words, find the supply pressure for your product that gets the job done, so you don’t use any more compressed air than you have to. Like the Filter Separators above, these come with many EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product Kits.

Pressure Regulators “dial in” performance to get the job done without using more air than necessary.

Mounting Brackets and Coupling Kits

Most of our Filter Separators, Oil Removal Filters, and Pressure Regulators can be attached to a wall, panel, etc., with a Mounting Bracket, and can actually be attached to each other with a modular Coupling Kit. These parts simplify the installation, ensure they are oriented correctly, and minimize the chance for air leaks.

Filters (left) and Pressure Regulators (center) can be mounted using Brackets, and they can be connected together with Modular Couplers (right).

Silencing Mufflers

Many EXAIR products are engineered to develop a boundary layer of low velocity air flow that greatly reduces the sound level during operation. Other products use a venturi mechanism to draw a vacuum (Reversible Drum Vacs and E-Vac Vacuum Generators) or a Vortex Tube to generate cold air flow. The air flow from these products cannot be subjected to back pressure, and, without anything to mitigate the sound pressure generated by the rapid pressure drop as the air exits, they can be quite loud. For these, we have Silencing Mufflers that, except for the largest & most powerful of these products, reduce the sound level to be compliant with OSHA Standard 1910.95 Maximum Noise Exposure Limits.

From left to right… Reclassifying Mufflers offer the highest noise level reduction, eliminate oil mist, and come in sizes from 1/8 NPT to 1 NPT.
Sintered Bronze Mufflers are low cost and compact, with threads from #10-32 to 1-1/2 NPT.
Straight Through Mufflers use an internal sleeve of sound reducing foam, with threads from ¼ NPT to ¾ NPT, with male threads on one end and female threads on the other.
Heavy Duty Mufflers have an aluminum shell and an internal stainless steel screen that keeps contaminants like rust from being ejected in a dangerous way.  We have them in ¼ NPT and ¾ NPT sizes.

Shutoff and Solenoid Valves

Another one of our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is to turn off the compressed air when it’s not in use. For this, EXAIR offers manual ball valves, for operator control, and Solenoid Valves, to automate the process.

Solenoid Valves (left) are available for 120VAC, 240VAC, and 24VDC in sizes from 1/4 NPT to 1 NPT. We offer manual Ball Valves in sizes from 1/8 NPT to 1-1/4 NPT.

Swivel Fittings, Stay Set Hoses, and Magnetic Bases

EXAIR Super Air Nozzles are threaded for installation with common air pipe & hose fittings. If the pipe isn’t pointed in the exact right direction, a Swivel Fitting gives you 50°  of adjustability. If the pipe isn’t quite close enough to what you want to blow off, Stay Set Hoses come in lengths of 6″ to 36″, and when bent to aim the Air Nozzle, they ‘stay set’, as advertised, until they need to be moved. If a pipe doesn’t exist and you need to run an air hose from the nearest drop on the header, Magnetic Bases can support the Air Nozzle and a Stay Set Hose to get the air where you want it. They even have shutoff valves to turn them off when they’re not in use (that’s a good thing; see above).

Save installation time AND get your blowoff pointed in the right direction!

Hoses and Compressed Air Fittings

If you need one of the aforementioned air hoses to reach a Magnetic Base or to supply a Safety Air Gun, we have two diameters to choose from – 3/8″ ID (1/4 MNPT threads on the ends) and 1/2″ ID (1/2 MNPT threads on the end), and we can make them to any length you need. And, while our selection probably isn’t quite as comprehensive as your local piping supply shop, we stock a number of pipe nipples, Couplers, Reducers, Tees, and Elbows that are commonly used with our products. So – like my backup sump pump deluxe kit, we can put all the fittings you may require in the same box for you.

Contact an Application Engineer if you have ANY questions about how to properly supply compressed air to your EXAIR products.

At EXAIR, we’re here to make sure you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you need accessories to help with that, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter
Like us on Facebook

Issues and Problems with Pressure Drop

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

 

Super Air Knife Install Sheet

Pressure drop comes in different forms, and it causes inefficiencies within your pneumatic system.  EXAIR writes statements in the installation manuals to help find the correct pipe sizes to supply the different products.  (Reference Super Air Knife Installation Manual above).   But there are other areas that can affect the performance.  These can be fittings, tubing, valves, and accessories.  In this blog, I will cover some pitfalls that can minimize the potential of your EXAIR products.

Pressure drop by definition is a difference or loss in pressure.  A properly sized Filter Separator will typically have a pressure drop of 5 PSID (0.3 bar) at the rated conditions.  So, if you start with 100 PSIG (6.9 bar), the air pressure after the filter separator will be 95 PSIG (6.6 bar).  But what happens when a filter separator is undersized or too small?  The pressure drop will be much higher.  So, if the pressure drop is 30 PSID (2 bar), then the downstream air pressure will only be 70 PSIG (4.8 bar).  At that pressure, you may not be able to get the performance that is required to do the job.

The first thing in determining these potential issues is what I like to call forensics.  If you can install a pressure gage at the inlet of any EXAIR product, then you can deduce if a potential problem is within your setup.   For example, if the Pressure Regulator is at 100 PSIG (6.9 bar), and the pressure gauge at the inlet is reading only 60 PSIG (4.1 bar), then there is a pressure drop of 40 PSID (2.8 bar) between these two points.  You can look in this area for the problem or problems.  If the gauge on the Pressure Regulator goes down as well when you are operating, then the problem area is upstream of the Pressure Regulator.  This can be from the pipe size or the air compressor.

The most common issues are fittings and tubing.  With fittings, small openings may not allow enough air to pass through.  Above is a photo of some typical fittings.  You notice that the right side of the chart has large enough openings to decrease pressure drop.  In some instances, quick connect fittings are commonly used to easily connect or disconnect pneumatic devices; but if you use too small or too many of these fittings, they can cause a large pressure drop.

The other problem is with the inner diameter of tubing, hoses, or pipes that are not properly sized.  Russ Bowman, a colleague, created a video showing the issues with improperly sized plumbing.  It is a very interesting video that shows the effect on a Super Air Knife.

If you want to get the most from your EXAIR products, you will need to reduce the amount of pressure drop in your system.  Pressure drop is wasted energy and can affect your pneumatic system.  You can follow my recommendations above.  Or if you would like to discuss your setup with an Application Engineer, we will be happy to assist.

John Ball
Application Engineer

Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Do I Have To Install A Compressed Air Filter?

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac Kit – Model 152200

Recently I took a call from an existing customer that is questioning their Heavy Duty Line Vac Kit setup. They are experiencing around a 38 psig pressure drop from before the filter in the system to the inlet of the Line Vac.  At first glance, they assumed this was due to the filter restricting the flow. They then posed the question, “Do I have to run this filter or can I take it out?  I mean I already have a filter at my compressor.” The answer is yes, install the filter. It will keep dirt, scale and condensate from entering the Line Vac or other components downstream. In the case of a Line Vac, a filter will also prevent this unwanted debris from getting into the material being conveyed.

Example of an Improper Filter Setup

However, this is a great question, especially when assuming the filter is causing the pressure drop – but that was not the case for this application.  So more questions were asked to our customer to determine what the root cause of the pressure drop could be. Seeing a pressure drop across a filter can be caused by several factors.

One would be an inappropriately sized filter. This can restrict the volumetric flow of air through to the point of use causing a pressure drop.  All of the filters supplied with our product kits are auto-drain, have 5 micron filter elements and appropriately sized to operate the product at 80 psig inlet pressure so this was not the problem.

The next issue could be that the filter is clogged, this brought on another question.  If you see more than a 5 psig pressure drop across a filter from EXAIR then we suggest changing out the filter element as it could be clogged and not permitting the full volumetric flow through.  This installation was fairly new and a quick test without a filter element installed proved it was not the filter element that was clogged.

That brought us to the last variable, the length, size, and number/type of fittings between the filter and the Heavy Duty Line Vac. This length of pipe was more than 30′ in length and was only appropriately sized for a 10′ length or shorter run.  The customer was using a 1/2″ Schedule 40 black iron pipe to feed a 2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac at 80 psig inlet pressure. The 2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac Kit will utilize 75 SCFM at 80 psig inlet pressure.  That will need a 1/2″ Sched. 40 pipe that is 10′ long or less in order to not have friction loss within the feed pipe.  Armed with this information the customer is researching whether or not the line needs to stay that long.  If it does, they will have to re-plumb the system with a minimum of a 3/4″ Sched. 40 black iron pipe.

Luckily this was all able to be discussed within a few hours of time and the customer is on their way to an optimal supply system for their in-line conveyor.  One brief phone call took this customer from lackluster performance and thinking a product was not going to work for what they need, to performing beyond their expectations, and being able to keep up with their production needs.

If you have a product or any part of your compressed air system that you question why it may be performing or not performing a certain way, please do not hesitate to reach out to our knowledgeable team of Application Engineers. We are always interested in finding a solution to your needs.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF