EXAIR’s Super Air Knife is THE best solution for compressed air blowoff applications that need a wide sheet of compressed air. We’ve been manufacturing Air Knives for over 37 years, with the Super Air Knife making its first appearance back in 1997. Since then, the Super Air Knife has undergone a few enhancements over the years as we’re constantly trying to improve existing products while continuing to introduce new products. We’ve added new materials, longer single piece knives, as well as additional accessories. But, by and large, the basic design has remained the same. As the saying goes: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”.
The Super Air Knife utilizes a source of compressed air to create a laminar sheet of high velocity air. This supplied compressed air mixes with ambient air that is entrained into the primary airstream. The Super Air Knife entrains ambient air at a rate of 40:1, making it VERY effective in a variety of drying, cleaning, and cooling applications. Available in lengths ranging from 3”-108” and in a variety of different materials of construction, there’s a Super Air Knife available for just about any application. Any time you have product moving along a conveyor that needs to be cleaned, dried, or cooled off, a Super Air Knife is the ideal fit.
Now through the end of December, order any EXAIR Super Air Knife and receive a FREE 1210 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun. This applies to all Super Air Knife orders whether aluminum, stainless steel, or PVDF. The Model 1210 is a top pick for many industrial applications. With the ideal combination of forceful air flow, quite noise level, and compressed air usage there’s not many applications that aren’t suited for this style of gun. All EXAIR’s Safety Air Guns are compliant with OSHA 1910.242 (b), relating to dead-end pressure, and can keep your personnel safe.
EXAIR Model 1210 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun
With all sizes and materials available from stock, we can get a knife (and your FREE Safety Air Gun) shipped out to you same day with a PO received by 3:00 ET. Get yours on order today and take advantage of this limited time promotion!
The two words, doughnut, and donut are synonymous with each other. In research, the spelling donut is another Americanized word that didn’t catch on until the late 20th century. Either way, there are still multiple types of doughnuts. One of my favorites is shown below by one of the best donut manufacturers, NASCAR.
Maybe you are a little riskier and like some donuts that have a little less horsepower and a little more spice to them. Something like a ghost pepper doughnut that has a combination of spicy and sweet flavoring to satisfy your morning cravings for food. If so, you may be interested to know that an EXAIR Super Air Knife could have helped in the manufacturing process.
A regional bakery has opened up production and after months of determining their recipe and icing selection, they still needed some help on getting the glazing level correct on the finished doughnuts. The baked goodness would travel under a waterfall of glazing and several variables would lead to the amount of glazing that would build up/ remain on the doughnut. After testing these variables out the customer still wanted a better coating so they called EXAIR.
30″ 316 Stainless Steel Super Air Knife removing surplus glaze from doughnuts
The solution, a 30″ 316 Stainless Steel Super Air Knife to mount over the conveyor and blow down the surplus glazing into the catch pan for recirculation. The variability in force from a gentle breeze up to a forceful, glaze stripping blast, was exactly what the baker ordered. This setup has been in practice for months now and nothing but positive results have been tasted, I mean seen.
If you would like to discuss any point of use compressed air application, please contact us.
EXAIR has been manufacturing Intelligent Compressed Air® products since 1983. In the beginning, the Standard Air Knives and Full Flow Air Knives were very effective at that time. But as leaders in this market, EXAIR did not want to stop there. We were able to engineer a more efficient, more powerful, and much safer air knife, the Super Air Knife. In this blog, I will discuss the features and benefits that the Super Air Knives can offer.
Bernoulli’s principle explains how a high velocity fluid can generate a low pressure. The Super Air Knife creates that high velocity air stream to produce a low pressure above and below the opening to entrain ambient air. What does this mean for you? It will save you much money by using less compressed air. The mass of the free ambient air is added into the air stream to give a strong blowing force. The Super Air Knife has an amplification ratio of 40:1. For every 1 part of compressed air, 40 parts of ambient air is drawn into the blowing air stream. Ambient air is free, and compressed air is definitely not. EXAIR was able to engineer a design to use the Bernoulli’s principle to make one of the most efficient air knives in the market place.
Super Air Knife
As a benefit, they blow a laminar air stream which reduces noise levels and create a consistent force along the entire length. An even force will give you tighter control for blowing applications which will cut compressed air usage unlike the inconsistent and turbulent air flows caused by drilled pipes, manifolds of nozzles or blower-type systems. Some other interesting features for the Super Air Knives are that they have a compact design to fit into tight places for blowing and cooling. The footprint is very small as compared to blower-air knife systems. They do not have any moving parts to wear or maintenance to do. They only need clean compressed air to work.
What else makes the Super Air Knives unchallenged? We manufacture and stock the widest range in lengths and materials. To start, Super Air Knives range from 3” to 108” (76mm to 2,743mm) in three different materials; aluminum, 303 stainless steel, and 316/316L stainless steel. There is no-one else in this industry that can manufacture to those lengths. EXAIR also offers Super Air Knives in PVDF material with Hastelloy hardware for chemical resistant applications from 3” to 54” (76mm to 1,372mm). Depending on the temperature requirement, chemical resistance, OSHA and FDA regulations, or application details, we probably will have one on the shelf for you.
If EXAIR does not stock it, we make special air knives in different lengths and materials to best fit your application. In some confined areas, the Super Air Knives may have to fit inside a specific width or footprint. Well, EXAIR can make it to that specific length in a short period. We have also made special designed Air Knives that were very thin, curved, double-sided, and with distinct mounting holes to easily attach to specific machines or operations. And if you need a special material, like the PVC Super Air Knife below, we can do that. EXAIR has a team of Application Engineers that can help you with the design, configuration, and details for special types of Super Air Knives.
PVC Super Air Knife
Double-sided Super Air Knife
We also offer the Super Air Knives in kits as a more complete system. The kit includes a filter, regulator and a Shim Set. The filter removes the debris and water from the compressed air line to optimize the performance of the air knife as well as keeping your product clean. The regulator is used to make the “fine” adjustment to the blowing force while the shim set is used as the “coarse” adjustment. EXAIR sells this kit as one model number for simple ordering, and the accessories are properly sized to not hinder the performance of the Super Air Knife.
Super Air Knife Kits include a Shim Set, Filter Separator, and Pressure Regulator.
With the today’s cost to make compressed air, it is important to do it as efficiently as possible. The EXAIR Super Air Knives are the most efficient as well as safe and effective. And if you need a specific design for your application, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR. We will be glad to help you.
I recently worked with a beverage manufacturer in replacing some inefficient and cheap plastic nozzles on one of their processing lines. The customer manufactures a wide variety of various beverages for consumer use, packaging them into juice-box containers. After sealing, the boxes go through a washdown process to remove any residual that may have spilled onto the outside of the container during filling.
Upon exiting the washer, they travel along a 3” wide conveyor where they’re dried by (2) plastic flat nozzles. After drying, the boxes make their way to a printer that marks the manufacturing codes and expiration date on the top of the container. If any residual moisture is present, they do not receive a legible marking. Since the boxes were not always dead-center on the conveyor, they had to stagger two nozzles in order to ensure the top of the box was dried regardless of its orientation on the conveyor.
Their search for a more efficient solution led them to the EXAIRSuper Air Knife. Not only was the knife significantly more efficient, but it was also able to dramatically reduce the sound level as well. The current nozzles consume 56.8 SCFM at a pressure of 80 PSIG. The two nozzles were replaced with (1) Model 110003 Super Air Knife and Universal Mounting System. The knife was positioned directly over top of the boxes, covering the full width of the conveyor. In comparison, the 3” Super Air Knife consumes just 8.7 SCFM of compressed air AND we only needed to use one of them. The customer runs two 8-hr shifts per day, 7 days per week. Exactly how much did they save (assuming $0.25/ 1000 SCF cost of compressed air)?
Before EXAIR: (2) nozzles consuming 56.8 SCFM
56.8 SCFM x 16hrs x 365 days/year = 331,712 SCF of compressed air per year
331,712 SCF x $0.25/1000 SCF = $82.93/ year
After EXAIR: (1) 3” Super Air Knife consuming 8.7 SCFM
8.7 SCFM x 16hrs x 365 days/year = 50,808 SCF of compressed air per year
50,808 SCF x $0.25/1000 SCF = $12.70/ year
This equates to a 75% reduction in compressed air usage per installation. The customer had a total of (4) lines running with the same setup and was able to replace each with a 3” Super Air Knife. In addition to the air savings, the sound level was reduced from 85 dBA to just 69 dBA with the Super Air Knife!
Stop wasting your time with cheap and ineffective plastic nozzles. They’re wasting you a ton of money on your bottom line, not to mention can’t stand up to the ruggedness of our Super Air Knife. Replacing any inefficient blowoff products with an engineered solution can really help during these difficult times, as well as improve the working environment for your operators.
