Tag: air nozzle tip

Buy 1, Get 40 Free

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Buy one, get one free is a phrase many of us are familiar with. Most of the time it is a good thing; we all like free stuff. What would you say to buy one, get 30 free? Or even 40 free? That’s not far off how our Air Knives perform. They entrain large volumes of ambient air, so for every 1 SCFM of compressed air you are paying for, you are getting 30–40 SCFM of additional free ambient entrained air.

So how are our Air Knives able to do this? We explain this phenomenon in more detail in this blog here, but in summary, a Super Air Knife takes advantage of the Venturi Effect. Named after Giovanni Venturi, who found out that when you increase the speed of a fluid through an orifice, the surrounding fluid will move along with it. This creates a region of low pressure, and the faster the speed, the lower the pressure. With low pressure, the air around rushes in to fill that gap and join the airstream. The quantity of ambient air that gets ‘pulled’ into the airstream is entrained air, or free air.

The engineered surface of the Super Air Knife is designed to minimize as much loss in air speed as possible, which maximizes the amount of free air that is being entrained. The ratio between free air and compressed air used is called the amplification ratio. Super Air Knives have an amplification ratio of 40:1, with our Standard Air Knives having an amplification ratio of 30:1. For comparison, a pipe with holes drilled will have an amplification ratio of between 2:1 and 5:1. As you can see, with a Super Air Knife you are getting a much better deal on your compressed air usage.

This additional free air adds more mass, which allows the Super Air Knife to do more work. You will get a harder hitting force than a comparable product while using less compressed air. This makes Super Air Knives especially good for cooling and drying applications, where moving large volumes of air is ideal.

EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products such as (left to right) the Air Wipe, Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, and Air Amplifier are engineered to entrain enormous amounts of air from the surrounding environment.

It’s not just our Air Knives that take advantage of the Venturi effect to produce large amplification ratios. Many of our products are designed with efficiency in mind, including our Air Amplifiers, Air Wipes, and Air Nozzles and Jets, to name a few. If you would like to discuss how an EXAIR engineered compressed air product can amplify your process, then give us a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year…

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

One could make a good point about “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” being right now because…well, the song just says so, right? I can get on board with that, because I’m the world’s biggest sucker for Christmas music:

Of course, that song was used in one of my favorite ad campaigns of all time to describe a season that started a few months earlier:

But I’m going to have to go with “right now” not only for the Christmas music, but for my personal favorite EXAIR seasonal promotion:

Right now, through the end of the year, EXAIR will give you a Safety Air Gun with any Super Air Knife purchase. Not only do you get THE most efficient and quietest compressed air blowing product on the market today (we have data to back that up from a wide variety of products & devices that customers have sent in for Efficiency Lab testing), we’re going to sweeten the deal with free stuff.

First, let’s talk about the Super Air Knives:

  • They come in lengths from 3″ to 9ft. No matter how small, or big, your blowoff needs are, we’ve got you covered. If you need something longer than 9ft, they can be coupled together for a continuous, laminar airflow curtain as long as you need it to be.
Air Knife Coupling Bracket Kit
  • We make them in low cost, lightweight aluminum, tough & corrosion resistant Type 303 Stainless Steel, even tougher & more corrosion resistant Type 316 Stainless Steel, and PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) thermoplastic with Hastelloy hardware & PTFE shims for the highest level of corrosion resistance available.
PVDF Super Air Knife Kits include the Air Knife itself (PVDF body, Hastelloy C-276 hardware, and PTFE Shims,) a PTFE Shim Set, an Automatic Drain Filter Separator, and Pressure Regulator.
  • They’re efficient and quiet — for the same reason. See, the compressed air supply exits through a precise, narrow slot between the Cap & Body, which is precision finished, generating a 40:1 entrainment ratio. That means that for every SCFM of compressed air that the Super Air Knife uses, it entrains 40 SCFM of air from the surrounding environment…THAT’S efficiency. In doing so, that entrained air forms a low velocity boundary layer around the powerful, high velocity primary air stream. This layer serves to attenuate the sound level of that hard-hitting curtain of air, resulting in a sound level of only 69dBA.

And, if you order before 12/31/2025, we’ll throw in a FREE EXAIR Soft Grip Safety Air Gun, fitted with a Super Air Nozzle. If you’re using a loud, inefficient air gun for handheld blowoff, you really need to try one of these. They use the primary compressed air stream to entrain ‘free’ air from the surrounding environment as well, which generates a low velocity boundary layer for sound reduction too. The Super Air Nozzle is well suited for a wide range of industrial blowoff applications, and the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun is ideal for hours of continuous use without fatigue.

EXAIR Super Air Nozzles entrain an enormous amount of air from the surrounding environment, making them efficient, and quiet.

Need something right away? EXAIR has you covered there too: all of these (and pretty much any of our other Intelligent Compressed Air Products) are on the shelf and ready to ship, same day, with orders received by 2pm EST. If you’ve got a blowoff application that you’d like to find a safe, quiet, and efficient solution for, we can help…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Accessories for Your Compressed Air Products

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Here at EXAIR we are very proud of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products. We have spent a lot of time discussing their many benefits, including their efficiency, the fact that many have no moving parts, little to no maintenance, meeting or exceeding OSHA safety standards for noise or dead end pressure. One thing we don’t talk as much about is the accessories that go along with and complement our products. Several of these accessory items are the reason why our compressed air products can boast about having little to no maintenance, or reduced noise levels. In this blog I want to cover some of these unsung heroes.

From left to right, a few value-added accessories for your Vortex Tube: Hot Muffler, Cold Muffler, Automatic Drain Filter Separator, Oil Removal Filter, and Solenoid Valve/Thermostat Kit.

Some of the most popular accessories we offer are our compressed air Filters and Regulators. We suggest using these with all our products (or even with ones that aren’t ours).

The Filter Separator is designed to remove moisture, dirt, and rust from your compressed air system. The 5-micron filter element ensures that contaminants don’t clog or harm your compressed air equipment.

An Oil Removal Filter (which should always be installed after our Filter Separator) provides even more precise filtration by getting rid of oil and solid particles with a 0.03-micron element.

Our Pressure Regulators let you choose the operating pressure. At EXAIR, we always advise running at the lowest pressure necessary to complete the task. Pressure Regulators help you achieve that, reducing unnecessary air usage and fine-tuning the performance of EXAIR products for your specific application.

We have some accessories designed specifically for certain products. For our Line Vacs, there’s the Line Vac Hose. You can also find Thermostats and Solenoid Valves that work great with our Cabinet Coolers, and if you’re using Vortex Tubes, we suggest checking out our Mufflers.

When it comes to our Air Knives, we offer a variety of fantastic options:

If you’re looking for a simple and dependable way to mount your Air Knife, our Universal Air Knife Mounting System is just what you need.

If your project needs something longer than our stock Air Knives, or if you want to manage different sections of the air flow separately, our Coupling Bracket Kits are ideal.

And if you want to simplify the plumbing for your Air Knife, don’t miss our Air Knife Plumbing Kits. They’re suitable for all Air Knives that are longer than 24 inches.

If you’re looking for plumbing options, we’ve got a range of compressed air hoses and fittings that will simplify things for you.

Our Coiled Hoses work great with our Safety Air Guns, giving you more freedom of movement while you work.

Our Compressed Air Hoses are often used alongside our Industrial Housekeeping products to provide the necessary reach for the drum and dolly.

Finally, if you’re looking for a way to mount or position your Air Nozzles, check out our Magnetic Bases, Stay Set Hoses, and Swivel Fittings that can help create a complete setup.

No matter what your application requires or the product you need, we’ve got a variety of complementary accessory products that will simplify installation and adjustments. If you have any questions about these or any other EXAIR products, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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What Is a Centrifugal Air Compressor? How It Works and Why It’s Used in Industry

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

One thing that’s found in nearly every industrial environment is an air compressor. Compressed air is used to power tools, operate packaging and automation systems, run conveyors, control valves, and more. Pneumatic tools remain popular because they’re smaller and lighter than their electric counterparts, offer infinitely variable speed and torque, and can often be safer than electrical devices in harsh or wet environments.

To power these systems, compressed air must first be generated, and that starts with the air compressor. There are two main categories of air compressors: positive displacement and dynamic. Positive displacement compressors trap a given quantity of air in a chamber, then mechanically reduce the volume to increase the pressure. Dynamic compressors raise air pressure by accelerating continuously flowing air with a high-speed impeller. The velocity energy of the air is then converted into pressure energy.

One of the most common dynamic types used in industrial applications is the centrifugal air compressor. In a centrifugal compressor, air enters the center of a high-speed rotating impeller, which can spin at more than 50,000 RPM. The impeller’s blades fling the air outward by centrifugal force, increasing its velocity and pressure. The kinetic energy of the moving air is then converted into additional pressure as it slows down in a diffuser. Centrifugal compressors are generally used where large volumes of air are required. They can handle flows from a few hundred CFM up to 100,000 CFM or more, with most plant installations falling in the 1,000–5,000 CFM range.

According to the Compressed Air Challenge, some of the key benefits of centrifugal air compressors include their ability to deliver oil-free, contaminant-free air, and the fact that they are often supplied as complete packaged systems up to 1,000 HP. They scale well, as the cost per CFM improves as size increases, do not require special foundation requirements, and are ideal for high-volume air delivery.

Of course, there are trade-offs to consider. Centrifugal compressors have limited capacity control options, reduced efficiency at partial load, and their high rotational speeds require precision bearings and specialized maintenance. They also tend to have a higher initial purchase cost compared to smaller positive-displacement units. Despite these considerations, centrifugal air compressors remain a reliable choice for facilities that require large, continuous volumes of clean, oil-free air.

Once your facility’s air is generated, the next step is making sure it’s used efficiently. Compressed air is one of the most expensive utilities in a plant, and any wasted air means wasted energy. That’s where EXAIR’s line of engineered Air Nozzles, Safety Air Guns, Super Air Knives, and Optimization products come into play, helping you get the most from every SCFM your compressor produces. If you’re looking to improve your system’s efficiency or solve a specific application issue, contact one of our Application Engineers. We’ll help you get the most out of your compressed air system from the compressor room to the point of use.

Tyler Daniel

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

X: @EXAIR_TD

Image courtesy of the Compressed Air Challenge