Tag: air savings

Model 1410SS-CS Blows Castings in Cleaning Application

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

About a month ago I was in the field with one of our distributors in India visiting one of their customers. We were there to make an audit of their applications which were suspected of being high volume compressed air users within the plant. The very first application we were taken to was the point where large, steel castings begin their journey through the plant. It is at this point that the castings must be cleaned of all chips and residue prior to being run through a large parts washer.

The application involves multiple personnel blowing onto large, steel castings to remove machining chips, oil and other debris to prepare them for washing. The existing air gun might have been in good condition at some point, but during our visit, we found the air gun’s trigger was secured in an open position with zip ties so it was “on” all the time. Also, there was no nozzle at the tip of the gun. It appeared to have been cut off with a grinding wheel. The fact that there was no engineered nozzle at the end made the unit quite un-safe, loud and a large consumer of compressed air. The fact that the handle was clamped in the open position also negated the effectiveness of being able to use the air only when needed. Finally, when these operators would blow into blind holes debris would exit with significant velocity, so that represented a danger to the personnel that we could also remedy with our recommendation.

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Old blow gun

After initial review of what was happening in the application and seeing first-hand what the issues were, we recommended EXAIR Model 1410SS-CS (Precision Safety Air Gun with Chip Shield).

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Model 1410SS-CS

Following is our estimate of compressed air usage for the existing air guns and calculated air savings with projected cost savings figured for 4 people operating constantly over three daily shifts. Estimated current air use per each gun = 33 SCFM. Air consumption of model 1410SS-CS = 8.3 SCFM. Net air reduction = 33 – 8.3 = 24.7 SCFM. 75% air savings. Rough estimate for per shift air savings = 47,424 Standard Cubic Feet. At $ .25 USD / 1000 SCF, the “per shift” savings could be $11.86 USD. Total daily savings = $35.57 USD.

As many who follow compressed air savings know, compressed air is one of, if not the most expensive utility in just about any manufacturing operation. And this case demonstrates just how expensive four innocuous air guns blowing in a single application can really be and how it adds to the bottom line costs that every manufacturing decision-maker is usually concerned about.

Point being, if you want to add to your bottom line, give consideration to your air blowing applications. There is usually big savings to be had which can improve the application, help the bottom line, increase safety and conserve on that ever precious resource, energy.

Neal Raker, International Sales Manager
nealraker@exair.com
@EXAIR_NR

Where Does 25 Cents For 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet Of Air Come From?

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Wasting compressed air 2

Being an Application Engineer at EXAIR you tend to do a good amount of return on investment (ROI) calculations.   This is mainly to tell customers just how fast installing an EXAIR product on their system is going to pay its purchase price back and start saving them money.

In order to do these calculations there are several variables we must know.   The list is below.

  • Cost of EXAIR Product (This is an easy one for us to know.)
  • EXAIR Product Consumption (Another easy one!)
  • Current Product Consumption (If this is an unknown, we will test it for free!)
  • Cost of Compressed Air / 1,000 SCF (This is the most common unknown.)

With these four variables we can calculate the amount of air and the amount of money the EXAIR product will save over an existing non-engineered blowoff.   Let me address the two variables which have to come from you, the customer.

Current Product Consumption – If this value is not known please don’t guess at it.  We offer a free service which we refer to as our Efficiency Lab where you send us in your existing blowoff device and we will test it for force flow and noise level.   If you don’t know what pressure you are operating the piece at we will help you find out how to get that and then we will test our products at the same pressures.   This way you get a true apple to apples comparison.   Then, once we are done testing, you will get a recommendation from us in a formal report as to what EXAIR product will best replace your existing product.  Then we will pay for return shipping of your blowoff device back to you. So, if you don’t know how much air you are currently using then give us a call.  We will figure it out for you.

Efficiency Lab
The EXAIR Efficiency Lab is FREE!

Cost of Compressed Air/ 1,000 SCF – This is more often than not, the unknown variable in the equation.  The good news is there is a general standard assumption of twenty-five cents per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet of compressed air.   This works out to be around 8 cents per kW/hr.  So even if you don’t know what you pay to compress the air, if you know what you are paying per kilowatt hour for your energy then we can calculate within reason what it costs for you to generate your compressed air. For reference, 8 cents per kilowatt-hour falls between the average US cost per kilowatt hour for commercial end-users (10.7/kWh) and industrial end-users (6.9/kWh).*

The best part of all is…EXAIR has a calculator available right on our website which provides air and dollar savings per minute, hour day and year as well as a payback in days for the EXAIR product purchase. On top of that, any step along the way that you aren’t sure of, we will help you out for free, even testing your product!

In case you would like to see the math, the formula used is below.

Basic Equation To Go From Cost Per kiloWatt Hour to Cost Per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet of Compressed Air
Basic equation to go from Cost Per kiloWatt Hour to Cost Per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet of Compressed Air

Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

*latest U.S. EIA report here

 

 

 

Greeting Cards saved by 1″ Flat Super Air Nozzle

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

A greeting card manufacturer used a liquid coolant plastic nozzle to provide an air assist to divert greeting cards to an auxiliary straight conveyor. Without the air assist the cards would bounce and fly from the conveyor leading to a loss of products and more maintenance.  They used what they had on hand which was a coolant nozzle pictured below.

Coolant Type Nozzle
Liquid Coolant Nozzle uses 32 SCFM at 40 PSIG and 57 SCFM at 80 PSIG.

This nozzle was run at a fairly low pressure of 10 PSIG, but still used 7.8 SCFM at 10 PSIG.  The nozzle worked well, but if run for 24 hours over 250 working days, it costs $702 to supply air to the nozzle. The customer utilized (40) nozzles in their plant which cost them $28,080.  Also, the nozzles were incredibly noisy, since they were designed for liquid flow.

Our customer decided to upgrade to an engineered air nozzle after some time. They needed to cut their air consumption, but still get the job done.  They tested our 1″ Flat Nozzle, but with the standard 0.015” shim it used 5.7 SCFM of compressed air at 10 PSIG. This would be a savings, but after a quick conversation with our Application Engineers, the customer decided to install a 1″ Flat Super Air Nozzle with only a 0.005″ shim. This nozzle 1126-.005 only used 0.9 SCFM of compressed air at 10 PSIG of inlet pressure.  Replace their 40 liquid coolant nozzle would save them 6.9 SCFM per nozzle. 276 SCFM if all 40 nozzles were replaced. Saving 276 SCFM lowered energy bill for their air compressor by $24,840 anuually. Which would mean the simple ROI for $41, 1″ Flat Super Air Nozzle would be 17 days!

1126-9256wstaysethose
1″ Flat Super Air Nozzle model number 1126-.005 on a Stay Set Hose

Call an Application Engineer today to see how we can help you save thousands of dollars.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com

Safety, Efficiency, and Production Improvements

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

Last week, I received an email from a satisfied customer, after he had already purchased our product.  Come to find out this customer had not spoken to an application engineer during the planning stage to make their purchase. With our excellent resources listed at EXAIR.com, the customer was able to fulfill his application without even speaking to us. After his initial email of thanks, he also shared with me some details of his application that I want to share with you today.

The customer works as a machinist at a large aircraft part manufacturer. The parts require a very tight tolerance. A sample of each part needed to be gauged and measured in an automatic thread gauging machine or a coordinate-measuring machine (CMM). Their machining process required a water based flood coolant, so each part would be coated in water based coolant and chips, which needed to be remove before gauging. Before visiting EXAIR’s site, the company used a variety of homemade and commercial blow offs, as safety air gun tips. Here is a photo of (20) of the (25) nozzles the customer was using.

Aircraft manufacturer's obsolete nozzles

As you can see, the nozzles vary in design purpose, flow and safety. Most of the nozzles feature a cross drilled hole or a secondary escape path, but not all of the nozzles do. Any nozzle without a secondary relief port violates OSHA standard CFR 1910.242(b), so replacing some of the nozzles increased the safety in the plant. Secondly, these nozzles are wasteful in their use of compressed air because some were designed as liquid nozzles and have large exit holes. A hole that is 1/8″ in diameter at the nozzle outlet can consume up to 21.4 SCFM of compressed air at 80 PSIG. For comparison, the model 1103 Mini Super Air Nozzle with a 1/8″ NPT inlet will flow 10 SCFM at 80 PSIG, which would be a 53% compressed air savings. In 24 running hours, the 1103 nozzle will save 16,416 Standard Cubic Feet, which the plant spent $4.10 for a standard industrial compressor to produce (The standard for compressed air cost is $0.25 per 1,000 SCF). Replacing just one 1/8″ drilled hole with 1103 Mini Super Air Nozzle saves the aircraft company $1,026 over 250 working days running 24 hours a day.

Neither of these were the real reason that the customer emailed to thank us though. He was actually an office employee just entering the work force.  Starting in June until after the company finally acquiesced to his request to buy a better, quieter nozzle near the end of July, he had left work needing an aspirin to relieve the headache he acquired due to the noise from these other nozzles. The nozzles the machining center had been using would create noise levels between 88-100 dBA at 80 PSIG of inlet pressure. For reference OSHA mandates that employees are required to wear hearing protection, if they are exposed to noise levels over 90 dBA over an 8 hour work day.  The employees doing the machining wear hearing protection, but the employees in the office were still exposed and affected by the noise level.  This is just one anecdotal example, but everyday more and more research shows that noise exposure has a negative effect on our health and productivity in the workplace.  If you are interested in more information here are some links to a number of studies/research – please read this, here or this.

Anyway, that’s enough of my soapbox. The company purchased 25 of EXAIR’s 1103 Mini Super Air Nozzles and utilizing the same guns they were currently using saw between a 10-15 dBA decrease in noise levels near the work stations. Here is a photo of one of their setups with the model 1103 installed on one of their current air guns.

Nozzle Replacement
The 1103 Super Air Nozzle is an engineered solution to replace a plethora of commercial nozzles. It was a simple and cost effective retrofit which increased the comfort of employees.

 

We know that every time they squeeze that air gun trigger they will be using less compressed air than before, and we know they are now in compliance with OSHA. But the best benefit for EXAIR is we know that the engineer took the time to email us to thank us for taking away his headache everyday.  That’s enough for me.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW