Tag: air savings

Total Cost of Ownership

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

CFL

When you think about energy savings in general, there probably isn’t any product that has a higher degree of association with this mindset than the compact fluorescent light bulb. In terms of performance, the CFL lasts about 7 times longer than incandescent and uses about ¼ the energy input for an equivalent amount of light output as measured in lumens. CFL’s cost about 4 times more than an incandescent light bulb, but the overall cost of ownership is much lower due to the lower energy consumption. The major point here is that it is not the purchase price that determines the total cost of ownership. It is the energy use that determines it. Including cost of operation, an incandescent bulb costs more than 4 times to acquire and operate than a CFL bulb. BUT THE CFL IS MORE EXPENSIVE TO BUY!!!!

What does this discussion have to do with EXAIR and Super Air Knives, Super Air Nozzles or even Super Air Amplifiers?

These products represent EXAIR’s version of the compact fluorescent light bulb. We were the first in the industry to manufacture a Super Air Knife and still the only ones to have the Super Air Amplifier, both of which continue to provide significant energy savings to our customers for their precision blowing needs.

In recent past, there have been a few imitators on the market who try to “do one better” than EXAIR by publishing performance data that appears to be as good, or slightly better than EXAIR. Our testing has revealed that these imitators actually consume as much as 46% more compressed air than equivalent EXAIR products. Admittedly, there can be some slight variation in performance from one unit to another. But when the actual data is this far out from what is published, that is a serious performance problem which results in much higher total cost of ownership for the customer. And since the customer is generally not going to have the necessary equipment to verify these things, they are pretty much buying on faith that the seller is producing a product that is true to their word in terms of performance listed for it in their literature.

My message is simple. Don’t allow yourself to be lured into a situation where the purchase price is all that you consider when buying compressed air blowing equipment. The performance of the product is going to be a much larger portion of that total cost of ownership. Just make sure you are comfortable with that aspect of your purchase before making the commitment to buy.

At EXAIR we always strive to truly understand the needs of the customer and make proper recommendations based on those needs. We always have the total cost of ownership in mind and want to produce the best result for our customers. If the customer isn’t happy with the product for any reason, we will gladly take it back on our 30 Day Guarantee and they can move on to another solution of their choice.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

CFL image courtesy of Mulad. Creative Commons License 

EXAIR Could Save You $15 While Eating Lunch

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

At EXAIR we manufacture engineered compressed air products.  We have compressed air saving nozzles, safety air guns, vortex tubes, and even pneumatic vacuums – all engineered to be as efficient as possible.

Considering that compressed air is the most expensive utility to generate, it makes sense to keep compressed air use to a minimum.  Replacing open pipes used to blow off or cool an application with an EXAIR engineered product can save time and add OSHA compliance to a workspace.

Mold Application 1

Mold Application 2

For example, the photos above show a dry mold application.  The end user initially used drilled holes in a series of pipes operated at 80 PSI to blow off and cool the molds during production.  Not only was this an inefficient use of compressed air, it was also unsafe.

With an average hole size of 1/8”, and an average of (60) drilled holes per mold, the potential savings were HUGE!  An open 1/8” hole at 80 PSIG can consume 18.4 SCFM.  Replacing this drilled hole with an EXAIR model 1103 1/8” Mini Super Air Nozzle will reduce the air consumption to 10 SCFM – a savings of 47%!  With the potential to upgrade 240 drilled holes to an EXAIR engineered nozzle, the total compressed air savings are over 2,000 SCFM.

With a savings of 2000 SCFM, and a lunch break of 30 minutes, this end user would save 60000 SCF – during lunch!  At a cost of $0.25/1000SCF, this equates to a savings of $15.00 every day during lunch alone.  Extrapolating the savings out on an 8 hour shift, the savings become:

$240/day

$1,200/week  (operating (5) days/week)

$62,400/year  (operating (52) weeks/year)

In short, EXAIR nozzles put over $60k back into this company’s bottom line.

You can be next, just give us a call.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Replacing Home Made Blow Offs

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

Yesterday, I took a call from a customer, who had successful replaced a low cost blow off station with (2) of 6″ Super Air Knife.  The low cost blow off station was made up of two flexible lines with plastic liquid coolant nozzles to dry two surfaces after a roll forming process.  At the beginning of every production run, the nozzles would have to be positioned to hit the surface of the part because the flexible line would not hold its position.  On top of that even though these nozzles were blowing 74 SCFM of compressed air at 80 PSIG, the blow off was ineffective and left moisture on the parts after the run, which lead to corrosion on the parts during storage.

Before

  image

The (2) six inch Air Knives improved this process in three ways.  First, he never needed to reposition the nozzles after a production run.  Using the 1/4-20 threads in the bottom of the air knife, the customer was able to mount the air knife directly to the machine, which was a more robust system than the flexible liquid coolant hose. Second, the knives only consumed 35 SCFM of compressed air reducing his air consumption by half.  By utilizing the 40:1 amplification ration of the air knife, the customer had a much lower demand on the compressed air system, while getting the job done.  Finally, he left his customers happy with no corrosion marks on the parts after they had been stacked and delivered.  With no complaints about the quality at his customer, our customer will be able to improve his relationship with his customers and improve his business.

AFTER

after

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
davewoerner@exair.com
@EXAIR_DW

Tips and Tricks To Improve Your – And Your Facility’s – Health and Welfare

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

If you tried to reach me yesterday, I wasn’t here…Monday afternoon, my right eye was getting a little red and itchy. I was hoping it was just allergies, but when I woke up yesterday morning, I had all the classic symptoms of conjunctivitis – that’s right; the dreaded pinkeye.  I’m a Sunday School teacher and a Cub Scout leader, so I should consider myself lucky that I don’t ALWAYS have pinkeye, strep throat, or at the very least, whatever cold seems to be going around at any given moment…it’s sure not for lack of exposure.

Fortunately, I was able to get in to see my doctor early yesterday morning, and if there’s a good thing about pinkeye, it’s that some antibacterial eye drops clear it up pretty quickly. My doctor reminded me, though, that if people wouldn’t touch their faces so darn much and would wash their hands a little more regularly, these highly contagious infections might be a little rarer. I’m going to be VERY conscientious of this, too. For at least a week or so, anyway. Old habits die hard (if ever), and it’s amazing what you can get used to not even noticing that you’re doing.

It reminded me of a recent conversation with a caller – he had some inexpensive, commercial-grade air guns which were strapped in place and had the triggers taped down, to provide a continuous, hands-free, blow off. He wanted to put something in place that would be safer (they discharged air through an open end, with no dead-ending protection), quieter, and more efficient with their use of compressed air.

With the same quickness and ease that my doctor was able to prescribe those eye drops, I offered the following solution:

*Model 1100 Super Air Nozzles to provide a high volume, high velocity air flow in a safe, quiet, and efficient manner.

*Stay Set Hoses for quick and easy positioning, to mount the Super Air Nozzles and direct their flow exactly where they want it.

*EFC Electronic Flow Control to turn the air flow on when it’s needed, and off when it’s not.

I got the feeling that those air guns had been strapped up and taped down for some time now…do you have any less-than-optimal compressed air blow offs that you’d like to do something about? If you’re stroking your chin right now while you think about, it, STOP IT! Unless you just washed your hands, that is. Even then, the safest and most efficient thing you can do – for your health and your facility’s – is to give us a call!

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: http://www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair