Tag: airknife

Air Knife Variety

Published on by jasonkirbyLeave a comment
From left to right: Super, Standard, and Full Flow Air Knives.

EXAIR’s Air Knives are revolutionizing the way to clean, dry, and cool parts for a variety of applications. With their state-of-the-art technology, these Air Knives provide a more efficient and effective solution for Industrial applications. Unlike traditional methods, which often rely on bulky and noisy equipment. EXAIR’s Air Knives deliver a uniform sheet of laminar airflow with hard-hitting force. The high-velocity air stream generated by these Air Knives is ideal for removing dirt, water droplets, or contaminants from various surfaces. Whether it’s removing excess moisture from freshly manufactured products or cooling down heated materials, EXAIR’s Air Knives offer a superior solution. Their versatility and reliability make them an indispensable tool in any production line. Thanks to their innovative design, EXAIR’s Air Knives also contribute to energy efficiency, reducing power consumption and ultimately saving costs for businesses. With EXAIR’s Air Knives, industries can now achieve greater productivity and enhanced quality control.

The Super Air Knife is truly a revolutionary product in the world of air knives. Not only does it consume less air than both the Standard and Full-Flow options, but it also has the unique ability to entrain more ambient air. This means that it can draw in and utilize a larger amount of surrounding air, resulting in a more efficient and effective air flow. In fact, the Super Air Knife provides ambient air entrainment at an impressive rate of 40:1, which is significantly higher than the rate offered by the other models. This enhanced entrainment capability allows the Super Air Knife to deliver a powerful and consistent air stream, making it an ideal choice for a wide range of industrial applications. Whether it is used for drying, cooling, or cleaning, this innovative Air Knife is sure to exceed expectations. The Super Air Knife’s ability to minimize air consumption while maximizing ambient air entrainment sets it apart from conventional air knives, making them a true game-changer in the industry.

Standard Air Knife

The Standard Air Knife is a highly reliable and efficient solution for all your air amplification needs. With an impressive air amplification ratio of 30:1, it surpasses other air knives in terms of performance. This makes it a perfect choice when looking for a more cost-effective alternative without compromising on quality. Additionally, this versatile air knife is readily available in stock up to 48″ long, allowing you to find the perfect size to suit your specific requirements. One of its standout features is the uniformly forceful airflow it provides, ensuring consistent and effective performance in all applications. Moreover, it offers you a choice between two durable materials, aluminum and stainless steel, further catering to your individual needs. Not only does this guarantee its longevity, but also provides flexibility in choosing the right construction material for your particular environment. With its remarkable performance, availability in various sizes, and reliable material options, the Standard Air Knife stands as an outstanding solution for all your air amplification demands.

The Full-Flow Air Knife is the ideal option for those looking for a budget-friendly solution that can fit into tight spaces. With a compact design and a length of up to 36″, this air knife provides the perfect fit for cramped machine spaces. Despite its smaller size, it does not compromise on force. While the force of the Full-Flow Air Knife may be less than the other two styles, it still delivers impressive results. This makes it a great choice for applications where a powerful airflow is not necessarily required. Additionally, the Full-Flow Air Knife boasts the smallest footprint among all the air knives in
the line. This means that it takes up minimal space and can easily be integrated into existing systems without causing any disruptions. Whether you need to remove debris, dry parts, or cool components; the Full-Flow Air Knife offers an efficient and cost-effective solution that is sure to meet your needs.
Don’t let the size fool you, this compact powerhouse can get the job done without breaking the bank.

All Air Knives will come with a .002″ shim already installed. If you are looking for adjustability in performance, shim sets are available for all models of Air Knives. This will include a .001″, .003″, and an additional .002″ shim. This gives you the ability to increase or decrease flow dependent on your needs. For additional assistance with Air Knives, or any EXAIR products, feel free to contact our Application Engineers.

Jason Kirby
Application Engineer
Email: jasonkirby@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jk

Let the EFC Turn Your Compressed Air Off!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Compressed air is not free! But when used correctly, it’s a tool that, in most cases, is the most effective option! The best way to save compressed air is to simply turn it off when it’s not being used. This might seem pretty simple, but there may be processes in your facility where this couldn’t be achieved by just turning a valve. In applications where product is traveling along a conveyor and must be dried, cooled, or blown off, there is likely some spacing in between the parts. It isn’t necessary to keep the blowoff running constantly if there are periods of intermittent spacing. To help reduce the overall load on the air compressor, implementing a solution to shut the air off in between each part can have a dramatic impact.

EXAIR’s Electronic Flow Control, or EFC, is designed to improve efficiency by reducing overall compressed air usage. It utilizes a photoelectric sensor that detects when the part is present. When it’s not, it triggers a solenoid valve to close and shut off the compressed air supply.

efcapp
EXAIR EFC

One way to use the Electronic Flow Control would be to turn an Atomizing Spray nozzle on to coat your product.  For example see the photo below where you can use the EFC to sense the pants coming down the line. Then turn the air supply on to spray a bleach solution to get the weathered look you are after. Once the pants pass, the EFC will turn the nozzle off, replacing a manual operation while saving compressed air and your liquid solution!

Another use would be to tell when a hopper that is being filled by a Line Vac is empty or over filled.  You can adjust the sensor and the control module to sense that the hopper is empty, and it will turn the compressed air on to the Line Vac to then feed the hopper.  Then set the timer module so it will run for the length of time it takes to fill the hopper.  The other way would be to place the sensor at the top of the hopper and have it sense when the pile of media has reached the full level.

The EFC models available from stock can accommodate flows up to 350 SCFM. For applications requiring more compressed air, EFCs with dual solenoids are also available. If you have an application in one or more of your processes where intermittent compressed air use could help save you money, give us a call. We’d be happy to take a look at the application and help determine just how quickly the EFC could start paying YOU.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Super Air Knife in the Food Industry: Cheese Blowoff

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

I was recently contacted by a manufacturer of specialty food products that was looking to increase productivity on one of their packaging lines. In order to do so, they needed a longer Super Air Knife.

SS SAK cheese.jpg cropped
Model 110012SS-316 Super Air Knife

They manufacture a variety of different products, but this application involved small snack-sized blocks of cheese. They’re placed into individual plastic containers, and before they seal the packaging any residual particles must be blown off, or affect the seal. Any residual particles of cheese around the container would allow air to come into contact with the product and affect shelf-life.

In the current setup, the customer is using EXAIR’s Model 110012SS-316 a 12” 316 grade Stainless Steel Super Air Knife, and the Model 9060 Universal Mounting System. They wanted to add in an additional two rows of cheese to help increase throughput. To do so, he needed an overall width of 18”. We do have an 18” available from stock, but rather than having a spare 12” model lying around, he wanted to try and utilize what he had without having to purchase an entirely new knife.

uakmb
Model 9060 Universal Mounting System

Fortunately, EXAIR’s Super Air Knives can be coupled together to create a wide variety of different lengths. From stock, the Super Air Knife is available from 3”-108”. With the help of a Super Air Knife Coupling kit, we can achieve much longer lengths. In this case, although we did have an 18” knife available, we could also couple the existing 110012SS-316 (12”) with our Model 110006SS-316 (6”). This option was a bit cheaper than going with a new knife, and still allowed them to utilize the 12” that they already had.

gh_Super Air Knife Coupling Kit 750x696
Coupling Kit for Aluminum Super Air Knives

While this isn’t the typical application we’d recommend a coupling kit, it was an option that allowed the customer to save a bit of money but still get the same effect that they’d achieve with the 18”, single piece Air Knife. We also manufacture a wide variety of custom knives per customer specifications. If you’ve got an odd application that you don’t think is best served by a stock offering, give us a call. An Application Engineer will be happy to take a look at your application and help recommend the most suitable product.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

EXAIR Case Study: Chicken Wings, Super Air Knives, and Saving Money

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

EXAIR keeps a library of Case Studies for your reference. The library is also organized by product, so you can easily find the information and product you are interested in. These case studies summarize how our customers have purchased, used, and benefited from our products and their implementation. These studies focus on our products and our customers’ projects. We keep our customers anonymous and only use photos, details and data that are approved to be shared.

Here is an example of my latest case study!

APPLICATION GOAL:  A frozen chicken wing manufacturer was having issues with a drilled and slotted tube blowoff not evenly removing excess sauce from the wings and belt prior to it going into a spiral freezer.  They also had concerns about the volume of air the pipe was consuming and how loud it was, so they wanted to reduce both of these features.

Drilled and Slotted tube in location
Drilled and slotted tube

BEFORE EXAIR:  A new sauce applicator had been installed at the customer’s plant. A drilled and slotted tube was provided with the equipment. This tube ran approximately 14 hours per day at a pressure of 16 PSIG to remove excess sauce on chicken wings. Due to the lack of performance, they temporally installed another drilled and slotted tube to remove excess sauce. The header pressure on these knives was 60 PSIG, but due to the large volume of air they were consuming, they were only able to run them at 16 PSIG. And at 16 PSIG they produced a sound level well over 90 dBA.

AFTER EXAIR:  The customer installed a 110030SS-316PKI 30’’ 316 Stainless Steel Super Air Knife on the sauce applicator and a 110024SS-316PKI 24’’ 316 Stainless Steel Super Air Knife on the Spiral Freezer. (Both with plumbing kits installed) They reduced the noise to 65 dBA. The old drilled and slotted tubes consumed 484.2 SCFM each at the 16 PSIG. For a total consumption of 968.4 SCFM with both tubes. The Super air knives combined consume 124.2 SCFM at 60 PSIG. And the Super Air Knives laminar flow provided better sauce removal, over the turbulent nature of the drilled and slotted tube.

30″ 316 Super Air Knife with plumbing kit installed

SUMMARY:  The sauce removal process performance increased dramatically, reducing the rejected product. Sound levels dropped from over 90 dBA to 65 dBA, a reduction of 25 dBA. Air consumption went from 968.4 SCFM to 124.2 SCFM. When you factor in the 14 hours these knives are running, that is 709,128 SCF of air per day saved. Based on a compressed air cost of $0.25 per 1000 SCF of air, that calculates out to over $177.28 in compressed air cost saved every day. ($46,092.80 saved per year, 260 working days) The ROI on these two knives is just under 30 days.

EXAIR appreciates a good success story. We encourage you to share your successes in using one or more of our products in your application. EXAIR believes in case studies so much, we incentivize our customers’ participation. We will offer a discount to any company who will provide enough information to produce a case study. If you are interested in creating a case study (and saving money) on your next project, please contact one of our Application Engineers. We would be happy to explain the details of working through this process with you.

Jordan Shouse, Application Engineer

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