Models – Childhood vs. Modern World

When I use the term models, I am often taken back to the plastic models I would build as a kid. The models I always focused on were classic muscle cars and some World-War 2-era aircraft. There was always something about my dad helping me with them and really deep in my mind I felt like I was building a real car. Well, like most things, the term models have changed. While there are still plastic models found, the hobby shops have dwindled in numbers and a lot of models now refer to computer-aided drawing, or CAD for short, another acronym just like I talked about last week.

Organized Chaos. As an adult, I get a slight bit of anxiety about this picture. At the same time, it brings back that feeling of looking for just the right model and having one catch my eye that I wasn’t expecting.

CAD models have really simplified the design and implementation process for anything, even buying furniture for your home. You can use free CAD software to lay out your room and render the environment. In industrial environments, a CAD model can really give the full picture of how the products will fit, what kind of mounting will be needed, and help to design the plumbing or wiring that will be needed to get to the new component. Some models even let you test the functionality or see the coverage of spray / air patterns. This gives yet another method of validation before money is spent on procuring a product for physical testing.

The best part of this is that EXAIR has an entire CAD catalog that spans across all EXAIR products and these models can be downloaded in dozens of different formats to align well with the software being used in order to meet you, our customers where they are, rather than having to conform to what we use. These EXAIR CAD downloads are accurate and extremely helpful to use as a talking point and the Application Engineers here can help you improve the implementation of our products before you even get them, so it minimizes the amount of time it takes you to install the product once it is on site. We can also talk with you how to correctly position the products and validate the placement of our products in order to best serve the application at hand.

This may not be the finished model but I am pretty sure this was the exact kit I started with over 30 years ago.

These CAD models won’t permit you to 3D print a functional product. They will, however, let you 3D print a placeholder for the product that could be physically manipulated if you need to physically validate it before purchasing. While these models aren’t quite the same as that 1968 Chey Comaro SS that I built with my dad way back when it is probably still in a box in the closet at my parents’ house, they are helpful and can give you an assurance of how the EXAIR item is going to fit. After all, assurance and validation is what a lot of building those models really was about now that I think about it.

If you need help with CAD models of EXAIR products, for some odd reason you can’t find the exact model you are looking for, that’s what our Application Engineering team is here to help with. So contact us.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS
National Business Development Manager

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

EXAIR Starter Guide: Cabinet Cooler Systems

The video guide below will share a few tips about how to prepare for the installation of your Cabinet Cooler System. These types of systems can often come across as a daunting task. EXAIR makes it simple and straightforward with our product design and availability of information as well as a team to talk to throughout the short process.

If you have any questions about Cabinet Cooler Systems that will help to protect your electrical enclosures, please contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS
National Business Development Manager

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Pictionary Is Not What Should Come To Mind When Looking At Facility Drawings

Does anyone else remember the episode of Friends where they were playing Pictionary and no one could guess what Monica was drawing? No, well, honestly, that’s the scene I thought of when looking at some system drawings for compressed air setups. If you need a refresher, see the YouTube clip below.

1 – Pictionary | Friends

When trying to ensure you have a sustainable compressed air system within a facility, it is critical to ensure the layout is documented. This can be a very tedious task on existing systems that have been in place for years without any documentation, it doesn’t mean the idea should be lost. This can save considerable time and effort when looking at issues and or expansion of existing usage. The other point this can help greatly with is documenting and fixing leaks on your way to an optimized compressed air system.

Along that same line, I’ve seen numerous reports over the past decade that all point to improperly maintained filter drains in compressed air systems that account for a large percentage of the 30% total system leakage that facilities can see. So I want to educate on the different types of P&ID symbols used for regulators and filters on compressed air systems so that our readers can better their preventive maintenance plans and install checkpoints at each one of these on a routine schedule.

If you are evaluating your compressed air system and trying to come up with a preventive maintenance plan, then each one of these symbols should be on a preventative check routine in order to ensure they are not a contributing factor to compressed air waste within your facility.

If you want to discuss other ways to optimize your compressed air system or other P&ID symbols used for pneumatic system components, reach out to any of the team here, and we will help you with your current situation.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS
National Business Development Manager

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

1 – Friends, Pictionary|Friends – Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yP2bX0ctoFs – published – 10/1/2023

It’s Getting Hot In Here!

Okay, if you did not finish the song lyrics when reading the title, it’s okay, we can still be friends. In all actuality, the temps are warming up here in the MidWest as we prepare for our false Spring as indicated by the freezing temps and snow we received earlier this week. There is one thing that has stayed constant and that is the methods of heat generation.

1 – Kettle-convection-conduction-radiation

Heat generation is a result of energy conversion. The conversion of energy to do work, whether it is actual voltage going through a transformer that operates a neon sign to light up the roadside sky or energy from a hydraulic ram that is compacting recycled paper into a bundle and the hydraulic fluid is being pressed in and out of cylinders from a pump, all of it will have some form of a heat byproduct. This heat then gets transferred and how it is transferred can be helpful to know.

2 – Energy Transfer – Heat

At the molecular level, atoms store the energy that will cause electrons to enter into an excited state and rapidly switch between shells. When the electron returns to a lower shell (closer to the nucleus), energy is released; the energy released is then absorbed by atoms at a lower energy state and will continue until the thermal energy is equal between the two objects. Heat has four fundamental modes of transferring energy from surface to surface, and they are as follows:

Advection
Advection is the physical transport of fluid from point A to point B, which includes all internal thermal energy stored inside. Advection can be seen as one of the simpler ways of heat transfer.

Radiation
Radiation is the transfer of thermal energy through empty space and does require a material between the two objects. Going back to how thermal energy is released from atoms when the electron returns to a lower energy shell, the energy is released in the form of light ranging from infrared light to UV light. Energy in the form of light can then be absorbed by an object in the form of heat. Everyone experiences radiation transfer every day when you walk outside; the light from the sun’s radiation is what keeps this planet habitable.

Conduction
Conduction can also be referred to as diffusion and is the transfer of energy between two objects that have made physical contact. When the two objects come into contact with each other, thermal energy will flow from the object at the higher temp to the object at the lower temp. A good example of this is placing ice in a glass of water. The temperature is much lower than the room temperature. Therefore, thermal energy will flow from the water to the ice.

Convection
Convection is the thermal energy transfer between an object and a fluid in motion. The faster the fluid moves, the faster heat is transferred. This relies on the specific heat property of a molecule to determine the rate at which heat will be transferred. When a molecule has a lower specific heat, it takes faster motion and larger volumes to achieve the full effect of convection transfer. Convection is used in modern ovens to get a more even heat throughout the food while cooking.

No matter how the heat is transferred to an object, if it needs to be cooled there is a good chance that one of our Application Engineers has approached a similar issue and can help. To discuss, contact us, and we will walk through the best method to eliminate the heat you need to.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

1 – “Kettle-convection-conduction-radiation” by P.wormer is licensed under CC SA 3.0
2– “Energy Transfer – Heat” by Siyavula Education is licensed under CC BY 2.0