Tag: blow off

Efficiency: Air Tools That Pay for Themselves

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

In manufacturing, compressed air is often called the “fourth utility.” Like electricity, water, and gas, it’s essential for keeping production running. But unlike the others, compressed air is frequently misapplied, or wasted, making it one of the most expensive utilities in a plant.

The good news is that the right tools can dramatically improve compressed air efficiency. In many cases, they pay for themselves quickly through energy savings, reduced downtime, and improved productivity. That’s where EXAIR engineered compressed air products come in.

Let’s look at a few examples of air-powered tools that deliver measurable ROI.

Air Amplifiers: Move More Air with Less Energy

Moving large volumes of air is a common requirement in industrial environments—whether for ventilation, drying, cooling, or removing fumes. Traditional compressed air nozzles can consume a lot of air while producing relatively small airflow.

Model 120024 4″ Super Air Amplifiers are commonly used to exhaust welding smoke and fumes.

Air Amplifiers use the Coandă effect to entrain large volumes of surrounding air, dramatically increasing airflow while minimizing compressed air consumption. In many cases, they can increase airflow up to 25 times the supplied compressed air.

This means you can:

  • Move more air with less compressed air input
  • Reduce overall compressor load
  • Lower energy costs

For applications like ventilating enclosures, exhausting smoke or fumes, and cooling parts, air amplifiers can often replace inefficient open pipe blow offs or multiple air jets.

Super Air Knives: Efficient Blowoff for Drying and Cleaning

Blow off is one of the most common—and most wasteful—uses of compressed air. Many facilities still rely on drilled pipe or open copper tubing, which wastes enormous amounts of compressed air while generating excessive noise.

Super Air Knives create a laminar sheet of high-velocity air across the entire length of the knife. This provides powerful and uniform blow off while using significantly less compressed air than traditional methods.

Benefits include:

  • Reduced compressed air consumption
  • Uniform drying and cleaning
  • Low noise operation
  • No moving parts and minimal maintenance

Applications range from removing water after washing processes to blowing debris off conveyors, sheets, or molded parts.

Efficiency in compressed air usage isn’t just about saving energy—it’s about improving productivity, reliability, and process performance. When you replace inefficient air practices with engineered solutions, you often gain benefits across the entire operation.

If you’re looking to reduce compressed air waste or improve a blow off, cooling, or static problem, the right air tool may be a small investment with a big return.

And in many cases, it’s an investment that pays for itself.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer / Sales Operations Engineer

Send me an email

Stop Starving Your Tools: How to Beat Pressure Drop in Compressed Air Systems

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

If you’ve ever noticed your pneumatic tools losing their “punch” or your machines throwing low-pressure faults, you’re likely dealing with the silent thief of industrial efficiency: pressure drop.

Pressure drop is the reduction in air pressure from the compressor discharge to the actual point of use. It’s not just a performance issue; it’s an expensive energy drain. Most facilities try to fix it by cranking up the compressor pressure, which is like trying to fix a leaky garden hose by turning the spigot up—it just wastes more energy and stresses the system.

Here is how to tackle it and how EXAIR products help you win the fight.

1. Size Matters (The Piping Dilemma)

The most common cause of pressure drop is undersized piping. Think of your compressed air system like a highway; if you try to cram 1,000 cars into one lane, traffic slows down.

  • The Fix: Always size your main headers and distribution lines for the maximum potential flow, not just your current average. Using a “loop” system instead of a single “dead-end” header allows air to flow in two directions to reach a high-demand tool, effectively doubling the capacity of the pipe.

2. Smooth Out the “Plumbing”

Every elbow, tee, and valve creates friction. Standard plumbing fittings often have sharp turns that create turbulence, slowing down the air.

  • The Fix: Minimize the use of 90-degree elbows where possible (use long-radius sweeps instead) and ensure you aren’t using restrictive, undersized quick-connect couplings at the tool.

3. Eliminate the “Spiky” Demand

Large, intermittent air consumers can cause the pressure in the entire line to “sag.”

  • The Fix: Use a receiver tank (surge tank) near the point of high demand. This acts as a local battery, providing the necessary volume instantly without pulling from the main header and causing a system-wide drop.

How EXAIR Combats Pressure Drop

EXAIR is built on the philosophy of “doing more with less.” Our products are engineered specifically to maximize force while minimizing air consumption, which is the most effective way to reduce pressure drop at the end of the line.

Engineered Super Air Nozzles

EXAIR Nozzles

Standard “open pipe” blowoffs are air hogs. They create massive localized pressure drops because they dump huge volumes of air inefficiently. EXAIR Super Air Nozzles use a small amount of compressed air to entrain large volumes of surrounding “free” room air.

  • The Result: You get high-velocity discharge with significantly lower compressed air demand, keeping the pressure stable for the rest of your tools.

Digital Flowmeters

You can’t fix what you can’t measure. EXAIR Digital Flowmeters allow you to see exactly where the air is going in real-time. By monitoring different zones of your plant, you can pinpoint exactly which branch or machine is causing the pressure drop, making it easy to identify leaks or bottlenecks.

Precise Pressure Regulators

Using more pressure than a process requires (artificial demand) is a leading cause of system-wide drops. EXAIR Pressure Regulators ensure that each application gets exactly the PSI it needs and nothing more. By lowering the pressure at the point of use to the minimum required, you preserve the “headroom” in your main lines.

The Bottom Line, combating pressure drop is about velocity and volume. By optimizing your piping layout and switching to high-efficiency end-use products like our intelligent, point-of-use compressed air products, you stop starving your tools and start saving on your electric bill.

If you’re ready to stop turning up the compressor, and start fixing the flow, give us a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Twitter: @EXAIR_AW

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Step 3: Upgrade Your Blow off, Cooling, and Drying Operations

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

In the world of manufacturing, compressed air is often called the “fourth utility.” It’s essential, but it’s also expensive to produce. If you’re following the Six Steps to Optimize Your Compressed Air System, Step 3 is where you stop the bleeding.

Step 3, dear reader, is the subject of today’s blog.

Upgrading your blow-off, cooling, and drying operations from “homegrown” solutions to engineered products is one of the fastest ways to slash energy costs and improve plant safety.

The Problem with “In-House” Solutions

Many plants rely on makeshift blow-off devices: crimped copper tubes, pipes with drilled holes, or basic air nozzles found at a hardware store. While they seem “free” or cheap, they are incredibly inefficient.

  • High Air Consumption: They lack the physics to move air efficiently, requiring massive volumes of compressed air to do the job.
  • Dangerous Noise Levels: Drilled pipes produce a high-pitched shear that often exceeds OSHA noise exposure limits.
  • Safety Hazards: If a pipe or open tube is dead-ended against skin, it can lead to serious injury or air embolism.

The Engineered Solution: EXAIR Technology

This is where EXAIR engineered compressed air products change the game. Unlike a standard pipe, EXAIR products use the Coanda effect to “entrain” the surrounding room air. For every part of compressed air used, an EXAIR nozzle or air knife pulls in 30 to 40 parts of “free” ambient air.

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.

If you are drying a conveyor belt or cleaning wide sheets of material, a drilled pipe is a money pit. An EXAIR Super Air Knife provides a high-velocity, uniform sheet of air across the entire surface. It’s quiet (around 69 dBA for most applications) and reduces air consumption by up to 80% compared to open headers.

For targeted blow-off or part ejection, Super Air Nozzles replace open tubes and cheap nozzles. They provide a forceful, concentrated stream of air while meeting OSHA requirements for skin pressure and noise. You get more “push” for significantly less “psi.”

Step 3 isn’t just about blowing air; it’s about optimizing how air manages temperature and waste. From Vortex Tubes that provide spot cooling without refrigerants to Air Amplifiers for smoke and fume removal, these tools ensure you aren’t overworking your compressors for simple tasks.

The Bottom Line

Upgrading to EXAIR engineered products isn’t just a maintenance fix; it’s a financial strategy. Most facilities see a return on investment (ROI) in just weeks through reduced energy bills.

By replacing inefficient, loud, and dangerous blow-off methods with engineered solutions, you’re not just optimizing your compressed air—you’re creating a quieter, safer, and more profitable shop floor.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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How the Coanda Profile Drives Efficiency in EXAIR Products

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

In compressed air applications, efficiency often comes down to how effectively you use the air you already have. One of the most important aerodynamic principles that allows modern air-powered devices to operate efficiently is the Coanda Effect. This phenomenon is the foundation behind several EXAIR engineered products, enabling powerful airflow while minimizing compressed air consumption.

Understanding how the Coanda profile works can help engineers and plant managers optimize processes such as drying, cooling, cleaning, and conveying.

Compressed air flows through the inlet (1) to the Full Flow (left) or Standard (right) Air Knife, into the internal plenum. It then discharges through a thin gap (2), adhering to the Coanda profile (3) which directs it down the face of the Air Knife. The precision engineered & finished surfaces optimize entrainment of air (4) from the surrounding environment.

What Is the Coanda Effect?

The Coanda Effect describes the tendency of a fluid stream—such as air—to follow along a nearby curved surface instead of continuing in a straight line. As the air travels along this surface, it pulls surrounding air into the stream, creating a region of low pressure and dramatically increasing total airflow.

In simple terms:

  1. Compressed air exits a small opening.
  2. The air adheres to a curved surface (the Coanda profile).
  3. This creates a low-pressure area.
  4. Surrounding air is entrained, or pulled into the airflow.

The result is a much larger volume of moving air than the compressed air supply alone would create.

This principle was originally studied by aeronautical engineer Henri Coandă in the early 1900s while researching airflow over aircraft surfaces.

EXAIR Products That Use the Coanda Profile

EXAIR incorporates this aerodynamic design into several of its Intelligent Compressed Air Products™.

1. Air Knives

EXAIR Air Knives use a Coanda profile to create a wide, high-velocity sheet of air across the entire length of the unit.

Examples include:

  • EXAIR Standard Air Knife
  • EXAIR Full-Flow Air Knife
  • EXAIR Super Air Knife

Inside these units, compressed air enters a plenum chamber and exits through a narrow slot. The air then follows the curved Coanda surface, turning approximately 90° and flowing down the face of the knife.

As the air moves along the profile, it entrains large volumes of surrounding air—up to 30-40 parts ambient air for every 1 part of compressed air.

Common applications include:

  • Parts drying after washing
  • Conveyor cleaning
  • Web or sheet drying
  • Cooling components
  • Pre-paint blowoff

2. Air Amplifiers

Another product that relies heavily on the Coanda profile is the Air amplifier.

Super Air Amplifier Family

Example:

  • EXAIR Super Air Amplifier
  • EXAIR Adjustable Air Amplifier

Instead of producing a flat airflow like an air knife, air amplifiers generate a conical air stream. Compressed air flows across a circular Coanda profile that draws in large amounts of surrounding air.

This creates amplification ratios up to 25:1, meaning the airflow produced is far greater than the compressed air supplied.

Typical uses include:

  • Cooling hot parts
  • Ventilating smoke or fumes
  • Circulating air in enclosures
  • Removing heat from equipment

3. Air Wipes

EXAIR also applies the Coanda profile in a circular configuration for drying or cleaning cylindrical materials.

Super (left) and Standard (right) Air Wipes come in sizes from 1/2″ to 11″.

Example:

  • EXAIR Air Wipe
  • EXAIR Super Air Wipe

These devices create a 360-degree ring of air that surrounds rods, tubes, wires, or cables. As air follows the Coanda profile around the ring, it entrains surrounding air and produces a strong, uniform drying or blowoff action.

Applications include:

  • Drying wire or cable
  • Removing coolant from tubing
  • Cleaning rods or extrusions

The Coanda Effect might seem like a theoretical concept, but it has a very practical impact on industrial operations. By carefully designing curved surfaces that guide airflow and entrain surrounding air, EXAIR products turn a small supply of compressed air into a powerful and efficient airflow solution.

Whether drying parts, cooling electronics, or removing debris from a conveyor, the Coanda profile allows EXAIR products to deliver maximum performance with minimal energy use.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer / Sales Operations Engineer

Send me an email