Tag: blow

Compressed Air In The Wild

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Over the past weekend, I had the honor of visiting a local MakerSpace. These types of places are what my dreams are made of. The one we toured had a full metal and woodworking shop as well as a separate area for 3D printing, sewing, standard printing, electronics, and even laser engraving/cutting. Every workstation has an electrical drop and a compressed air drop coming from the ceiling as the area can be used for any number of projects.

Handheld air guns are something that you can find in nearly any and all manufacturing facilities that have compressed air within them. Suppose they are not at every operator station because the machines don’t require compressed air. In that case, they are generally found at the very least within the maintenance department, where they continually keep the facility functioning and may be the only ones in the facility with compressed air.

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Don’t let this happen to your air gun…use an EXAIR Precision Safety Air Gun with a quiet, efficient Super Air Nozzle instead.

Handheld blowguns like the one shown above are easily overlooked when it comes to operator safety and energy savings. Often, the cheapest gun possible is also the most costly regarding ownership and operation. These are just a few of the reasons EXAIR designed the VariBlast Precision Safety Air Gun.

The ergonomic design fits well in any sized hand and the long trigger makes for easy pull and variation in the amount of air being used. The integrated loop allows the tool to easily hang on a tether or hook near an operator station, while the optional Chip Shield adds additional protection for the operator and can be adjusted to any location along the extension. Effective chip guarding is a portion of the OSHA standard for dead-end pressure. Lastly, the extension pipe is offered in three different lengths: 6″, 12″, or 20″ overall length. Each one of these components is also field replaceable in the event one becomes damaged. That means it’s not disposable like the other guns on the market.

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Three different Super Air Nozzle models are available at the end of the extension in two separate materials. You can purchase the Atto, Pico, or Nano Super Air Nozzle in either stainless steel or PEEK thermoplastic for more sensitive applications. These nozzles coupled with our engineered valve design permit the user to vary the amount of air coming out of the gun by pulling the trigger to a higher flow or pulling it slightly and letting less volume of air through.

If you want to discuss whether your current air gun meets or exceeds OSHA standards and how much air it may use versus what an EXAIR VariBlast Precision can do for you, please contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Clean Room Certification – ISO 14644

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

The number of clean room certifications are vast and vary tremendously. ISO 14644 is the most used standard when looking at electronics and pharma manufacturing controlled environments. With this popularity, it has also undergone revisions within the past five years.

No matter the standard, each is divided into classes. The classes are rated from 1 to 9. The class identifies the maximum limit for particulate size and quantity per cubic meter of air. The chart below showcases the size and the quantity breakdown.

Cleanroom Classification Allowable Maximums.

ISO 9 as you can see is the loosest standard. This standard is equivalent to air quality within a city environment. These environments can fit a multitude of manufacturing and are some of the easiest to achieve and abide by. The opposite end of the spectrum, ISO 1 is the strictest and hardest to maintain. There are three main factors when designing for a clean room. These are surfaces, airflow, and employee access.

When selecting surfaces that will be within the environment it is best to choose a surface that will hold up to the level of use as well as not be damaged by the cleaners or solvents being used to ensure the surface is clean. This should carry over into part fixturing and even machine materials of construction as well. This is not always easy and should be a design element to the process and environment.

Airflow within the room is what helps maintain the concentration levels of particulates. Generally, a clean room is positively pressurized to where the pressure within the room is higher than that outside of the room. This results in a positive air exchange, generally this is provided by the HVAC system. Having a system that does not recirculate the air from inside of the room and a substantial filtration system is key. Another type of airflow that can be found within these environments is a blowoff operation for the part or process. When installing a blowoff within a clean room environment it should be confirmed that the materials of construction are compatible with the environment and cleaning processes and that the airflow will not be introducing particulate into the environment which can result in contamination.

Lastly, employee access should be limited to those employees who are trained and necessary to be within the environment. Sometimes if an employee wears the wrong type of deodorant it can effect an entire environment. Even the wrong type of clothing or soap can alter the state of an environment, let alone using a blowoff incorrectly or bringing the incorrect cleaner inside the cleanroom. Access to these areas should be limited and individuals should be well trained to meet the demands of the clean room.

If you would like to discuss your production environment or blowoff application within a clean room, please contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

EXAIR Super Air Amplifiers – Circulate, Blow, Dry, Cool, Vent

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

Super Air Amplifier

EXAIR manufactures a volume-type amplifier called the Super Air Amplifier. Not to be confused with its cousin, the pressure-type amplifier which increases air pressure, these devices increase the volume of air. This is a great benefit for circulating, cooling, blowing, drying and transferring materials like smoke fumes or lightweight items. With a range of applications, the EXAIR Super Air Amplifiers can be a simple solution for your company.

Super Air Amplifier – flow region

Why an EXAIR Super Air Amplifier? Like a fan, they are designed to move air. But fans use motors and blades to push the air toward the target. The fan blades “slap” the air which creates turbulent air flows and loud noises. The Super Air Amplifiers does not have any blades or motors to move the air. It just uses a Coanda profile and a patented shim to create a low pressure to draw in the air. With physics, it is much easier to pull than it is to push. The method in pulling air through the Super Air Amplifier makes a more efficient, uniform, and quiet operation to blow air.

How It Works

To expand, Coanda was named after a Romanian aerodynamic pioneer, Henri Coanda where he found a fluid flow phenomenon. He stated that “a jet of fluid emerging from an orifice to follow an adjacent flat or curved surface and to entrain fluid from the surroundings so that a region of lower pressure develops” (1). Since air is a fluid, it will react in the same way. The EXAIR Super Air Amplifiers create a high velocity air stream along an engineered profile. So, as the air “hugs” the profile, a low pressure is created which will draw in ambient air. The ratio between the volume of air produced compared to the volume of compressed air needed is called the amplification ratio. The higher the ratio, the more efficient the blowing device is. With the EXAIR Super Air Amplifiers, we can reach amplification ratios up to 25 to 1.

Super Air Amplifier Family

EXAIR manufactures and stocks five different sizes ranging from ¾” (19mm) up to 8” (203mm) in diameter. One of the unique features with the Super Air Amplifiers is that the inlet and outlet can be ducted for remote positioning. They are very compact and can fit into tight places. They do not have any moving parts to wear, or need electricity to run; or require any maintenance. They only need clean compressed air to work. One of the unique features of the EXAIR Super Air Amplifier is the patented shim which optimizes the low-pressure to draw in more ambient air. For extracting welding smoke, increasing cooling capacities, and moving material from point A to point B; the more air that can be moved, the better the performance. And the patented shim inside the EXAIR Super Air Amplifiers provides that. As an added bonus, they are OSHA compliant for safety and meet the standards for noise level and dead-end pressure.

Patented Air Amplifier Shims

EXAIR offers the Super Air Amplifiers in kits for a more complete system. The kit will include a filter separator, a pressure regulator and a Shim Set. The filter can remove debris and water from the compressed air line to keep the Super Air Amplifier and your product clean. The regulator is used to make “fine” adjustments to the blowing volume while the Shim Set is used as a “coarse” adjustment. The Shim Set includes different thicknesses of shims to set the gap. The Super Air Amplifiers come standard with a 0.003” (0.08mm) thick shim for the sizes ¾” (19mm) up to 4” (102mm), and a 0.009” (0.23mm) thick shim for the 8” (203mm) size. The Shim Set will include (1) 0.006” (0.15mm) and (1) 0.009” (0.23mm) shim for the models 120220 through 120224 or (1) 0.015” (0.39mm) shim for the model 120228. EXAIR sells these kits as one model number for simple ordering and for proper sizing of the accessories to not hinder the performance of the Super Air Amplifiers.

120224DX

To optimize the system even more, EXAIR also offers a Deluxe Kit for the Super Air Amplifier models. This will include the accessories in the kit above, plus an Electronic Flow Control, or EFC. This exclusive instrument uses a photoelectric eye to start a timing sequence to control a solenoid valve. So, when a part is not in front of the Super Air Amplifier, the compressed air is turned off. This will save you even more money and maximize your efficiency to only blow air when needed. They can be ordered with the kits by placing a “DX” at the end of the model number, such as 120224DX.

With the today’s cost to make compressed air, it is important to use it as efficiently as possible. The EXAIR Super Air Amplifiers have the ability to give effective blowing to remove debris, dry parts, transport material, or cool objects without using a large amount of compressed air. EXAIR has the Super Air Amplifiers in stock and as always, EXAIR offers a 30-day unconditional guarantee for our customers in the U.S. and Canada to try them out. If you have any questions about the Super Air Amplifiers or if you would like to discuss your application, an Application Engineer at EXAIR will be happy to help you.

 

John Ball
Application Engineer

Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

 

(1) Note: Coanda effect by Wikipedia.org https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coand%C4%83_effect

Super Air Nozzles and Stay Set Hoses to Replace Open Tubes

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I recently worked with an company that performs energy audits and they were working with a food company to review and propose ways to reduce the energy consumption throughout the plant. One area where we were able to help was on an onion peeling machine, shown below:

Vegetable Peeler Wide
Onion Peeler With Screw Conveyor and Blow off Tubes

The area of machine in question used a screw conveyor and friction source to help loosen the peels and fifteen (15) 1/4″ O.D. open ended tubes, which were noisy and unsafe, to blow the peels completely off and away form the onion. The auditor was able to install an air flow meter on the system and found that the machine was consuming 220 SCFM of compressed air for this operation.

Vegetable Peeler Detail
(15) Total, 1/4″ Tubes Used to Blow Air and Help Remove the Peels

We proposed to replace the tubes with a 6″ Stay Set Hose and the model 1103 Mini Super Air Nozzle.  Each model 1103 Mini Super Air Nozzle will consume just 10 SCFM of 80 PSIG compressed air. Attached to the 6″ Stay Set Hose, the nozzle can be placed exactly where needed and aimed appropriately. A strong blast of air rated at 0.56 lbs (9 ozs.), and ultra quiet at 71 dBA, the Mini Super Air Nozzle delivers the results needed.

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Model 1103 – Mini Super Air Nozzle

1103 Performance

1103 Pattern

9256
Model 9256 6″ Stay Set Hose

The Stay Set Hose has “memory” and will not creep or bend, simply install the 1/4 NPT fitting into the compressed air supply side, an thread the 1/8 NPT Mini Super Air Nozzle into the other end and position as needed!

Fifteen (15) of the Mini Super Air Nozzles will pass 150 SCFM of compressed air compared to the current usage of 220 SCFM, resulting in a 70 SCFM drop, or a 31.8 % reduction.  At a typical cost of $0.25 per 1000 Cubic Feet of Compressed Air, the nozzles would save $1.05 per hour of operation. Rate of Return yields a full pay-off in just 43 days of operation (24 hours per day operation)!

If you are looking for ways to save on compressed air usage in your facility that is safe to operate and quiet to use, we will have a solution for you.

If you have questions about any of the 16 different EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Product lines, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or any of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Brian Bergmann
Application Engineer
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