Tag: blower air knife

Maintenance on Blower Knives Vs Compressed Air Knives

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

The EXAIR Super Air Knives as well as most of EXAIR products have no moving parts! What does that mean, well with no moving parts that means there are no parts to wear out! Other than changing a compressed air filter element here and there (somewhere around $30-$50 bucks) and opening the knife to clean it. That is it!

Clip from the Super Air Knife Install and Maintenance guide

Blowers on the other hand are a whole different story, there are LOADS of moving parts resulting in downtime and numerous replacement parts. I’m just going to cover the main ones!

Belts and Tensioners

Just like you car your blower motor and blower heads are connected by a rubber belt and tensioner to keep it tight and clean. Over time since there is so much vibration and movement these belts can start to wear down or tear, leading to a 1-2 Hour downtime to find and repair the issue. The same thing will happen with the bearing in the Tensioners.

Tearing Belt
Belt Tensioner

Blower Heads and Motors

All high speed rotating equipment will eventually fail, due to normal wear of seals and bearings. So you either need a spare which can be a pricey investment or your operation will be down until you get it repaired or swapped out by the manufacturer.

Blower Motor and Head

Filters

Blowers have an inlet filter installed. However, rather than filtering the compressed air like a compressed air knife (within the enclosed compressed air line) blowers filter the ambient air around the blower (within the application space). So if your facility is dirty and dusty these filters are going to succumb to the various, environmental contaminations rather quickly.

To break that down a little better!

System Maintenance:

  1. Blower System – The intake filter has to be changed periodically as well as the motor and belt has to be checked as a preventive maintenance. Being that the blower motor is a mechanical device, the bearings and belts will wear and have to be replaced.  Without proper maintenance, things can break prematurely.  Loss of production will cost your facility revenue on the bottom line.
  2. Super Air Knife – They do not have any moving parts to wear out. Only compressed air is needed to operate.  The maintenance requirement is to change the compressed air filter once a year.

When you bring the whole picture into view the total cost of ownership is quite clear when you look at loss of output, loss of product, and breakdown of equipment. Yes the power generated in some cases by the compressor can be more than a blower. But when you look at purchase price, installation cost, and maintenance, the compressed air operated, Air Knife is the clear winner.

Compressed air can be expensive, but if you use EXAIR products, you can use the compressed air very efficiently.  You do not have to sacrifice other areas within the total cost of ownership.  If you have a similar application, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.  We will be happy to discuss the benefits of using the EXAIR Super Air Knives over a blower-type air knife.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Tearing belt image courtesy of jblevine2004 Via Creative Commons

Blower Motor and Head image courtesy of Ragtimer1 Via Creative Commons

Belt Tensioner image courtesy of Cordylus Via Creative Commons

Compressed Air Knives vs. Blower Air Knives, an Application Comparison

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

A company was needing to dry vegetables after a washing system.  They currently had three blower air knives (as shown in the photo above) to remove the water before packaging.  The issues that they presented to me were in two parts.  They were not able to generate enough force to remove enough water from larger products like cauliflower and broccoli.  And, the heat from the blower system was affecting the appearance of the thinner vegetables like snow peas.  They purchased the blower-style air knives under the belief that they would save money by not using compressed air.  They found out quickly that it was not a true statement especially when it comes to the total cost of ownership.

Super Air Knife drying fruits and vegetables

When comparing the EXAIR Super Air Knife to a blower-type air knife, there are many features that should be reviewed.  For the customer above, they used an 18” (457mm) wide conveying system to wash more than twenty different fruits and vegetables.  So, they needed versatility to dry the different types of products.  With the Super Air Knife, we have a simple way to adjust the force by changing the inlet air pressure.  So, we can blow air at a light breeze for the snow peas to a very strong force to dry the cauliflower and broccoli.  With the engineered design of the Super Air Knife, we can achieve a 40:1 amplification ratio.  That means for every 1 part of compressed air, we are able to entrain 40 parts of ambient air.  This unique feature allows for the Super Air Knife to be very efficient with your compressed air as well as keeping the blowing air at ambient temperatures.  The design of a blower system allows the air to become hot, turbulent, and limited in force.  As noted in the photo above, they had to use three blower knives to try to remove the liquid water.  With the Super Air Knife, I recommended just one air knife to do the job.  They decided to try an EXAIR model 110218SS 18″ Stainless Steel Super Air Knife Kit to see if their concept of “saving money” with the blower-type air knife was valid.

To better explain the concept, I divided the comparisons into different categories.  You can decide if the Super Air Knife would be a better product than the blower-type air knife.  It sure was for the customer above.

  1. Initial Cost:
    1. Blower System – They are an expensive product when you have to include a blower, ducting, and a knife. To have any flexibility, a control panel with a VFD will be needed.  A capital expenditure is typical for a complete system.
    2. Super Air Knife – It is a fraction of the cost. With their system above, we were roughly 1/10 the cost.  A capital expense would not be required for ordering a Super Air Knife to remove the water.
  2. Maintenance:
    1. Blower System – The intake filter has to be changed periodically as well as the motor and belt has to be checked as a preventive maintenance. Being that the blower motor is a mechanical device, the bearings and belts will wear and have to be replaced.  Without proper maintenance, things can break prematurely.  Loss of production will cost you much money.
    2. Super Air Knife – They do not have any moving parts to wear out. Only compressed air is needed to operate.  The maintenance requirement is to change the compressed air filter once a year.
  3. Compressed air usage:
    1. Blower System – This device does not need any compressed air to work, but it does use an electric motor. For this customer, they had a 7.5KW blower motor.  With the inherent design of blower-type air knives, they have a reduced blowing force and turbulent air flow.  This combination required the maximum power output on the 7.5KW blower motor.
    2. Super Air Knife –With their unique design, it has one of the highest efficiencies in the market place. It can entrain 40 parts of ambient “free” air with every 1 part of compressed air.  With laminar flow and the power of compressed air, the Super Air Knives can be used at a much lower air pressure.  To compare with the electric blower motor above, the Super Air Knives would use 10KW of compressor power to operate at the highest force rating.  So, at lower air pressures, the blower motor and compressor requirement will be very similar.
  4. Noise:
    1. Blower System – With the turbulent air flow, the blower units are very loud. If operators are working near the system, they would need PPE for hearing protection, or elect to purchase (for even more money) a sound enclosure which some of the blower manufacturers offer.
    2. Super Air Knife – These units are very quiet. Even at a higher pressure, the sound level is only 72 dBA at 100 PSIG (6.9 Bar).  This level is well below the maximum noise exposure for hearing safety as marked in OSHA 29CFR 1910.95(a).
  5. Installation:
    1. Blower System –Just to begin, the installers will have to run electrical wires, controls, and ducting. The foot print is large and will need space to install.  They will have to drill holes in the floor to hold the blower in place, and perhaps build an attenuation chamber.  This can take days with no production to start operating.  And time is money.
    2. Super Air Knife –They are compact and do not take up much space. They mount easily into a system.  You can run a plastic tube or rubber hose to the Super Air Knife from a compressed air source.  If you use the Universal Mounting Kit, they will only need a 1/2″ hole for attaching.  Even if a fabricator has to make a bracket to fit into their system, the timing is in hours not days.
  6. Heat:
    1. Blower System – Besides being quite loud, blower systems get very hot as a function of the operation. While this may be sold as a benefit for some applications, it is considered a significant drawback for drying fruits and vegetables. The air can reach a target temperature of 180°F (82°C).
    2. Super Air Knife – The advantage for the Super Air Knife is the amplification ratio. The total volume of air that comes from it is 40 parts ambient and 1 part compressed air. So, the temperature of the airflow is going to be the same as the ambient environment surrounding the Super Air Knife.

The total cost of ownership is quite clear when you look at loss of output, loss of product, and breakdown of equipment.  After reviewing the information above, it was easy for them to try the model 110218SS Stainless Steel Super Air Knife Kit.  When they replaced the blower-type air knives, the customer did share some information with me.

First, they were amazed at the ease of installation and the compact design.  The customer also mentioned the amount of force that could be created by the Super Air Knife.  They were able to increase and decrease the required force to remove the liquid water from all the different fruits and vegetables.  This gave them the flexibility that they were looking for in their process.  And of course, the maintenance time and cost were eliminated.

Compressed air can be expensive, but if you use EXAIR products, you can use the compressed air very efficiently.  You do not have to sacrifice other areas within the total cost of ownership.  If you have a similar application, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.  We will be happy to discuss the benefits of using the EXAIR Super Air Knives over a blower-type air knife.

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

EXAIR Super Air Knife vs. Blower-type Air Knife

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

Super Air Knife Blower Air Knife
Super Air Knife                           Blower Air Knife

A plastic company was developing thin layered films in their laboratory on a miniature prototype machine. It was designed for trial runs to make 24” wide material from various plastics, blends, and thicknesses.  They would place the plastic pellets into a hopper, and the material would be melted and extruded into a flat sheet.  To harden the material, it would land onto a cold drum, a large cylinder that had chilled water running through it.  To keep the sheet on the surface of the cold drum, they had a blower air knife.  In addition to the blower air knife, they had to use two ¼” copper air lines blowing on the outside section of the film.  Whenever they decided to make a change to their process, change material runs, or even for clean up; they had to move the blower air knife from the cold drum.  This was a hassle as it had a 3” hose attached to a blower.  It was very cumbersome and awkward to handle.  They heard about the EXAIR Super Air Knives, and they wanted me to do a comparison to their current system.  I was glad to compare the EXAIR 110224 Super Air Knife to their blower-type air knife system.

 

  1. They were getting “stretch” marks on the plastic film.
    • Blower-type air knife – Hot air is generated by the blower system. When the hot air hits the cool surface, it will cause an uneven hardening of the material, causing stretch marks.
    • Super Air Knife – It has a 40:1 amplification ratio. That means that 40 parts of the ambient air is entrained with 1 part of compressed air. Being that the ambient air is much cooler than the hot air from the blower system, it actually aides in cooling. There is no thermal shock to the material, and hardening is better and faster.
  2. They required an even force across the surface of the plastic film to keep against the cold drum.
    • Blower-type air knife – Their design had one 4” line feeding into the side of the blower air knife. This would cause 2 issues for an even force. As the velocity of the air hits the opposite side of the knife, the closed end, a turbulent air flow is developed. Also, there would be a slight negative pressures at the entrance caused by the velocity of the air entering. This turbulent mayhem and slight negative pressure are very inconsistent in force and velocity. The reason that they had to add the additional two ¼” copper lines to blow compressed air on the outside edges.
    • Super Air Knife – The flow that is delivered from the Super Air Knife is laminar. This means that the force and velocity is consistent across the entire length, even on the outside. With this even force, the film is held evenly and securely onto the cold drum.
  3. They needed maneuverability for change overs and clean up.
    • Blower-type air knife – To keep the needed pressure on the film, they had to have the blower air knife ¼” from the surface of the cold drum. So, before a change over or clean up procedure is started, they had to remove the knife and attachments. This was time consuming, cumbersome, and a headache to move.
    • Super Air Knife – With the compact design, the Super Air Knife has a large force in a small package. It has a footprint of 1 ¾” X 1 ½” X 24” long with only two ¼” NPT compressed air lines feeding it. The force measurement is equivalent from 3” to 12” away from the surface. Now, they could mount the Super Air Knife far enough to not disrupt their cleaning or change-over procedures. This saved them much time in changing to different materials and clean up.
  4. They wondered about the compressed air usage.
    • Blower-type air knife – This device does not require any compressed air to operate, but because it could not keep the film against the cold drum on the outer edges, they did have to use compressed air. With the two ¼” copper tubing at 80 psig, they were using a total of 79 SCFM of compressed air.
    • Super Air Knife – As a direct comparison to their air usage, the Super Air Knife would use 70 SCFM of compressed air at 80 psig across the entire width of the film. But with the unique design to entrain 40 parts of ambient air, it gives the Super Air Knife a powerful force. They were able to reduce the air pressure to 40 PSIG to keep the film on the cold roll, which also cut the air consumption to 41 SCFM. This efficient design helped them to save on compressed air without the added cost of the electricity to run the blower motor.
  5. Any other comparisons between the two products
    • Blower-type air knife – With the sound of the blower and the turbulent air flow, the unit was very loud. It had a sound level over 90 dBA, and with the operators working around this system, they required PPE for hearing.
    • Super Air Knife – These units are very quiet. At 40 PSIG, the sound level is only 61 dBA. (Just as a reference, the sound level is 72 dBA at 100 PSIG). This was very nice for the operators as they did not need to wear the ear plugs to work around their machine all day.

When it comes to using the EXAIR Super Air Knife, it has many benefits over the blower-type air knife. We can even include the initial cost in which we would be about 1/10 the cost of a blower-type air knife system.  For this customer above, they were delighted to replace that system with the Super Air Knife, and start running plastic film effectively, efficiently, and quietly on their miniature prototype machine.

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Cleaning Honeycomb with a Super Ion Air Knife

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

This week I worked with a gentleman, who was having a problem cleaning a honeycomb web after a sawing operation. The honeycomb was a paper based material, and the sawing operation would create a large amount of dust. This dust filled his honeycomb, which made the product appear inconsistent to his customer on incoming inspections. This was leading to the customer questioning the quality of the product.

honeycomb

His process featured a blower that was incredibly noisy and still left some material on the product.  During the winter, the problem was further exasperated by the dry air, which led to the dust being statically charged and clinging to the honeycomb even more.  In spite of his quality and production issues, the customer was looking to expand his production to meet demand. The blower he was using had been custom-made for his machine, so he was open to any ideas. Also, the blower had no way of removing static electricity from the material.

I recommended he use an 84″ Super Ion Air Knife to clean his 80″ honeycomb web. The customer mounted the air knife perpendicular to the surface of the honeycomb 4″ away from the surface. One of my concerns with the operation was creating even flow. To do this on a long span, I recommended he use have the plumbing kit installed at EXAIR, which allows the air knife to create an even flow along the length of the knife y preventing any restrictions which may occur from poorly sized inlet fittings, hose or tube.  The Super Ion Air Knife cleaned the honey comb with ease, while maintaining a quiet 69 dBA, and without the expensive maintenance required by the blower.

PlumbingKit-bg

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
Davewoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW