Tag: blowgun

Super Air Wipe and Back Blow Nozzle Increase Production at a Pipe Manufacturer

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

Last week I took a call from a pipe and tube manufacturer who was looking for a solution for two problem areas within their process of manufacturing 1″ pipe.

First, they were removing moisture from the outside of the pipe after a rinse cycle, to prepare the material for painting. To remove the water, they had an operator with a hand held blow gun and shop rag who blows off the residual fluid, then manually wipes it clean. This process added time to their process, reduced overall production and increased labor.

Since 1″ schedule 40 pipe has a 1.3″ outside diameter, I recommended they use our 2″ Super Air Wipe for this particular part of the process. The Super Air Wipe produces a 360° ring of air to clean, cool or dry the outside surface of a hose, tube, pipe, etc. as it passes through the center of the unit. Installation is simple as the unit features a split design which can easily be clamped around the material, with the need to remove it from the machine.

Super Air Wipe
Super Air Wipes are available from 1/2 up to 11″.

The second issue they were experiencing was as they cut the pipe to length, they are seeing the cutting fluid and scrap chips settle on the inside which again requires the same operator to manually clean this surface as well. I recommended using our Back Blow Air Gun Model # 1204SS-12-CS Soft Grip Safety Air Gun with Model 1004SS Atto Back Blow Nozzle, 12″ aluminum extension and Chip Shield. The Back Blow Nozzle’s airflow is directed away from the nozzle and provides a 360° ring of air, making it the ideal choice for blowing out the I.D. of a pipe. With this particular design, you eliminate the risk of blowing the chips and fluid out of the far end or pushing debris farther into the pipe. It also prevents the potential of blowing debris toward other personnel or machinery. The Chip Shield protects the operator from the particulate being removed for the inside area.

 

1006ss
Unique Design For Treating Inside Diameter of Pipe

If you have any questions about these products or would like to discuss your particular application, give us a call so we can help.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

Compressed Air Gun’s Many Forms Solve Many Problems

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

Have you just glanced around your manufacturing plant? You usually always see either the “curly” yellow hose or a red rubber hose with an air gun attached to it.  They hang at work stations, machines, packaging areas, and even in obscure places.  The reason that I bring this up is for safety reasons.

Recently we had a medium-sized manufacturing plant that was audited by OSHA. One of the first violations that OSHA found was with their compressed air guns with the typical brass pipe with the hole going through the side (one of the most typical types of nozzle).  It violated code 29 CFR 1910.65(a) for maximum allowable noise exposure.  The company had to make a choice to either purchase hearing protection for the operators or to find an alternative product.  They contacted us because we could reduce their noise level.  I suggested a Super Air Nozzle, model 1100 for their application.  When they attached our Super Air Nozzle into their air gun, they quickly heard the difference with the low noise.  With the added benefits of quality, high force, and meeting all the safety requirements, they decided to purchase the nozzles with our Safety Air Guns.  They ordered 90 pieces of our Soft Grip Safety Air Gun with Chip Shield, model 1210-CS.  This took care of the OSHA violation, and the operators were very happy with the product.

Model 1210-CS
Model 1210-CS

Another company was using compressed air with a ¼ turn valve attached to a 36” (91 cm) copper tubing. They used this device to reach into areas to blow off chips.  The Safety Compliance Officer was familiar with OSHA 29CFR 1910.242(b).  The regulation references chip shields and using pressures below 30 psig (2 bar).  Compressed air can enter the blood stream through the skin with pressures above 30 psig (2 bar) in a dead-end occurrence.  To keep his workers safe, he mandated a maximum supply line pressure of 30 psig (2 bar) throughout the plant.  This increased the cleanup time for an operation as the force was reduced greatly.  The Safety Compliance Officer contacted us about our Safety Air Guns.  I explained that with our nozzles, they are engineered to operate at higher supply line pressures and still be below the dead-end pressure requirement of 30 psig (2 bar).  With our design, it keeps the surface of your skin from blocking the air openings, like you can do with a copper tubing.  They ordered 25 pieces of our Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun with a 36” (91 cm) extension and Chip Shield, model 1310-36-CS.  The operators were happy with the durability of the gun and with the ability to increase the air pressure for faster cleaning.  The Safety Compliance Officer was happy to meet the OSHA standard and to keep his workers safe.

Model 1310-36-CS
Model 1310-36-CS

EXAIR offers a variety of different types of nozzles and Safety Air Guns to fit the requirements of your applications. All of our nozzles are safe, quiet, and powerful.  We offer them in different materials from aluminum/zinc, stainless steel, and PEEK.  They are designed to entrain ambient air to save compressed air and money.  As a note, an air gun is only as good as the nozzle it is using.  Many air guns come with a very inexpensive brand of nozzle.  They are typically very loud and very inefficient.  I always like to use the analogy of a paint sprayer.  No matter how good the spray gun is, if you have a poor nozzle, you will end up with many flaws in your paint.  The same can be said with compressed air guns.

To keep your company compliant and safe, you can always contact an Application Engineers to help pick the correct product for you.

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

Air Nozzles Blowoff Guide Available For FREE

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

Are you looking for an engineered Air Nozzle to replace your existing unsafe open pipe? Maybe you are wanting to reduce the sound level in your facility or decrease your energy costs? EXAIR offers a large variety of Air Nozzles that are ALL OSHA compliant to meet or exceed OSHA Standard 1910.242(b), by eliminating any potential for dead-ending the air flow out of the nozzle and keeping the outlet pressure safe. The design of our Super Air Nozzles ejects the compressed  air behind a series of fins so there is always path for the air to escape, meaning they cannot be dead ended.

OSHA Noise Level
ALL of EXAIR’s Air Nozzles meet or exceed noise exposure levels.

In addition, our air nozzles meet the OSHA Standard 29 CFR – 1910.95(a) for allowable noise exposure levels. Excessive noise in the workplace can cause stress, lack of concentration leading to accidents and potential long term hearing loss (More OSHA Noise Induced Hearing Loss info here). EXAIR’s air nozzles entrain surrounding ambient air up to 25 times for every 1 part of compressed air, producing much less wind shear, reducing the output sound level, while also making our units more efficient, consuming less compressed air.

 

air nozzle flow
How our Super Air Nozzles entrain surrounding air.

We offer nozzles from our smallest offering with a tiny M4 thread up to our largest 1-1/4 NPT unit, with varying force from 2 ounces up to 23 lbs., in zinc aluminum, stainless steel, brass or PEEK plastic.

With such a vast offering, we understand selection can seem difficult. To simplify the process we offer our Air Nozzles Blowoff Guide. Our FREE Blowoff Guide has all the information available in regards to force, dimensions, air flow patterns, air consumption and materials.You will also find detailed information about our full product line of Safety Air Guns as well.

blowoff guide
Order our complimentary Blowoff Guide today!

To order our complimentary blowoff guide, please click here. If you need additional information, please give us a call at 800-903-9247.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

 

Keeping the Confusion Out of NPT Pipe Thread Dimensions

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I recently had the pleasure of helping a caller solve a problem with a Super Air Nozzle.  He had measured the opening on the outlet of his air gun, and ordered accordingly…unfortunately, he didn’t know that 3/8 NPT did NOT correspond to a 3/8″ diameter of a threaded fitting.  I explained the reason for this, a while back, in a blog entitled “When Is A Half Inch Not A Half Inch? When It’s Half Inch Pipe, Of Course!”

The ID of a 1/8 NPT threaded fitting is actually pretty close to 3/8". Here's a dimensions table that I reference often.
The ID of a 1/8 NPT threaded fitting is actually pretty close to 3/8″ (left.) Here’s a link to a dimensions table that I reference often to keep this (on right, a 3/8 NPT nozzle with an 1/8 NPT air gun) from happening.

 

As you can see, the Model 1105 3/8 NPT Super Air Nozzle will not fit the 0.405″ (not far at all from 3/8″ if measured with a ruler) ID of a 1/8 NPT threaded connection.  No matter; these are all catalog parts that we have plenty of stock on, so, after a brief discussion of pipe thread sizes, he got a Model 1103 1/8 NPT Super Air Nozzle, and it fits just fine:

IMG_5789
Model 1103 1/8 NPT (male) Super Air Nozzle installed in a 1/8″ NPT air gun.

Sometimes, an adapter is required for air guns that have straight threads.  Two common sizes for these are 5/8″-28 and 3/4″-32 – and we have adapters for both of these (call for details.) Other adapters are readily commercially available…you may find them in the plumbing aisle of your hardware store, or from a local pipe & pipe fitting supplier.  We’ve seen some air guns, though, that have a proprietary thread that doesn’t match up to anything else…in these cases, we have four types of Safety Air Guns on the shelf, ready to ship.

If you’d like to find out more about using quiet and efficient engineered Super Air Nozzles for your air gun applications, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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