Tag: blowgun

EXAIR Safety Air Gun Promotion is Here!

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Through the months of August and September, EXAIR is running our Safety Air Gun Promotion. End-users throughout the United States and Canada will receive a free Model 1126, 1″ Flat Super Air Nozzle when they purchase a Safety Air Gun direct through us. This includes our VariBlast Precision, VariBlast Compact, Soft Grip, Heavy Duty, and TurboBlast Safety Air Guns.

For in depth information about our line of Safety Air Guns and this promotion, head on over to EXAIR.com to learn more. But for a brief summary of our Safety Air Guns, stick around in this blog!

All of our Safety Air Guns are durable and comfortable to use. Every model is designed to use an engineered Air Nozzle that will entrain large volumes of air, enabling them to be quiet and efficient. This allows them to be OSHA compliant to OSHA standard 1910.242 (b); the airflow cannot be blocked or dead ended.

Our VariBlast Precision Safety Air Gun is extremely lightweight and the most comfortable to operate during long periods of extended use. It features a variable trigger valve which produces varying force levels depending on how much the trigger is activated. The small diameter nozzle and extension will fit into tight spaces while providing a strong blowing force.

The VariBlast Compact Safety Air Gun is a uniquely powerful gun which produces variable force depending on trigger activation. This cast aluminum gun is equipped with any of our 1/8 NPT engineered air nozzles. The VariBlast Compact Safety Air Gun is small, comfortable and powerful while remaining light and ergonomic. It has two inlets for flexible air supply options and a large loop at the top for hanging when not in use.

The Soft Grip Safety Air Gun has a durable cast aluminum body suitable for rugged industrial use. The large trigger makes for easy operation and a convenient hook at the top allows the gun to be easily stored. Chip Shields for worker safety and extensions for hard to reach areas are available, up to 72” long.

The Heavy Duty style of safety air gun is powerful with a durable aluminum cast body and ergonomic composite rubber grip, best suited for rugged industrial environments. Hours of fatigue-free operation are possible. The 3/8 NPT inlet also allows for greater compressed air flow, resulting in higher force and flow than other air guns.

Features & benefits of the new TurboBlast Safety Air Gun

Finally, our TurboBlast Safety Air Gun is designed for extended use without fatigue during the most demanding applications, which require a huge amount of force to solve. These air guns produce up to 23 pounds of force onto a target! The rugged cast aluminum handle is covered with a soft, durable elastomer grip. The low profile trigger button will disengage if released. 3′ and 6′ extensions are available.

If you would like to take advantage of this promotion, or if you would like to discuss any other point-of-use compressed air application, give us a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Compressed Air Safety Do’s and Don’t’s

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

DO take compressed air safety seriously. We are all familiar with the importance of safety. Almost every company has some form of annual safety training. One of the common themes of these kinds of training is that it is not just some people’s responsibility, but that it is everyone’s responsibility. Here at EXAIR we take safety seriously. All of our products are engineered with safety in mind – we even have a line of products with ‘safety’ in the name – Safety Air Guns. This is very important, as working with compressed air can present some health risks if not used properly.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is an organization here in the United States that enforces governmental directives for safe and healthy working environments. They can also enforce these directives with heavy fines for violations.  With compressed air, the two most common violations are air guns and blowoff devices are described in 29CFR 1910.242(b) for dead-end pressure/chip shielding and 29CFR 1910.95(a) for maximum allowable noise exposure.

The first regulation – 29CFR 1910.242(b) – references the use of hand-held tools. DON’T use a blowoff device at more than 30psig if the compressed air can be dead-ended. If the compressed air has no other path to escape, it can penetrate the skin, causing an air embolism. A common and simple solution is to cross-drill a hole to allow an alternate path. This could create other safety issues, as we will discuss later. EXAIR’s nozzles are designed with fins which allow the air to escape and not be blocked by your skin.  So, you can safely use the EXAIR Super Air Nozzles above 30psig.

The second regulation – 29CFR 1910.95(a) – references the maximum allowable sounds level an individual should be exposed to. DON’T allow an operator to be exposed to excessive sound levels for too long. This is where the cross-drilled nozzle falls short. Although safe from dead-end pressure, the sound produced by the turbulent airflow is very loud. The engineered design of EXAIR’s nozzles entrain the surrounding air into a laminar flow, which is much quieter. Our Model 1210 Safety Air Gun (which uses our Model 1100 Nozzle) only has a sounds level of 74dBA, which is comfortably under the noise exposure limit for 8 hours.

If you want to take compressed air safety seriously, then DO use EXAIR’s line of safe, quiet and efficient Safety Air Guns and Air Nozzles. If you would like to discuss this, or any of your other compressed air application needs, then give me a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Banner image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Dead End image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

Utility Rebates – How EXAIR Products Can Save You Money!

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

We love to talk about how our intelligent compressed air products can save you money. This has been the subject of many blogs, emails and phone calls; primarily focusing on how our products will reduce your overall air consumption. This leads to lower energy costs, which over time will save you thousands of dollars. Another way you can save money is through rebate programs.

Many electrical companies offer rebates for efficient products and programs that help reduce energy consumption. The NC Clean Energy Technology Center has created a website that consolidates this information for you on their website: www.dsireusa.org.  “DSIRE is the most comprehensive source of information on incentives and policies that support renewable and energy efficiency in the United States”. Since EXAIR’s products fall into this category, rebates can be applied to the use of our products. If there is a rebate available, you will find it on this site.

It’s easy to find what rebates are available for you by selecting your state from the map on DSIRE, and then filtering down to Technology > Energy Efficiency > Industrial Equipment > Compressed air. As an example, in Michigan there is currently a rebate from Energy Smart for using Engineered Nozzles.

Once you’ve found your rebate, give us a call! We can help you determine which of our products will allow you to take advantage of it, whether it’s one of our engineered nozzles like the above example, or any of our other intelligent compressed air products.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Image by Robert Goerman from Pixabay

What’s So Great About EXAIR Safety Air Guns?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment
Cheap to buy; expensive to operate. And it’s loud, to boot.
Precision VariBlast Safety Air Gun offers strong blow off while reducing air use & noise levels.

You can go to almost any hardware store and buy a $10-$20 air blow gun. It’s going to be loud when you pull the trigger, it’s not likely to be compliant with OSHA standards. AND, it’s going to cost more to operate than an engineered product like an EXAIR Safety Air Gun. I actually performed an Efficiency Lab test on such a blow gun recently. First thing I did was look for the manufacturer’s published data on air usage – there was none. Testing with our calibrated rotameter showed that it used 13.5 SCFM @80psig. This same customer had purchased a Model 1809SS-CS VariBlast Precision Safety Air Gun with our Pico Super Air Nozzle installed (and a Chip Shield, which made me really respect their safety game), which uses only 4.9 SCFM @80psig.

The VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns cost them $136.00 each (2023 pricing). We used a US Department of Energy thumb rule which states that compressed air costs an average of $0.25 per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet, and calculated that the blow guns they were using cost $158 annually, each, to operate 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, with 3 hours of ‘trigger time’ a day:

13.5 SCFM X 60 min/hr X 3 hrs/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $157.95

Using the same math and substituting the 1809SS-CS’ air use, we see they only cost $58 per year to run:

4.9 SCFM X 60 min/hr X 3 hrs/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $57.33

And, again, since there are 14 of them, the customer is realizing an annual operating cost saving of over $800.00 a year!

At EXAIR, we’re in the business of making sure you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you’d like to find out what that might mean for you, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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