Blow Off Systems for the “W”

Many times we have tendencies to overcomplicate things. I remember a time when I was visiting my sister in Phoenix, and she was making a fancy 3D Scooby-Doo cake for my nephew’s 4th or 5th, and she needed the brown icing. Now when decorating these cakes, the common practice is to make white icing and use food coloring to make all of the other colors you need. She left that morning around 10:00 to look for brown food coloring. Around noon she called to tell us that she could not find brown food coloring at any store on this side of town, and was driving to the far side of the city to look at those stores. I asked her why she couldn’t just use chocolate icing, and she was having no part of it. She was so laser focused on her solution that she couldn’t hear that that chocolate icing is also brown… Fast forward to 6:30 PM, and she comes walking through the door frustrated and exhausted from her day of going store to store all over the large city looking for the elusive brown food coloring. As you can probably guess, she had chocolate icing with her because it finally hit her that the chocolate icing is brown… . The cake turned out amazing, and the lesson was learned.

So, why this story? I feel that in life and in business we sometimes leave our blinders on and become laser focused on one certain way of doing something. We know that the way we se it will work, and think that we know best, and we are going to make it happen exactly how it is playing out in our head. No other way seems possible, and when someone offers up a simpler solution, our immediate thought is “it can’t be that simple”, or “if it’s that simple of a solution, there is no way it could work”. Have you ever said these things? As an application engineer, I take a lot of calls from people that are much smarter than me with grandiose plans. Many times the problem they need to solve, is much simpler than the solution they have in mind. I’ve seen elaborate plans, that probably took hours if not days to develop, come down to simply needing a simple out of the box Blow-Off System.

At EXAIR, we specialize in intelligent compressed air products with a primary focus on blow off, drying, and cooling. When it comes to these things, our product lines (pointedly for this blog, our Air Nozzles and Jets) are head and shoulders above our competition. The vast majority (with the exceptions of the High power or high force nozzles – for obvious reasons) all meet both OSHA standards concerning noise and dead end pressure. Here is a list of all of our Super Air Nozzles showing the SCFM, Force and Decibels:

Our Blow Off Systems (some sample pics below) are a fantastic and smart solution for so many applications. It really doesn’t get much easier than this, a Magnetic base, a Stay-Set Hose, and a Super Air Nozzle, all in one. I feel that these are heavily under utilized. Simply connect your air hose, bend the Stay-Set Hose to the direction of spray that you need, and boom, Bob’s your uncle…

Mag Bases come with one or two outlets. Stay Set Hoses come in lengths from 6″ to 36″.

Sometimes things can be as simple as using chocolate icing for brown icing, or using an EXAIR Blow-Off System in your application. Of course if you need more than that, we will help you find the right solution for you. Call today to speak with an experienced application engineer that is eager to help.

Thank you for stopping by,

Brian Wages

Application Engineer

EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter

Keep Your Pneumatics “Healthy” and “Running Like a Brand New Car”

Compressed air systems are used in facilities to operate pneumatic systems, and these systems are vital for industries.  So, it is important to keep them running.  The system can be segregated into three different sections; the supply side, the demand side, and the distribution system.  I like to represent these sections as parts of a car.  The supply side will be the engine; the distribution system will be the transmission; and, the demand side will be the tires.  I will go through each section to help give tips on how to improve the “health” of your pneumatic system.

From the supply side, it will include the air compressor, after-cooler, dryer, and receiver tank that produce and treat the compressed air.  They are generally found in a compressor room somewhere in the corner of the plant.  The air compressor, like the engine of your car, produces the pneumatic power for your plant, and needs to have maintenance to keep it working optimally.  The oil needs to be changed, the filters have to be replaced, and maintenance checks have to be performed.  I wrote a blog that covers most of these items, “Compressed Air System Maintenance”.

To connect the supply side to the demand side, a distribution system is required.  Distribution systems are pipes which carry compressed air from the air compressor to the pneumatic devices.  Just like the transmission on the car, the power is transferred from the air compressor to your pneumatic products.

Maintenance is generally overlooked in this area.  Transmissions have oil which can be detected if it is leaking, but since air is a gas, it is hard to tell if you have leaks.  Energy is lost from your pneumatic “engine” for every leak that you have.  So, it is important to find and fix them.  A study was conducted within manufacturing plants about compressed air leaks.  They found that for plants without a leak detection program, up to 30% of their compressed air is lost due to leaks.  This will be equivalent to running on only 6 cylinders in a V-8 engine.

EXAIR offers the Ultrasonic Leak Detector to find those pesky leaks.  It makes the inaudible “hiss”; audible.  It can detect leaks as far as 20 feet (6m) away with the parabola attachment, and can find the exact location of the leak to be fixed with the tube attachment.

Another area for discussion with the distribution system is contamination like rust, oil, water, and debris.  Compressed air filters should be used to clean the compressed air that supplies your pneumatic products. They can remove the debris for your pneumatic products to have a long life.  You can read about the EXAIR compressed air filters here, “Preventative Maintenance for EXAIR Filters”.

The third section is the demand side.  So, you have an engine that makes the power, the transmission to transfer that power, and the tires to use that power safely and efficiently.  Many managers miss the importance of the demand side within their pneumatic system.  If you are using blow-off devices like open pipes, coolant lines, copper tubes, or drilled pipe; it will be like running your car on flat tires.  It is very unsafe as well as reducing gas mileage.  To improve safety and efficiency, EXAIR has a line of Super Air Nozzles and Super Air Knives.  Not only will it increase your “gas mileage” to save you money, but they also will keep your operators safe.

In this analogy, you can have a high-performance engine and a durable transmission, but if your tires are bald, flat, or cracked; you cannot use your car safely and efficiently.  The same thing with your compressed air system.  You have to optimize your blow-off devices to get the most from your pneumatic system.  EXAIR is a leader in engineered blow-off devices for efficiency and safety.  So, if you want to improve the “health” of your pneumatic system, you should begin at how you are using your compressed air on the demand side.  EXAIR has Application Engineers that will be happy to help you in trying to keep your pneumatic system running like a “brand new car”.

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

 

Photo: Ford Mustang Roadster by openclipart-VectorsPixabay License

The Soft Grip Safety Air Gun for OSHA Compliance

Compressed air has many different uses ranging from simple cooling and blow off applications all the way to operating machine cylinders and robotics. One of the most common uses is for simple cleaning; whether its cleaning off a work station or blowing off personnel it can’t be denied that air powered cleaning is very useful. But if the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA) regulations are not followed it can also be unsafe.

Open-ended blow offs can inadvertently be dead ended (the airflow outlet can be completely blocked), when this happens if the pressure is to high an air embolism can form in an individuals bloodstream. Blowing something off with air can result in airborne particulate traveling at a high velocity that can become embedded into your skin or in your eye.

With all that being said this is where the safety air guns step into the spotlight! It’s pretty easy to make a safety air gun that complies with the dead-end pressure regulation; just give the air another path to take when the outlet is blocked. The most common solution found is a cross drilled nozzle which allows the air to escape when the end is blocked. Generally the problem with this design is that the nozzles can be very loud and inefficient. In most cases these nozzles have paid attention to the dead end problem but ignored the noise level exposure safety issue and completely ignored compressed air efficiency. 

With EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles you get both the added benefit of being safe, quiet and efficient. Our engineered designed air nozzles are commonly installed onto a Soft Grip Safety Air Gun to make an ergonomic, safe, and quiet Safety Air Gun. These can also have a  Chip Shield added to help prevent particles from flying back and hitting the user. The Soft Grip Safety Air Gun can also be coupled with a pipe extension from 6” to 72”; you can also add one of our Stay Set Hoses 6” in length to 36”.

Soft Grip Safety Air Gun with Stay Set Hose. eg. 1210-6SSH

Here are a few examples of the Soft Grip Safety Air Guns in our product line:

Cody Biehle
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter
Like us on Facebook

Super Air Knife Provides Engine Block Blowoff

Photo-0
Extra points if you can identify this engine block

My hobby with cars is no secret.  Most people who meet me come to know I’m a total gearhead.  Case in point, on a recent trip to visit with our distributor in Finland, I was asked about the car I was working on when they last visited us just a few months ago.  Since then, the aforementioned car (a blue BMW) has found a new home, and I’m gearing up to sell another.

So, when I received an email from a major auto manufacturer needing a solution to clean the top side of an engine block, I was intrigued.  In addition to the photo above, I received the photo below with a short description of the current state in the application.

Photo-1
The top deck of this block, where the cylinder head gasket will rest, has a width of approximately 200mm.

As it stands, coolant is accumulating on the top side of the engine block after they are fully cast, decked, and cleaned.  In order to move on to the next step in the process, these engine blocks need to have all residual oil removed from the top side of the block.

The solution?  A 9” (229mm) Super Air Knife installed above the engine blocks as they travel down the production line.  The Super Air Knife will install at a 45° angle of attack, blowing off the residual coolant and allowing these parts to move on in the process without stopping.  This prevents lost throughput due to stoppage of the production line, prevents increased costs due to personnel needing to treat each engine block by hand, and provides a uniform condition for the engine blocks when they arrive in the next step of this production process.

The best part of the interaction was that this auto manufacturer contacted EXAIR for a solution because they were able to solve previous problems with overheating electrical control panels using our Cabinet Coolers.  So, when they needed another compressed air solution, they immediately knew who to call.

If you have an application in need of a compressed air solution, give us a call.  We’ll be happy to help.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE