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Using Accessories to Boost Your Tools

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I was once on a local theater’s website, ordering tickets to an upcoming show that my wife and I were excited to see. I had the option to pay online and have a digital code emailed to me in lieu of a real live paper ticket. Can you believe they wanted to charge me almost $2 A TICKET for that?!? I adamantly refused (by that I mean I clicked the mouse extra hard on the “Will Call” button before completing my payment)…and saved that $4 (almost) for something REALLY important.

The night of the show, there was a 20-minute line at the Will Call window. Folks who had opted for the digital code were doing a quick scan with their smartphones and walking straight into the theater. I used the $4 I saved to partially pay for a $10 glass of wine from a concession kiosk in the lobby, as a peace offering for my lovely bride. That was indeed “something REALLY important.”

Another time, I was ordering a sump pump backup system for our house. I had the option of paying extra for the deluxe system, which came with all the fittings and a special tool to make installation a bit easier. Even though the ‘deluxe’ system adder was probably a bit more than the cost of the fittings from my local hardware store, I paid the “convenience fee” and got the deluxe system anyway. For the record, during the installation, I realized I would have bought an incorrect fitting at the local store which would have forced an emergency trip while I had the water turned off in my whole house. THAT was an inconvenience I was glad to have avoided.

Similarly, you can buy any EXAIR product with, or without, accessories that’ll make for simpler installation, improved performance, and to ensure it does what you want it to do. Some of these are product-specific, but many are suitable (and recommended) for use with any of our products:

Filter Separators

Good engineering practice calls for point of use filtration for any compressed air operated device. Even if you have the best intake & discharge filters on your air compressor, trace amounts of contaminants can sneak through, pipes can rust, and water vapor that the dryer doesn’t catch can condense. Particulates can build up and eventually clog the tight clearances in many engineered compressed air products, and if you’re using air for cleaning, drying, etc., keep in mind that whatever’s in your air will get on your product. Moisture isn’t always as big of a deal, but it can freeze inside Vortex Tubes, Spot Cooling Products, Cold Guns, and Cabinet Cooler Systems. That’s why we include Filter Separators in our Air Knife, Air Wipe, Static Eliminator Products, Line Vac, Adjustable Spot Cooler, Cold Gun, and Cabinet Cooler System Kits.

Automatic Drain Filter Separators come in sizes from 1/4 NPT to 1-1/4 NPT, for compressed air flows up to 400 SCFM.

Oil Removal Filters

These aren’t always needed, but we have them if your application calls for it. Some of the “usual suspects” are food & Pharma (see above “whatever’s in your air will get on your product”), blowoff prior to painting (the smallest amount of oil on the surface causes a phenomenon known as “fish eye” and it looks exactly like that sounds), or when your compressor is known to have oil carryover.

When properly installed downstream of an Automatic Drain Filter Separator (left,) an Oil Removal Filter (center) will provide clean, oil free air to the Pressure Regulator (right) and all downstream components.

Pressure Regulators

One of our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is to control the air pressure at the point of use to minimize air consumption. In other words, find the supply pressure for your product that gets the job done, so you don’t use any more compressed air than you have to. Like the Filter Separators above, these come with many EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product Kits.

Pressure Regulators “dial in” performance to get the job done without using more air than necessary.

Mounting Brackets and Coupling Kits

Most of our Filter Separators, Oil Removal Filters, and Pressure Regulators can be attached to a wall, panel, etc., with a Mounting Bracket, and can actually be attached to each other with a modular Coupling Kit. These parts simplify the installation, ensure they are oriented correctly, and minimize the chance for air leaks.

Filters (left) and Pressure Regulators (center) can be mounted using Brackets, and they can be connected together with Modular Couplers (right).

Silencing Mufflers

Many EXAIR products are engineered to develop a boundary layer of low velocity air flow that greatly reduces the sound level during operation. Other products use a venturi mechanism to draw a vacuum (Reversible Drum Vacs and E-Vac Vacuum Generators) or a Vortex Tube to generate cold air flow. The air flow from these products cannot be subjected to back pressure, and, without anything to mitigate the sound pressure generated by the rapid pressure drop as the air exits, they can be quite loud. For these, we have Silencing Mufflers that, except for the largest & most powerful of these products, reduce the sound level to be compliant with OSHA Standard 1910.95 Maximum Noise Exposure Limits.

From left to right… Reclassifying Mufflers offer the highest noise level reduction, eliminate oil mist, and come in sizes from 1/8 NPT to 1 NPT.
Sintered Bronze Mufflers are low cost and compact, with threads from #10-32 to 1-1/2 NPT.
Straight Through Mufflers use an internal sleeve of sound reducing foam, with threads from ¼ NPT to ¾ NPT, with male threads on one end and female threads on the other.
Heavy Duty Mufflers have an aluminum shell and an internal stainless steel screen that keeps contaminants like rust from being ejected in a dangerous way.  We have them in ¼ NPT and ¾ NPT sizes.

Shutoff and Solenoid Valves

Another one of our Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System is to turn off the compressed air when it’s not in use. For this, EXAIR offers manual ball valves, for operator control, and Solenoid Valves, to automate the process.

Solenoid Valves (left) are available for 120VAC, 240VAC, and 24VDC in sizes from 1/4 NPT to 1 NPT. We offer manual Ball Valves in sizes from 1/8 NPT to 1-1/4 NPT.

Swivel Fittings, Stay Set Hoses, and Magnetic Bases

EXAIR Super Air Nozzles are threaded for installation with common air pipe & hose fittings. If the pipe isn’t pointed in the exact right direction, a Swivel Fitting gives you 50°  of adjustability. If the pipe isn’t quite close enough to what you want to blow off, Stay Set Hoses come in lengths of 6″ to 36″, and when bent to aim the Air Nozzle, they ‘stay set’, as advertised, until they need to be moved. If a pipe doesn’t exist and you need to run an air hose from the nearest drop on the header, Magnetic Bases can support the Air Nozzle and a Stay Set Hose to get the air where you want it. They even have shutoff valves to turn them off when they’re not in use (that’s a good thing; see above).

Save installation time AND get your blowoff pointed in the right direction!

Hoses and Compressed Air Fittings

If you need one of the aforementioned air hoses to reach a Magnetic Base or to supply a Safety Air Gun, we have two diameters to choose from – 3/8″ ID (1/4 MNPT threads on the ends) and 1/2″ ID (1/2 MNPT threads on the end), and we can make them to any length you need. And, while our selection probably isn’t quite as comprehensive as your local piping supply shop, we stock a number of pipe nipples, Couplers, Reducers, Tees, and Elbows that are commonly used with our products. So – like my backup sump pump deluxe kit, we can put all the fittings you may require in the same box for you.

Contact an Application Engineer if you have ANY questions about how to properly supply compressed air to your EXAIR products.

At EXAIR, we’re here to make sure you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you need accessories to help with that, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Tourney Time!

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

This week begins my favorite time of year – college basketball madness!

Basketball hoop
It’s Awesome baby, with a capital A!

Like many of us around the country, my fan loyalty resides with a relatively small, local college that has seen a lot of program growth in recent years – Xavier University. For example, during the 2003-2004 season, the team was ranked preseason top 11 in the country but stumbled along the way and found themselves at 10-8 with a pivotal game against their in state, conference rival. They ended up losing the game and the players held a “team only” meeting afterwards so the seniors could, let’s just say, “focus” the team on their goals. Whatever was said in that locker room worked, as the team went on to finish the regular season with a 9-1 record and win 4 conference tourney games in 4 days (first team to ever tackle this feat) to capture the automatic bid to the national field of 64, where they eventually lost by only 3 points in their first ever Elite 8, to a certain team from Durham, NC. (It was the REFS fault and no I’m not bitter LOL).

In 2008 the team was facing a similar challenge as they had lost several close games and were now again faced with needing to win 4 games in 4 days to get the automatic conference title bid. They went on to secure the bid and were able to reach the Elite 8 again for the 2nd time in 4 years but their run ended with a loss to the #1 seed in the region. The school has now joined a larger conference which is great for national notoriety and recruiting but also brings a higher level in competition, either boosting or damaging their tournament resume.

This year has followed suit to previous years as the team didn’t perform up to expectations and spent much of the latter part of the regular season on the proverbial “bubble”. After each win or loss, the prognosticators would move them from a “lock” to the “bubble”, or even more confusing, “still has work to do” category. All that mattered was just win and let the rest take care of itself. The team did just that as they went on to make the finals of the conference tournament but were easily handled by the first place team and eventually lost.

The selection committee has rewarded their conference affiliation along with conference tournament success and ranked them as a 6 seed for this years national championship tournament (a little high in my opinion but I’ll take it!) playing the winner of one of the play-in games.

Who knows what tournament success or failure lies ahead but that is what makes this time of year so awesome. Even when my team loses, there is always a local team, an underdog or the year’s “Cinderella” that grasps the country’s attention and makes it hard to root against them. Since we are in Cincinnati, many of our folks live in Kentucky and the Wildcats prove their wide reach among many of our Ohio based people as well. It makes the office banter and challenges and trash talk more interesting when pitting the hopes of a small “bubble” team up against a behemoth like Kentucky. We would be remiss not to mention the other behemoth with a huge fan base in this neck of the woods, Ohio State. We cannot forget our loyal base of University of Cincinnati Bearcats, who have provided us with some stellar employees, though not much of a basketball team this year (I’m a Xavier fan, remember?). And with the late breaking news from last night’s winning Dayton Flyer team, we have some solid regional representation in the tourney year.

Wow, now that I think about it, we’ll be lucky to survive the next few weeks without a bit of office bloodshed. At the very least, a small skirmish is certain to happen ;-).

Here at EXAIR we have a great team too! From the production team all the way up to management, we understand that we need to remain focused on our main goal – to satisfy YOU, our customer! We are always striving to get better by developing new products, testing existing products or maintaining near perfect (99.9%) on-time shipments.

To put our team to work for you, give us a call!

And to all who may be distracted throughout these next four days – Good luck to your team as well!

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
 @EXAIR_JN

 

Basketball hoop image courtesy of Steve Johnson. Creative Commons License

Basketball Madness

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Basketball is dominating conversations around the water cooler, TV programming is being preempted by playoffs, and office pools are circulating around. Lest we forget, we still have work to do.

For the month of a March EXAIR is offering some promotions to help you get that work done. Featured this month are our industrial vacuums; Reversible Drum Vac , Chip Trapper, Chip Vac, and Heavy Duty Dry Vac. With the purchase of any of these products you will receive a free Vac U Gun which is a popular hand held vacuum.

Also since we are not out of the static electricity season yet, the promotion on static eliminators has been extended to March 31.  With the purchase of a static eliminator you will receive a free AC sensor.

In addition to the promos, EXAIR has published a new catalog featuring a host of new products that will help you more effectively and efficiently use compressed air.

If you need more than the data offered in the catalog, EXAIR has a staff of engineers that will answer all your technical questions. None of whom are currently leading our office basketball pool. Just let ’em help you with compressed air stuff, I wouldn’t trust them with picking your brackets.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer

Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax   (513) 671-3363
Web: http://www.exair.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

The Professor’s Take on Basketball Madness

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

Here is the professor explaining the madness of March as only he can. Sometimes I wonder about this guy but then he breaks out the COOLEST Starsky and Hutch t-shirt and I know he’s A-OK. Anyway, he seems to think the madness of March has to do with saving compressed air but we staightened him out, so now he’s talking about basketball…

Enjoy,
Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com