Tag: cleanup

More And More Award Winning Products From EXAIR

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

As you might expect, a LOT of things have changed at EXAIR Corporation since 1983. Most of our current senior management had yet to graduate high school, and a fair number of current employees had yet to BE BORN. According to our computer system (another BIG change since 1983), our first ten customers were here in southwest Ohio (#11 was in Michigan), and now, we sell direct across the US & Canada, and our worldwide distributor network offers representation on six continents. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is our founder’s vision of manufacturing quiet, safe, & efficient compressed air products for process improvement in just about any industry that uses compressed air. And THAT, dear reader, continues to gain high profile attention. The photo above shows the seven awards that our products have recently won, which were announced in 2021 or early 2022. Here’s a rundown:

Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Fluid Handling) GOLD AWARD:
1/2 NPT No Drip External Mix Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles

No Drip External Mix Atomizing Spray Nozzles

The 1/2 NPT models are the latest addition to our newest product line. The External Mix version offers the highest liquid flow rate, and largest pattern coverage. Among the applications where they’ve excelled so far are:

  • Snack food provider – applying flavoring to bulk snack materials.
  • Commercial bakery – spraying cooking oil onto pans used in a conveyor oven.
  • Sporting goods manufacturer – applying adhesive to the tops of skateboard decks to glue the grip tape on.

Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Material Handling Systems) GOLD AWARD:
2-1/2 NPT 303SS Threaded Line Vac™

EXAIR's Threaded Line Vac Family
EXAIR Threaded Line Vac + Your Pipe + Compressed Air = Instant Conveyor System

For bulk material conveyance, it really doesn’t get any simpler than EXAIR Air Operated Conveyors. Stainless Steel models are especially popular when the environment – or the product – is corrosive, or hot…they’re good to 400F (204C), and can even be modified with High Temperature components for exposure up to 900F (482C). The Threaded versions have been successfully used to:

  • Recycle sprinkles applied to wafers into a return hopper in a candy production facility.
  • Replacing an auger conveyor to allow for homogenous mixing of grains & supplements in feed stock at an agricultural mill.
  • Providing a low cost solution to convey product into a hopper at a grain processing plant.

Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Maintenance Tools & Equipment) SILVER AWARD
Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Industrial Hygiene-Dust Control) WINNER
Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Health & Safety/Cleanup) PLATINUM
EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac

Like our Spray Nozzles product line, our Industrial Housekeeping Products line has also grown considerably over the years. The Deep Hole Vac-u-Gun and Heavy Duty HEPA Vac were real game changers when they came along, and the EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac Systems are likewise making an impact. Switching from wet to dry operation is, as advertised in the name itself, INCREDIBLY easy. Among our satisfied customers are:

Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Lab Safety) WINNER
Intellistat® Ion Air Gun™

The newest innovation in a long line of EXAIR static elimination solutions, the Model 8500 Intellistat® Ion Air Gun is made for laboratories, clean rooms, medical & electronic applications, and carries an ISO 14644-1 Class 5 rating for clean room use. Because of their rapid decay rates and lightweight construction, they’re used in a diverse range of applications and areas, including:

  • A supplier of fiberoptic parts uses an Intellistat® to remove dust and static charge from product prior to packaging.
  • A medical device manufacturer has one in a Class 7 clean room for silicone parts cleanliness.
  • A nutritional supplements maker uses their Intellistat® to remove static charge & powder residue from the tops of plastic bags before sealing them. The excess/residual powder causes them not to seal correctly.

Machine Design 2021 Big Idea! (Electrical Components) BRONZE AWARD
Gen4® Static Eliminator Power Supply

All EXAIR Gen4 Static Eliminators use one of two Power Supplies – your choice of the 2-port Model 7960, or the 4-port Model 7961.

EXAIR Static Eliminators produce ionized air via a Corona discharge, which requires high voltage, low current electricity. The Gen4® Static Eliminator Products feature armored & shielded cables with an internal ground, for safety and reliability. The ground path is completed through the cable and the Power Supply port, eliminating the need for an external ground connection. Faults in external ground connections result in the majority of the problems with those devices, so the internal ground is a “Big Idea!” indeed. The Gen4® Static Eliminator Power Supplies are switchable for 115VAC or 230VAC voltages, and are offered in 2, or 4 outlet designs, which can power any 2, or 4 EXAIR Static Eliminator Products. Like most EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products, they’re used for a wide range of applications, in a wide range of industries:

If you’d like to find out more about these, or any of our other engineered compressed air products (we’re pretty proud of them all), give me a call. I can talk about them all day long…and sometimes I do!

Russ Bowman, CCASS

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

Wet-Dry Vacuum Converts Without Tools in 15 Seconds or Less!

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

In a recent video, I showcased our newest Industrial Housekeeping product, the EasySwitch Wet-Dry Vac. Throughout my years in metalworking as well as homeownership, I have honestly never used a wet-dry vacuum that is this easy to change operating modes from wet to dry or vice versa. So just how easy is it?

EasySwitch Wet-Dry Vac Mode Change Instructions

When writing out instructions on how to do this it takes a total of five steps for either direction. These five steps can easily be completed in less than 15 seconds and best of all, it is tool-free.

When changing over other wet/dry vacuums, whether it is a traditional electric vacuum like you may have at home or another pneumatic industrial vacuum on the market, the switchover process is cumbersome. There are typically fasteners or retainers that are necessary to hold the filters in place, filters can be poor quality and get damaged easily.  Small parts needed to hold filters in place like springs or retainer nuts can easily be lost, hard to manipulate and take additional time changing from liquid to dry modes or vice-versa. With the EasySwitch, the only fastener is a rubber latch that is attached to the filter hatch cover. This means operators can’t lose parts because they are all attached to the EasySwitch Lid. To convert from a dry vacuum to a wet vacuum the steps are simple.

  1. Turn off the compressed air and unlatch the rubber handle. This makes it possible to complete step two.
  2. Lift the filter hatch lid and let it rest on the hinge stop. This is all designed to be robust enough to easily support the weight of the EasySwitch unit as well as the air hose attached to it.
  3. Lift the filter, whether it is the HEPA rated filter or the standard filter, up and out of the lid.
  4. Close the filter hatch lid onto the edge gasket that stays firmly in place.
  5.  Latch the rubber handle/latch back into place and start processing liquid as needed.

That’s it, it takes less than 15 seconds in the video below (see it at 1:15) and I am pretty sure a speedcuber or cup stacker could do it even faster. Don’t believe me, want to test it out for yourself, we honor a 30-day guarantee on stock products. Get the EasySwitch Wet-Dry Vac in your facility and put it through your own rigorous testing. If it doesn’t perform to your liking, let us know and we will arrange for sending it back. Converting the vacuum from dry to wet isn’t the only thing that is fast, we also ship same day on orders for stock products (hint: all EasySwitch vacuums are stock product) received by 3 PM ET that are shipping within the US. (2 PM ET for orders billing and shipping to Canada.)

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Doughnuts vs Donuts – Better Quality Thanks To A Super Air Knife

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

The two words, doughnut, and donut are synonymous with each other.  In research, the spelling donut is another Americanized word that didn’t catch on until the late 20th century. Either way, there are still multiple types of doughnuts. One of my favorites is shown below by one of the best donut manufacturers, NASCAR.

Maybe you are a little riskier and like some donuts that have a little less horsepower and a little more spice to them. Something like a ghost pepper doughnut that has a combination of spicy and sweet flavoring to satisfy your morning cravings for food. If so, you may be interested to know that an EXAIR Super Air Knife could have helped in the manufacturing process.

Animation Dreaming GIF by Matthew Butler - Find & Share on GIPHY

A regional bakery has opened up production and after months of determining their recipe and icing selection, they still needed some help on getting the glazing level correct on the finished doughnuts. The baked goodness would travel under a waterfall of glazing and several variables would lead to the amount of glazing that would build up/ remain on the doughnut. After testing these variables out the customer still wanted a better coating so they called EXAIR.

30″ 316 Stainless Steel Super Air Knife removing surplus glaze from doughnuts

The solution, a 30″ 316 Stainless Steel Super Air Knife to mount over the conveyor and blow down the surplus glazing into the catch pan for recirculation.  The variability in force from a gentle breeze up to a forceful, glaze stripping blast, was exactly what the baker ordered.  This setup has been in practice for months now and nothing but positive results have been tasted, I mean seen.

If you would like to discuss any point of use compressed air application, please contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

1 – One Minute of Donuts with Joey Logano, Pennzoil, Jul 30, 2015 – Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFqjbmsUdIM&feature=emb_logo

2 – Donuts TV -Matthew Butler – retrieved from – https://giphy.com/gifs/animation-sweet-3oKIPCBcZs82sv9nsQ

Super Blast Safety Air Gun Improves Cleanup Process

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I had the pleasure of helping a caller out with a cleanup problem not long ago.  Normally, calls involving cleanups involve a discussion of how our Industrial Housekeeping Products might replace an electric shop vacuum or sump pump, but this one was about replacing a broom…with a Super Blast Safety Air Gun.

Now, I need to mention that the folks at Compressed Air Challenge have a list of Inappropriate Uses Of Compressed Air.  Using compressed air for cleaning is on that list, and I couldn’t agree more…as a blanket statement, that is.  Of course, the last paragraph of their document makes it clear that good judgement can, and should, always rule the day: “if safety enhancements, significant productivity gains, or labor reductions will result,” they say, a compressed air solution is certainly worth considering.

That’s exactly what the caller and I did.

See, he works in an equipment service shop.  Their technicians make the company money through billable labor – the time they spend fixing their customers’ equipment.  Of course, they have to spend time on tasks that aren’t billable to jobs…like tool maintenance, paperwork, and keeping a clean shop.  A particular item from a shop audit that caught his attention was the amount of time spent sweeping the floor in the welding area.  Not only did slag & dust get all over the floor out in the open, it accumulated under tables and behind the welding machines themselves.  This meant that technicians had to get down on their hands & knees, and reach brooms under those tables.  Not only was this cumbersome; it wasn’t even 100% effective…when replacing a machine recently, they discovered a surprising amount of debris in a “blind spot” that the broom just couldn’t reach.

After a discussion of the engineered Super Air Nozzles that are available on the Super Blast Safety Air Guns, the caller liked the idea of the Model 1213-7-3.  The hard hitting, tight air flow pattern of the Super Air Nozzle Cluster at the end of a 3 foot extension gave the perfect combination of power & reach for his application.

Super Blast Safety Air Gun makes short work of large area cleanup.

So, at the end of the day, (literally…that’s cleanup time, right?) a task that previously took about 10 minutes for them was reduced to just under two minutes.  Of course, that doesn’t figure in the cost of the compressed air.  The Department of Energy uses a thumbrule that states it costs $0.25 to generate 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet of compressed air.  At 98 SCFM @80psig, the Super Blast Safety Air Gun’s Cluster DOES use a decent amount of compressed air, so we did the math:

98 SCFM X 2 minutes X $0.25/1,000 SCF =   $0.049

We didn’t need to get in to payroll records, employee benefit packages, etc., to realize that an 80% reduction in labor, improved cleanup (air reaches where the brooms couldn’t,) and worker satisfaction (no more crawling along the floor beside the tables) was worth a nickel a day.

The Super Blast Safety Air Gun can be fitted with a variety of Super Air Nozzles, from our Model 1112 3/4 NPT Super Air Nozzle (4.5lbf at 12″) , to our Model 1120 1-1/4 NPT Super Air Nozzle (23lbf at 12″).

As an Application Engineer, I’m always looking for the best ways to apply our products, and quantify the benefits.  If you call me to discuss an application and the math doesn’t prove it out, I’ll let you know.  If you have a task you’re considering a compressed air solution for, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter
Like us on Facebook