compressed air supply problem

A few weeks back I chatted with a customer on an Air Knife application where they were using our 48″ aluminum Super Air Knife to remove leftover dough from a baking pan. The knife was working somewhat, but they were seeing some residual dough being left in certain areas on the pans due to what they perceived as “weak” airflow. After reading through our catalog and installation guide, they noticed that there were available shim sets that would allow them to increase the gap setting to get more force and flow out of the knife.

Available in lengths from 3″ to 108″ in aluminum, 303ss or 316ss construction

Our aluminum Super Air Knives are shipped from stock with a .002″ shim installed. The optional shim set includes a .001″, .003″ and .004″ shim that would allow you to decrease or increase the performance. By operating the Super Air Knife with the .003″ shim installed, this would increase the force and flow by 1.5 times and using the .004″ shim would double the performance. Sometimes achieving greater force and flow may be required but with the customer saying they were seeing weak airflow, it seemed there may be a restriction on the supply side.

I asked the customer how the knife was plumbed and what size supply lines he was using. He advised that they were plumbing air to all 3 inlets on the bottom of the knife but they were using 3/4″ hose with a run of about 30′. I advised the customer that plumbing air to all 3 inlets is required for a 48″ Super Air Knife but we actually recommend 3/4″ Schedule 40 Pipe up to 10′ or 1″ pipe up to 50′. If using hose, he would need to go up a size to maintain a large enough ID to carry the volume required for the unit. In his case, since the length of the supply is close to 30′, he would need to use 1-1/4″ ID hose.

Improper plumbing line size is a common issue we deal with here at EXAIR. Using undersized supply lines can cause excessive pressure drops because they aren’t able to carry the volume of air necessary to properly supply the compressed air device. In this particular application, if the customer were to install either the .003″ or .004″ shim, while keeping his current plumbing size, the performance would actually be worse as now the lines are even more undersized due to the increased air volume requirement from the larger Super Air Knife gap.

If you are looking to change the performance with one of our Air Knives or if you would like to discuss a particular application or product, please contact one of our application engineers for assistance at 800-903-9247.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

Rust from the air supply found inside a compressed a Reversible Drum Vac.

One of the greatest attributes of EXAIR products is their ability to stay in operation for years on end without any maintenance. With no moving parts to wear out, there really is little-to-no upkeep required. So, when we receive notice from a customer that an EXAIR product is not working properly, we most always seek to establish the pressure, volume, and quality of the compressed air supply. By examining these three variables, we can usually pinpoint the source of the performance discrepancy.

I had an exercise in this routine a few days ago with a Reversible Drum Vac (RDV). The RDV had arrived at EXAIR after the customer noticed a drop in performance. The RDV went from operating normally to gradually loosing strong vacuum when vacuuming liquids out of a coolant sump.

The end user and I discussed the air supply pressure, line size, and available volume of compressed air to operate the RDV which all seemed to be in order. Compressed air supply pressure was 80 PSIG, they were using the EXAIR supplied (properly sized for the product) compressed air hose, and the unit had functioned in this exact setup for some time, so we were confident in the ability of the compressed air system to supply adequate volume.

In most cases, when an RDV gradually loses vacuum, or experiences a change in performance without a change in application parameters, contaminants from the compressed air system can be found inside of the RDV. And, that is exactly what happened here.

Reversible Drum Vac “plug” – notice the rust on the everything below the O-ring (everything in contact with the compressed air supply)

I first tested the RDV for vacuum level and flow, both of which were low. When I disassembled the RDV I noticed what looked like rust on all surfaces which are in contact with the compressed air stream (photo above).

Internals of the Reversible Drum Vac “body”; littered with rust

Then, I peered into the body of the drum vac and saw the root of the problem – dirt and rust from the compressed air system had accumulated within the RDV, restricting compressed air flow and causing the decay in performance.

Rust and shim as they were dumped out of the Reversible Drum Vac body

After a quick cleaning of the RDV, performance was perfect and the RDV was ready to go back into operation. The end user and I discussed my findings along with proper air filtration to prevent a similar occurrence in the future. They were glad to know their RDV was in working order, and we were both glad to confirm the root cause. With a new filter separator installed at the compressed air line feeding this RDV, trouble-free and maintenance-free performance can be expected for a long time to come.

If you have a similar application need, or think an EXAIR solution may benefit your process, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Tag: compressed air supply problem

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