Tag: construction

Compressed Air Use in the Construction Industry

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

My drive to work involves passing through a growing neighborhood in the northeast suburbs of Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen a wooded lot get cleared & graded for construction of a new house. A week or so ago, heavy earth-moving equipment was digging the basement foundation…and adding to the traffic as huge dump trucks carried the dirt away. Fast-forward to this morning, when I saw that the 2×4 framing of the walls and the placement of the roof joists were almost complete. The backhoes and dump trucks on the lot have been replaced by a small fleet of carpenter’s work trucks, a ‘porta-potty’ (a real plus, considering the number of workers spending 8–10 hours a day on a site that was the utility equivalent of a primitive campsite)…and an air compressor.

Compressed air has been used in construction since ancient times, when manually operated bellows devices were used to stoke fires to increase the temperature inside furnaces that were used to make metal tools and building materials. The first large scale industrial use of compressed air on a construction project was the building of the Mt. Cenis tunnel in Switzerland. Tunnel construction began in 1857 and was expected to take at least 25 years, with some estimates projecting a timeline of over 70 years. However, technical innovations – like the development of pneumatic drills that replaced steam-operated machinery – allowed them to complete it in only 14 years.

In addition to the pneumatic nail guns and impact drivers being used at the new home site along my daily commute, compressed air has a number of other uses in the construction trades. It’s used for excavation, to power de-watering & sludge pumps, hoists, and even material conveyors. For example, a contractor that was building a large fence on sandy terrain used a Model 150200 2″ Heavy Duty Line Vac to remove sand from the hollow fence posts after using hammer drills (which are also air operated, so you know) to anchor them in place. Another user got a Model 151250 2-1/2 NPT Threaded Heavy Duty Line Vac to remove light dirt & sand from holes they dig to set posts in. Both power their Line Vacs with diesel-fueled 185 CFM tow-behind compressors.

Heavy Duty Line Vac: Hardened Alloy Construction and High Performance

EXAIR Air Knives are also used by construction companies. One of our customers bought a Model 110218 18″ Aluminum Super Air Knife Kit to blow an air curtain onto a conveyor to separate filter fabric out of recycled asphalt. Many lumber & building material manufacturers use them to blow off sawdust and loose debris from plywood, OSB board, roofing shingles, etc.

Top: 108″ Super Air Knife is supported & aimed via an array of Model 9060 Universal Air Knife Mounting Systems.
Bottom: Mounting Systems can be ‘overkill’ for some smaller applications, especially when the user is creative. Yes, that’s a door hinge. No, it wasn’t my idea, but I kind of wish it was.

Another customer uses a Model 6901 Spill Recovery Kit with their Model 6395 55 Gallon Premium High Lift Reversible Drum Vac System for cleaning up spills of hydraulic oil from their equipment at construction job sites. The ability to vacuum it up without dragging an electric cord from a shop vac through the puddles of oil is a real plus for them.

The EXAIR Reversible Drum Vac System converts a drum and dolly into a mobile pumping system.

And back to the Line Vacs, an electrical contractor uses a Model 6086 3″ Aluminum Line Vac to pull wire through stretches of underground conduit that are too long for standard fish tapes. They can pull the fish line through 120 feet of conduit in about 30 seconds. The Line Vac also removes any debris that might have accumulated inside the conduit between installation and wire pulling.

If you’re in the construction industry – or any industry, really – and would like to discuss a potential application for engineered compressed air products, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

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

EXAIR Products in Construction Industry: Super Air Knife Helps Steel Door Drying

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

A manufacturer of both residential and commercial steel doors used in the construction industry recently contacted me for help with an application in their manufacturing process. They make a wide variety of exterior and interior doors as well as some custom doors that are sold to builders across the country.

foyer-902404_1920

The raw material for the doors is formed, assembled, and welded together before it is then taken to a finishing step that involves grinding down the welds and sanding any rough spots on the door down to a smooth finish. This smooth finish creates a clean look and also helps with the application of paint at the end of the process.

After finishing, the doors are hung on an overhead conveyor where they pass through a machine that cleans off all of the surfaces and remain hanging until they dry. This air drying prevented them from continuously operating as they’d have to wait at least 10 minutes until the doors dried before they could apply any paint. In the summer, humid conditions in their plant further increased the time the doors took to air dry.

110048PKI
Super Air Knife w/ Plumbing Kit Installed

Rather than waiting to dry, they wanted to blow off any remaining water from both sides of the door just after the washing operation. The solution was to install (2) Model 110048PKI Super Air Knives on either side of the door to blow off residual water as it moved along the conveyor. Since the spacing in between doors was 12’, they didn’t want to have to operate the knives continuously and waste unnecessary compressed air.

With the doors traveling slowly at about 30 ft/min and a significant space in between them, they also went with a Model 9064 Electronic Flow Controller to keep the air on only when necessary. A standard door height is just under 7′. At the speed they were traveling, it would take roughly 14 seconds for each door to pass through the flow of the knives while 24 seconds pass with no door.

With a minimum 10 minute dry time without the Super Air Knives, the overall drying time was reduced to 38 seconds. That’s a 93.6% improvement in the overall time of their drying process! By improving the drying process, they were able to increase their production to 100 doors per 8-hr shift.

(2) 48″ Super Air Knives operating continuously at 80 PSIG would require 278.4 SCFM of compressed air. The average cost of compressed air is $0.25/1000 SCF. So what did this cost when operating continuously with a 38 second blowoff time?

0.633 min x 278.4 SCFM = 176 SCF/door

176 SCF x 100 doors per shift = 17,600 SCF

17600 SCF x ($0.25/ 1000 SCF) = $4.40/ 8 hr shift

Over the course of a year that equates to $1,144 in operating costs. With the EFC implemented, the blowoff time was reduced to just 14 seconds per door.

0.233 min x 278.4 SCFM = 65 SCF/door

65 SCF x 100 doors per shift = 6500 SCF

6500 SCF x ($0.25/1000 SCF) = $1.63/ 8 hr shift

Not only were they able to increase their production rate by implementing the Super Air Knife, but by taking it one step further with the EFC they reduced the overall operating costs for a full year to just $423.80.

efc_heroi

If you have a similar application in the construction industry and would like to speak to an Application Engineer please give us a call!

Tyler Daniel
EXAIR Corporation
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Door photo courtesy of ErikaWittlieb via Pixabay

Compressed Air Use in the Construction Industry

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

EXAIR uses many different methods to connect with our customers.  We have our website, social media, blogs, publications etc. We like to share solutions for some of the most common pneumatic problems in the industry.  EXAIR generated a large collection of application information where EXAIR products have solved problems and improved processes.  We organized them by Application and by Industry.  In this blog, I will show you how to use the Application database; specifically, for the Construction Industry.

Compressed Air Systems are considered to be a fourth utility within industries because they use a large amount of energy.  Whether it is an air compressor using fuel for portable units or electricity, it is important to use the compressed air as efficiently as possible.  This would apply to the construction industry.  From blowing off sheets of lumber to cleaning sites with an EXAIR Industrial Vacuum to cooling hot melt on window frames, EXAIR has a library of different processes in which we already accomplished these improvements.  We like to use the expression, “Why re-invent the wheel” at EXAIR.  If you are in the construction industry, it would benefit you to take a peek at the implementations where we already improved, made safe, and saved money.

Here is how you can find this library.  First, you will have to sign into EXAIR.  Click here: Log In.  Once you fill in the proper information, you can then retrieve a great amount of resources about EXAIR products that we manufacture.   The Application Database is under the Knowledge Base tab.  (Reference photo below).

At the Application Search Library, we have over one thousand applications that we reference.  In the left selection pane, we organized then in alphabetical order under two categories, Applications and Industry.   (Reference photo below).

Scroll down in the selection pane until you come to the sub-category: Industry.  Under this Sub-category, you will find three selections that are related to this blog: Construction; Construction and Mining Equipment; and Construction, Lumber.  You will find many applications that EXAIR has already improved and documented.

Why is this important?  If you are a plant manager or owner, the value of the Application Database can improve your current processes with pre-qualified results.  Within the construction industry, simple solutions can be found to address those “nagging” issues that you encounter every day.  For crisis situations and shutdowns, EXAIR categorized these applications in a way to reference quickly and easily.  And since EXAIR has a high volume of stocked items, we can get the product to you very fast; minimizing downtime.

In today’s market, companies are always looking for ways to cut cost, increase productivity, and improve safety.  EXAIR can offer engineered products to do exactly that.  With the “been there and done that” solutions already described in the Application Database; you can have confidence in finding a way in solving pneumatic issues.  If you do not sign up at www.EXAIR.com and take advantage of these offerings, you will be missing out on a great tool in optimizing your compressed air system.

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