Albert Einstein famously said, “Nothing happens until something moves.” And unless it’s in a perfect vacuum when it moves, there’s gonna be friction. Especially if it’s in contact with something else besides air. And where there’s friction, there’s heat. This pretty much applies to almost every single evolution in the manufacture of…well, just about everything.
I’m probably not telling you anything you don’t already know, but heat can be a BIG problem. It can:
- Shorten tool life. Not only do worn tools take longer to cut, they can also present safety issues. You can get hurt WAY worse by a dull blade than a sharp one.
- Cause thermal expansion. If you’re machining something to a precise tolerance, and friction heat causes it to grow, it won’t be the same size when it cools down.
- Melt plastics. And even softer metals. This isn’t good for the part…or the tool, either.
Those are just a few of the problems heat causes in manufacturing operations, and they’ve been traditionally addressed with mist (liquid) coolants. And they work just fine…most of them are water-based, and if you want to get heat out of a solid piece of something, water will do the job VERY quickly. Other additives in the coolant provide a measure of lubricity, corrosion control, emulsion prevention, etc. It’s easy, well-known, and time-tested. There are some drawbacks, however:
- It can be messy. When a part (or a tool) in motion gets sprayed down with liquid, it tends to fling that liquid all over the place. That’s why most machines fitted with mist coolant have spray shields.
- Not only is it a hassle to clean up, if you don’t stay on top of the clean-up, it can lead to slip hazards.
- Speaking of hazards, if you can smell that mist (and you know you can,) that means you’re breathing it in too. Remember the lubricants, corrosion inhibitors, emulsion preventers, etc., I mentioned above? Yeah…they’re not all what you might call “good for you.”
- Recirculation systems are common, which means the coolant sump is gathering solids, so the lines and/or spray nozzles can clog and be rendered useless.
EXAIR Cold Gun Aircoolant Systems not only address all of the above problems with heat, but eliminate all the problems associated with liquid coolant:
- They incorporate EXAIR’s Vortex Tube technology to produce a stream of cold air.
- They’re reliable. There are no moving parts; if you supply them with clean, dry air, they’ll run darn near indefinitely, maintenance free.
- They’re quick & easy. With a built-in magnet for mounting and a flexible cold air hose, you can be be blowing cold air right where you want it as quickly as you can attach an air hose and open the valve.
- Speaking of opening the valve, that’s all it takes to run a Cold Gun. They’re producing cold air at rated flow and temperature, right away. No “ramp up” time to get into operation.
- They’re clean. That cold air stream just becomes…well, air. No mess. No slip. No clean up. No smell. No problem.
We’ve got four Models to choose from, depending on the nature of the application:
If you need to cool parts or tools down, and want it to be effective and clean, give me a call.
Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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