Tag: cycle time

Compressed Air Pipe

How to Handle High-Demand Events with Compressed Air Systems

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

When production ramps up, deadlines tighten, or seasonal demand spikes, your compressed air system becomes one of the most heavily relied-on utilities in your facility. High-demand events, whether planned or unexpected, can create inefficiencies, consume excessive energy, and create bottlenecks across your entire operation.

The good news? With the right forethought and the right equipment, you can maintain performance, protect uptime, and even reduce operating costs during these peak loads. EXAIR’s engineered compressed air products are specifically designed to help manufacturers meet high-demand challenges without compromising efficiency or output.

Start with System Efficiency: Reduce Air Consumption at the Point of Use

During a high-demand event, every SCFM counts. One of the fastest, most cost-effective ways to free up capacity is to replace outdated, inefficient blowoff methods. Open pipes, drilled holes, and homemade nozzles waste tremendous amounts of compressed air and can violate OSHA safety standards. EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles, Safety Air Guns, and Super Air Knives are engineered to:

  • Reduce air consumption
  • Maintain or increase blowoff force
  • Operate safely under OSHA dead-end pressure limits
  • Lower overall system load, freeing capacity for critical processes

By upgrading just a few high-usage blowoff points, facilities often recover enough compressed air to handle peak demand without purchasing additional equipment.

Engineered solutions (like EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products) are the efficient, quiet, and safe choice.

Stabilize System Pressure During Peak Use

Pressure drops become more common when demand spikes. That decline leads to reduced quality, slower cycle times, and even unplanned downtime. EXAIR products are engineered to deliver more output force with less compressed air. For example:

  • Super Air Amplifiers entrain up to 25 parts room air for every 1 part of compressed air, multiplying output while drastically reducing consumption.
  • Super Air Knives produce a laminar, high-velocity sheet of air—even at lower pressures—helping extend system stability during peak loads.

These technologies lighten the load on your compressor while maintaining performance at the point of use.

Add Extra Compressed Air Storage to Handle Peak Demand

One of the most overlooked strategies in high-demand planning is preloading your system with stored compressed air. Storage acts as a buffer, preventing pressure drops and reducing the load on your compressor during short, intense spikes.

  • Provides supplemental airflow during short bursts of high demand
  • Reduces compressor cycling, improving efficiency and equipment life
  • Helps maintain system pressure and air quality
  • Offers a cost-effective alternative to purchasing an additional compressor

How to Integrate Storage Into Your Strategy

  • Add receiver tanks downstream near high-consumption equipment
  • Use strategic storage at point-of-use
  • Pair storage with efficient EXAIR blowoff, cooling, or conveying products to reduce total system demand.

Pro tip: If your system is already stretched thin, combining extra storage with EXAIR air-saving solutions often eliminates the need for new compressors entirely.

High Demand Doesn’t Have to Mean High Stress

High-demand events are inevitable in manufacturing—but system strain, energy waste, and reduced performance don’t have to be. By optimizing efficiency, stabilizing pressure, preparing with modular tools, and using engineered products, your facility can handle peak demand confidently and cost-effectively.

EXAIR products are purpose-built for these challenges, offering efficient, OSHA-compliant, high-performance solutions that help your compressed air system keep up with whatever you throw at it.

If you’d like to help identify opportunities in your facility, explore EXAIR’s full line of compressed air-saving products. Or reach out to a Application engineer at techelp@exair.com.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer

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Secondary Receiver Tanks: Preparing for High-Demand Events.

Published on by John BallLeave a comment
Use intermediate storage near the point of use.

Secondary receiver tanks can be strategically placed throughout the plant to improve the “ebbs and flows” of pneumatic demands.  The primary receiver tanks help to protect the supply side when demands are high, and the secondary receiver tanks help pneumatic systems on the demand side.  The purpose of secondary air storage is for dedicated end-use systems or for additional capacity at the end of distribution lines.  Essentially, it is easier and more efficient for compressed air to travel from a nearby source rather than traveling through long lengths of pipe.  With any high-demand use equipment, it is beneficial to have additional storage installed nearby within the compressed air system.

For comparison, I would like to relate a pneumatic system to an electrical system.  The receiver tanks would be like capacitors.  They store pressurized air like a capacitor stores energy from an electrical source.  If you have ever seen an electrical circuit board, you will notice many capacitors of different sizes throughout the circuit board.  The reason for this is to have a ready source of energy to increase efficiency and speeds with the ebbs and flows of electrical signals.  The same can be said for a pneumatic system with secondary receiver tanks.

To cover a current application, I had a customer that was looking at a model 1122108; 108” (2,743mm) Gen4 Super Ion Air Knife Kit.  The application was to remove static and debris from insulated panels for large refrigerated trailers.  They were worried about how much compressed air it would use, and they were considering a blower-type system.  I went through the negative aspects of blower-type systems, like loud noise levels, capital expense, high maintenance cost, large footprint, and ineffectiveness with turbulent air flows.  But, when you are limited to the amount of compressed air, it may seem difficult to get the best product for your application.  Looking at it another way, I asked him if the process was intermittent; and it was.  The cycle rate was 2 minutes on and 10 minutes off.  I was able to recommend a secondary tank to help ease the high demand for their compressed air system.

To calculate the volume size of your secondary receiver tank, we can use Equation 1 below.  It is the same for sizing a primary receiver tank, but the scalars are slightly different.  The supply line to this tank will typically come from a header pipe that supplies the entire facility.  Generally, it is smaller in diameter, so we have to look at the air supply that it can feed into the tank.  For example, a 1” NPT Schedule 40 pipe at 100 PSIG (7 bar) can supply a maximum of 150 SCFM (255 M3/hr) of air flow.  This value is used for Cap below.  The C value is the largest air demand for the machine or equipment that will be using the tank.  If the C value is less than the Cap value, then a secondary tank is not needed.  If the Cap is below the C value, then we can calculate the smallest tank volume that would be needed.  The other value in the equation is the minimum tank pressure.  In most cases, a regulator is used to set the air pressure for the machine or area.  If the specification is 80 PSIG (5.5 bar), then you would use this value as P2.  P1 is the header pressure that will be coming into the secondary tank.  With this collection of information, you can use Equation 1 to calculate the minimum tank volume. 

Equation 1:

V = T * (C – Cap) * (Pa) / (P1-P2)

Where:

V – Volume of receiver tank – Imperial (ft3) or SI (M3)

T – Time interval (minutes)

C – Air demand for system – Imperial (SCFM) or SI (M3/min)

Cap – Supply value of inlet pipe – Imperial (SCFM) or SI (M3/min)

Pa – Absolute atmospheric pressure – Imperial (PSIA) or SI (Bar)

P1 – Header Pressure – Imperial (PSIG) or SI (Bar)

P2 – Regulated Pressure – Imperial (PSIG) or SI (Bar)

In many cases, you can also lengthen the time to refill the secondary receiver by restricting the refill rate with a valve, so that it is more of a constant, but much lower draw on the compressor system. This technique also helps to diminish the impact of the large-use items attached to a customer’s system.

For the customer above, I am still getting more details about their system before we finalize on a solution.  But the important point in utilizing this concept is that we went from a “we don’t have enough compressed air” to a “we can use a better solution with the Super Ion Air Knife” and here’s how.

If you find that your compressed air system needs a boost for your pneumatic process, we may be able to recommend a secondary receiver tank for your system.  EXAIR does offer 60-gallon tanks, model 9500-60, to add to those specific areas.  If you have any questions about using a receiver tank in your application, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.  We will be happy to help. 

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

EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products Are Automation’s Best Friend

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

For decades, children and adults (really cool ones, anyway) have enjoyed the popular board game, Mouse Trap:

The fun of the game is that it exaggerates the notion of providing an overly complicated solution to a simple problem – a notion made famous by Rube Goldberg, whose namesake machines are as thought-provoking as they are entertaining to watch.

As fun as Rube Goldberg machines are, there are actually ways to engineer something “just enough” – that’s what automation engineers strive to do every day; and EXAIR is here to help.

Probably the most popular feature, for automated applications, of engineered compressed air products is instantaneous performance.  For example:

  • When an electric motor-powered blower is used for a blow off, cooling, or drying application, there’s going to be a “ramp-up” period to reach full rated flow.  Not so with an EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Product, like a Super Air Wipe, Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, Super Air Amplifier, etc.  They are generating their rated flow as fast as you can open the supply valve.

    EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products such as (left to right) the Super Air Wipe, Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, and Super Air Amplifier provide instant on/off performance, at rated levels.
  • Likewise, vacuum pumps necessarily take some time to develop their rated vacuum level.  But the venturi in an EXAIR E-Vac Vacuum Generator draws its full rated vacuum flow as soon as the compressed air is turned on.  The peak vacuum level is achieved in the amount of time it takes to pull the air out of the lines or vessel.

    These are all examples of how an E-Vac pick-and-place system is just a solenoid valve away from being an automated process.
  • All EXAIR Atomizing Spray Nozzles can be fitted with a No Drip feature, which allows instant on/off control, simply by opening/closing a valve in the compressed air supply line.  This is often done with a solenoid valve tied in to the machine controls, or with an EXAIR EFC, Electronic Flow Control (more on that in a minute.)  They can handle up to 180 cycles per minute, for quick bursts of atomized mist, on demand.  No other method of liquid flow control can match that kind of performance.

    Fine mist liquid spray, on demand, from an EXAIR No Drip Atomizing Spray Nozzle.
  • EXAIR Spot Cooling Products, Cold Guns, and Cabinet Cooler Systems all use Vortex Tube technology.  This “splits” a supply of compressed air into a hot, and cold air flow.  Unlike refrigerant, chilled water, or cryogenic gas methods, they don’t rely on conduction or convection heat transfer between materials, so cold (and hot) air is produced, at rated flow and temperature, instantly.  They, too, can be turned on & off as often as needed…there are no moving parts to wear or damage.

    The unique phenomenon of the Vortex Tube principle makes cold air instantly for as long – or short – a time as needed.

Automation projects often incorporate existing logic, controls, timers, etc. to actuate the process.  For example, if you wanted to use a Chip Vac to vacuum debris from a chop saw, you can simply wire a solenoid valve into the power switch of the saw…it’ll run while the saw runs, and stop when the saw is turned off.

EXAIR’s award winning EFC Electronic Flow is ready to go, right out of the box.

If there are no existing logic, controls, timers, etc., EXAIR has a solution for those cases too: the EFC Electronic Flow Control.  We have four models to accommodate up to 350 SCFM of compressed air flow – that’s ten feet worth of Super Air Knives.  The EFC consists of a photoelectric sensor that opens/closes a solenoid valve, based on the programming of the integral timer.  It’s a stand alone system that doesn’t require input from, nor is it affected by, any external factors.

Automation projects can get pretty intricate.  EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products are aimed at keeping their involvement as simple as possible.  If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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