Tag: dental

Atto Air Nozzle Saves Dental Crown Manufacturer

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

This blog may get a little uncomfortable for some of us. It revolves around a subject that can strike fear into the hearts of many and just the thought of it can make sounds or smells come back from memory. For me, the sound of the high-pitched drill is precisely what comes to mind when I think of the Dentist….

That’s right, today we are talking about the Dentist. Well, more so a vendor for dentists that still deals with teeth. This manufacturer came to me looking for a way to improve their compressed air consumption on a tooling blowoff for the machining of dental crowns. They used custom-made blowoffs to try and remove the residual material on their cutting tools before contacting a new part and during the machining of a crown. The customer didn’t have a ton of room, and they did not want to redesign the entire blowoff. The blowoff was essentially an open pipe that had a .085″ diameter. Each machine station had three blowoffs, there are 20 machining stations per production line, with five total production lines. So any savings will add up quickly over 300 blowoff points.

BEFORE: A .085″ diameter open blowoff at each spindle to remove debris.

They were able to cut back and thread the end of the open blowoff for one of our 1108SS Atto Super Air Nozzles. The open blowoff was consuming 6 SCFM when operating at 80 psig inlet pressure for each blowoff point. For a single machining center that equates to 18 SCFM per center. 18 SCFM times 20 machining centers equals 360 SCFM of consumption per production line. Implementing the 1108SS reduced the consumption to 2.5 SCFM @ 80 psig per nozzle and gave a more defined blowoff pattern. 2.5 SCFM times 3 nozzles per center equates to 7.5 SCFM. 7.5 SCFM times 20 machining centers per production line totals 165 SCFM per production line. 360 SCFM minus 165 SCFM equates to 195 SCFM of compressed air savings by installing the further engineered solution.

AFTER: Three 1108SS Atto Super Air Nozzles provide adequate blowoff of debris.

Per nozzle, they can save up 72 cents per twelve-hour shift. While this does not seem like much, multiply that across 300 nozzles installed. You end up with $216.00 saved per twelve-hour shift. Some other breakdowns are shown below.

If you would like to discuss just how much a “little” open pipe blowoff is costing you, contact an Application Engineer today!

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

High-Power Stainless Steel Line Vacs for Dental Work

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

A manufacturing plant had machines that would process ceramic 6mm beads into blanks for machining small components in the dental industry.  Ceramic can be used in items like braces, crowns, root implants, and bridges.  From the blanks above, they milled crowns and bridges in specific designs to fit in the patient’s mouth.  In their current process, they used a belt conveyor that would move the ceramic beads into a hopper above the sintering machines.  They had a failure with their conveyor, and they had to shut down the machines. 

They contacted the conveyor manufacturer for assistance.  Because of the complexity of conveying systems, as compared to EXAIR Line Vacs, they needed time to evaluate.  They had to determine if it was the motor, the belt, the gear box, pulley bearings, or electrical system.  Depending on which item that failed, there was a possibility that it would not be in stock or would have to be sent off-site for repair.  With this amount of downtime, it would cost the company money and delays in shipments.  Being that they were under pressure to meet deadlines, they contacted EXAIR to see if we could help. 

Air Operated Conveyor

In discussing their layout, the hopper was 10 feet (3 meters) away from the supply container, and the opening of the hopper was 10 feet (3 meters) above the floor.  These lengths were well within the limits of the EXAIR Line Vacs.  The bulk density was 70 lbs./ft3 (1,140 Kg/M3), and they needed 316SS since the equipment was used for medical devices.   I suggested the model 6964-316 2” 316SS Line Vac Kit.  At those distances, I mentioned that we could move roughly 10 lbs./min. (275 Kg/hr.) of ceramic beads at 80 PSIG (5.5 Bar) air pressure.  They wondered if we could get a bit more power from our Line Vacs.  This we can do!!!  EXAIR can modify our Line Vacs to fit into different applications.  We can modify the inlet and outlet connections from a smooth connect for hose to a threaded connection for pipe, or vice versa.  We can also modify the generator for our Stainless Steel Line Vacs to increase the capacity.  This would be our “HP” (for High Power) prefix.  I then recommended the model HP6964-316 High-Power 316SS Line Vac Kit.   This model has a conveyance rate near 13.3 lbs./min. (362 Kg/hr.) at 80 PSIG (5.5 bar) air pressure.  This was perfect for their operation.  With the different hopper volumes, they could adjust the inlet air pressure to increase or decrease the conveyance rates. 

The next question they asked was, how fast can we get them a special unit?   EXAIR stocks every cataloged model number for same-day shipping with orders placed before 2 p.m. EST.  For the “HP” special, we were able to ship the next day to get their operation running.  They did mention to me afterwards that they wished they knew about the EXAIR Line Vacs before they purchased the conveyor system.  Since the Line Vacs do not have any moving parts or motors to wear, they would have years of non-maintenance operations.      

If your company relies on conveying systems to move product, you may want to have an EXAIR Line Vac on-hand just in case of an emergency.  When things go wrong, you do not want to be down any longer than needed.  If you need help in sizing the correct Line Vac for 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

Photo: Tooth Replacement by dental-inno.  Pixabay License.