An external hard drive manufacturer was looking to increase their production rate. One process was inside a clean room where they manufactured aluminum spinning disks. This process included dipping 2 ½” (64mm) diameter disks into a cleaning solution, then taking them to an oven for drying. They noticed that this process was a bit too long. Like with most manufacturing processes, the faster you can go, the more profit you can make. They saw a blog about another similar dipping process where EXAIR provided a solution called “EXAIR Offers An Easy Way to Improve Your Metal Dipping Process”, so they contacted us.
EXAIR has many great products that can be used for non-contact wiping. For this customer, the disks are small enough to use 2” Flat Super Air Nozzles. They are very efficient as we are able to add free ambient air at a rate up to 25:1, which means that for every one part of compressed air, we can entrain 25 parts of ambient air. This makes them very efficient as they use less compressed air to generate a good force. They are also OSHA safe for dead-end pressures and noise levels. With the EXAIR Super Air Nozzles, we can generate a laminar flow to give an even force across the entire surface. So, it is easy to set the correct pressure to get an effective and consistent cleaning.
For the company above, they were using an oven to dry a large rack of disks. When it comes to drying in an oven, the less liquid that requires evaporation, the faster and more efficient the drying. So, to increase speeds in this area, the disks need to be very clean and dry after the dipping process. And since the surface of the disks has to be like glass and defect-free, the best method would be to dry them by a non-contact method. To add to this automated process, the space was limited between each disk. A robotic arm would dip six disks at one time, and they had four robotic arms, so they cleaned 24 disks at a time.
Since this was a clean room, 316 Stainless Steel was required. EXAIR stocks many types and sizes of 316 stainless steel Super Air Nozzles. For this application, I recommend the model 1122SSW. This model number combines the 2” Super Air Nozzle with a Swivel Fitting.
Swivel Fittings are a great way to securely install and aim the EXAIR nozzles. They are dynamic, as they can be adjusted and set to a flow direction with 50 degrees of movement. They are compact and made from stainless steel for corrosion resistance. With the tight space and requirement for precise blowing, the Swivel Fittings were a great addition to include with these EXAIR Air Nozzles.
After installing the Super Air Nozzles and Swivel Fittings on a manifold in their system, they started to see a vast improvement in their process. The excess drips were removed without surface issues, and they were able to decrease the heating time by 10%. As an added bonus, the Super Air Nozzles reduced the amount of solution required as the excess went back into the dipping tank. Less waste and faster production times were the solutions that the EXAIR Super Air Nozzles provided the customer above. If you have a similar application and want to discuss how we can improve your dipping process, an Application Engineer at EXAIR will be happy to assist.
John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb
Photo: Hard Drive Data Store by Christopher Muschitz. Pixabay Content License