March brings with it the first day of spring and I don’t know about you, but I am ready for some warmer temperatures! Naturally, spring is the time of year that we roll up our sleeves and do some of the deep-cleaning we’ve been putting off all winter.
Though, for any manufacturer or processor, “spring-cleaning” is a year-round affair.
Lucky for you, EXAIR has an entire line of Industrial Housekeeping Products that’ll get your shop tidied up for spring. In this blog, I’d like to dive into the Chip Vac. With its powerful suction, it’s an ideal solution for fast and efficient cleaning.
Chip Vac cleaning up a floor spill
EXAIR’s Chip Vac is a compressed air operated industrial duty vacuum designed specifically for vacuuming up chips and shavings. The powerful vacuum is suitable for use with metal, wood, or plastic chips and is designed to thread into the 2” NPT bung on standard drum lids. The Chip Vac can handle dry or wet chips from fixtures, floors and work surfaces of machining centers, lathes, saws, mills, and a variety of other industrial equipment.
Electrically powered vacuums or shop vacs are not designed to be operated in a rugged industrial environment. Filters clog, motors wear out, and you find yourself frequently replacing them. EXAIR’s Chip Vac has NO moving parts to wear out, doesn’t require maintenance, and needs nothing but a source of compressed air to operate. In addition, the sound level produced is half of that produced by an electric vacuum.
The Chip Vac is sold in systems both with and without the drum. EXAIR has 5, 30, 55, and 110 gallon systems available for a wide range of applications. If you already have spare drums in your facility, the Chip Vac is also available with just the lid assembly, Chip Vac, 10’ hose, tools, and filter bag to attach to the top of your own drums.
All systems will include a drum lid with a locking ring that easily fits onto the top of a standard open-top drum. It’s easy to remove and place onto another drum so that different materials can be easily kept separate for recycling. Recycling companies will pay a premium price for pre-sorted chips and shavings. With the Chip Vac, it’s as easy as removing the lid and placing it onto a new drum in between jobs.
Don’t waste your time this spring fooling with and replacing electric vacuums. Get yourself a vacuum designed for the job. One that will last year after year! With these systems in stock, ready to ship with an order by 3:00 ET, an unconditional 30-day guarantee and backed up by our 5-Year Warranty, there’s no reason not to give one a try!
Free Stuff Alert!
****From now through April 30, 2024, we are offering a FREE Vac-u-Gun with any order for one of our Industrial Housekeeping Vacuum Systems. The Vac-u-Gun is a multipurpose tool that can be used to vacuum or transfer material from one location to another, or it can be used as a powerful blow gun to clean debris off of the surface of a part or workstation. There is no electricity required to operate and no moving parts to wear out, providing for a safe, maintenance-free operation.****
If you need to move liquid into – or out of – a drum, you’ve got options. There are many types of pumps with electric motors that you can hook a suction hose up to, insert it through the bung connection on the drum lid (or even take the lid off if it’s removable), and turn the pump on. They even make pumps that look like long wands with motors on top that’ll actually insert through, and thread into that bung connection.
No electricity? No problem…you can hook a suction hose to an air-operated double diaphragm pump, and it’ll work an awful lot like the aforementioned electric-motor driven pump. You can even get one of those drum pumps that fit the bung in the lid that runs on compressed air.
Thing is, those electric motors are going to burn out sooner or later. Sooner if you let them get dirty & wet; later, if you’re disciplined about taking the great pains it requires to keep them clean & well maintained. And they ALL have moving parts that’ll wear out (especially those loud and GROSSLY inefficient air motors)…nothing, it seems, lasts forever. You might come close, though, if only you had something that didn’t run on electricity and had no moving parts…
With a simple turn of the knob, the Reversible Drum Vac can fill or empty a 55 gallon drum in 90 seconds!
Dear reader, allow me to introduce you to the EXAIR Reversible Drum Vac. Instead of using a motor (electric or air) to turn a pump shaft, or using air to move diaphragms back & forth, the Reversible Drum Vac has a venturi inside that uses compressed air to pull a vacuum on the drum. With a simple turn of the knob, the compressed air supply reverses (as advertised) and lightly pressurizes the drum to empty it. The Reversible Drum Vac has a float in the bottom that keeps you from overfilling the drum (while pumping in) and a light spring poppet that keeps you from over-pressurizing the drum (while pumping out).
EXAIR Reversible Drum Vac Systems come in a variety of sizes and configurations to meet the needs of most any application.
Laboratory operators in a chemical processing facility use Model 6296-5 Deluxe Mini Reversible Drum Vac Systems to pump out the waste tanks under the lab tables. They’re then wheeled to the main reclamation tanks for safe disposal.
Many machine shops use them to pump old coolant out of sumps for disposal. Some even use them to vacuum oil out of the collection trays when cutting oil is used for the machining process.
A civil engineering firm that makes small scale models of dams & bridges uses one to de-water caissons…the watertight retaining structures that allow them to install the foundations. They can’t be used to move the thousands of gallons of water from the actual caissons, but they work well for the smaller volumes in their scale models.
Foundries and other facilities that operate sand casting molds use them to clean up water leaks & spills around the molds. The ability to pick up the sand and the water, without any wear to the system, makes them preferable to electric shop vacuums.
A meat processing facility uses one to clean up myoglobin – the reddish liquid that many folks think is blood in their medium rare steaks (it’s actually a combination of water & the protein that carries oxygen to the cells, and starts to form quickly as the meat is butchered) – so the cuts of meat are as free from it as possible prior to packaging.
The Reversible Drum Vac generates a suction head of -96″H2O when supplied with compressed air at 80psig, which is more than enough vacuum for applications like those listed above. Some applications require higher vacuum; for those, we offer the High Lift Reversible Drum Vac Systems, which generate suction head of -180″H2O. Here are some examples of those applications:
EXAIR High Lift Reversible Drum Vac Systems come in different configurations for 30, 55, or 110 gallon drums.
A maker of bottled condiments (think barbecue sauce- or ketchup-like consistency) uses them to clean up accidents when bottles are overfilled, or a conveyor malfunction results in dispensing a bottle’s worth of condiment when there’s not a bottle under the nozzle. The 20ft hose gives them the reach to service several production lines from one centrally located drum, and the two-way pumping action allows them to easily pump the drum into their waste collection system.
A precast concrete company uses one for various cleanup applications. The High Lift RDV‘s suction head is needed, in particular for their hydraulic oil leaks & spills.
A ferry operator uses one to clean out the engine room bilge. They put the High Lift RDV on a deck above the engine room…the 20ft hose extends down to the bilge to pump it out, and when the drum is full, it reaches to the main deck so the drum can be emptied into their waste recycling company’s receptacle.
A construction company uses one to clean up the slurry created during concrete cutting operations. The High Lift RDV is able to keep up with the slurry from even their largest saws, and the 20ft hose allows them to keep the drum conveniently out of the cutting area.
Whenever spring rolls around, spring-cleaning comes to mind. It’s the time of year that we are reminded, or perhaps motivated, to start cleaning and de-cluttering. We experience this here at EXAIR with an increase in inquiries about our Industrial Housekeeping Products. We have a great line of drum vacs designed for use with dry materials (Chip Vac and Heavy Duty Dry Vacs) or liquids (Reversible Drum Vacs – RDVs, and Chip Trappers), or both (EasySwitch Wet-Dry Vac). What we don’t often think about are cleaning or maintenance routines for our cleaning products.
As long as you supply our intelligent compressed air-operated products with clean, moisture-free compressed air, they can run near indefinitely with little to no maintenance. Due to the nature of the kinds of jobs drum vacs are being used in, even with the cleanest compressed air systems, there is some need for preventative maintenance to keep them working like new. In this blog I review some basic cleaning routines to keep your RDV or Chip Trapper working as new:
Ensure you are supplying enough compressed air. We recommend 80-100psig. This will consume at least 19scfm. If your supply line is too long, or too small in diameter, you will suffer line loss. This will lead to poor performance. It is also important to avoid any restrictive fittings like quick connects.
Ensure there are no vacuum leaks. A loose vacuum hose, leaky hose cuff or a loose fitting drum adapter will prevent the pump from being able to evacuate enough air from the drum. Even small hairline cracks in the drum can allow air in and cause vacuum performance to suffer. A visual inspection of these areas is a great first step. We stock all replacement parts if you need to replace a gasket, or quick connect fitting.
Ensure your compressed air supply is clean. The tight passages in the venturi chamber can become contaminated, limiting the RDVs’ ability to draw a vacuum. We recommend the use of a 5-micron automatic drain filter (EXAIR Model 9001) to prevent this. If the RDV has become dirty inside, it is relatively straight forward to clean it. This video takes you through the steps.
Ensure the safety shutoff valve float is moving freely. The plastic float provides overflow protection. It will rise when the drum is full, which will break the vacuum. If the float becomes stuck, it will impede vacuum performance. Cleaning out this chamber and the float, allowing it to move freely will ensure that RDV can function properly.
Finally, for Chip Trappers, ensuring that the directional valve is clean and clear of chips. With frequent use or when filtering out long stringy chips, the liquid flow passageways of the EXAIR Chip Trapper may become blocked with swarf. The following video walks you through cleaning this valve:
All of these steps will keep your RDV and Chip Trapper running like new. If you would like to learn more about our other Industrial Housekeeping Products, feel free to give us a call!
The other day, I heard someone say, “It’s like winter & spring are in a custody battle with us” and that describes Ohio weather in March to a “T”. But make no mistake, spring’s warm weather is coming and with it comes the quintessential ritual of spring-cleaning.
I know this to be true, because just like we tend to see upticks in Cabinet Cooler System sales in early summer (when external heat loads rise) and Static Eliminator sales in early winter (when colder temperatures decrease humidity and increase the propensity for static charge), we start getting more frequent calls in early spring about Industrial Housekeeping Products. Some are repeat customers who need additional equipment. If this is you, THANK YOU for your confidence in our products! Others want to find out which Industrial Vacuum is best suited for their applications. If THIS is you, read on.
The first step in selection is…wet or dry? Or both? If you’re going to use it for liquids sometimes, and solids vacuuming at other times, the EasySwitch Wet-Dry Vac allows for that. If you’ve ever used a shop vac to clean up your garage or workshop after cutting a bunch of wood for a project, you likely know that you can remove the filter and use it to pump out a clogged deep sink or your sump pump’s sump. The EasySwitch works just like that, but it’s easy to switch (as advertised) from wet to dry because the ‘dry vac’ filter is on a hinged plate in the lid:
Not that it’s particularly difficult to change the filter in a shop vac, but this is indeed “Easy Switch”.
The EasySwitch Wet-Dry Vac is made for use with an open-top 55 gallon drum, and comes with the option for a standard filter for exhausting the vacuum air flow, or a HEPA Filter for critical dust containment, when used in ‘dry’ mode.
If you’re going to use it consistently for liquids, the Reversible Drum Vac is what you’re looking for. It’ll fill a 55 gallon drum with water in a minute and a half, and with a simple turn of the knob on top, it’ll empty it just as fast. The standard Reversible Drum Vac generates a suction head of 96″ H2O. If the liquid is viscous, or is below grade (say, in a deep sump), the High Lift Reversible Drum Vac is rated for liquids with viscosities up to 1,400 cP, and generates a suction lift of 180″H2O. They work with 5, 30, 55, and 100 gallon drums.
The Chip Trapper Systems are Reversible Drum Vacs with a Filter Bag that all the incoming liquid passes through. The standpipe is outside the Filter Bag, so when emptying the drum, solids are retained in the Filter Bag, and only freshly filtered liquid is pumped out. They come with the standard, or the High Lift, Reversible Drum Vac as well. They come with 30, 55, or 110 gallon drums.
The vacuum hose (1) is attached to the barbed connection of the Chip Trapper (2). The directional flow control valve on the top of the drum (3) and knob on the pump (4) are set to the “fill” position. The air supply valve is opened to permit compressed air at 80-100 psig (5.5-6.9 BAR) to flow through the pump which pulls the liquid through the hose, then into the reusable filter bag (5). When all liquid is in the drum, the air supply is turned off. The filtered liquid can then be pumped out by setting the directional flow control valve on top of the drum and the knob on the pump to the “empty” position. Once the air supply valve is opened, the air pushes the liquid back through the hose while all solids remain in the reusable filter bag.
EXAIR also has a number of industrial drum-mounted vacuums for ‘dry’ pickup too. By ‘dry’, I mean loose solid particulate. It can be wet – coolant soaked chips on or around a machine tool are a prime example – but as long as they’re not in a volume of liquid, the Industrial Housekeeping Products below will all work just fine. If they ARE in a volume of liquid, the Reversible Drum Vacs & Chip Trapper Systems above are what you’re looking for.
Chip Vacs are ideal for general cleanup. The Chip Vac itself is made of aluminum, and systems are made for 5, 30, 55, and 110 gallon drums. Vacuum air flow is exhausted through a filter bag attached to the top of the drum.
From left to right: 5 gallon, 30 gallon, 55 gallon, and 110 gallon Chip Vacs are sized for any cleanup need.
If you’re vacuuming up abrasive material, there’s a good chance it will wear out the relatively soft aluminum construction of the Chip Vac pretty quickly. The Heavy Duty Dry Vac, however, is made of a hardened alloy for superior abrasion resistance. They also have higher vacuum power than the Chip Vacs for particularly dense material pickup. They’re made for 30, 55, and 110 gallon drums (sorry; no 5 gallon option for the Heavy Duty Dry Vacs!)
EXAIR’s Heavy Duty Dry Vacs turn ordinary drums into high powered, rugged industrial vacuum systems.
If critical dust containment is desired (or required), the Heavy Duty HEPA Vac offers the same performance as the Heavy Duty Dry Vac, but the vacuum air flow is exhausted through a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) cartridge filter. These Filters are 100% tested for compliance with IEST-RP-CC-007 for 99.97% filtration at the 0.3 micron level to meet HEPA standards. A Pre-Filter (included) serves to keep the HEPA filter working properly for as long as possible, and Filter Protectors (optional) are available to do the same for the Pre-Filter.
LIke the Heavy Duty Dry Vacs, the Heavy Duty HEPA Vacs fit standard 30, 55, and 110 gallon drums.
You can use any of these with an existing drum, as long as it meets the requirements:
Reversible Drum Vac drums need to be steel (no fiber, composite, plastic, etc…we’re pulling a vacuum to fill it, and pressurizing it to empty it) and should have a wall thickness of at least 18ga.
EasySwitch Wet-Dry Vacs need a steel 55 gallon drum with the rolled lip on top for the lid to sit on and ensure the gasket has a good seal.
EXAIR Industrial Housekeeping Products have no moving parts to wear or electric motors to burn out. If you supply them with clean, moisture-free compressed air, they’ll run darn near indefinitely, maintenance free. Standard systems come with everything you need to turn an existing drum into a powerful industrial vacuum. Deluxe Kits add a Drum Dolly and more tools. Premium Kits include the drum itself and an upgrade to Heavy Duty Aluminum Tools (Deluxe Heavy Duty Dry & HEPA Vac Kits get you those as well).
