The below video covers the Super Air Wipe and Standard Air Wipe and details the materials of construction of all options to help in the selection process.
EXAIR offers the Air Wipes in diameters from 3/8″ (10mm) to 11″ (279mm), all in stock! (Note – 3/8″ (10mm) size available in aluminum only)
As a final review, consult the table below for a comprehensive summary of the materials of construction for the EXAIR Stainless Steel and Aluminum Super Air Wipes and the Standard Air Wipe.
If you have questions about the Air Wipes, or would like to talk about any of the EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Products, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or any of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.
EXAIR will be giving away a free Soft Grip Safety Air Gun with the purchase of any EXAIR Super Air Knife from November 1st through December 31st, 2017. This special promotion will apply to all Super Air Knife orders, whether aluminum, stainless steel, or PVDF. Use the promotional model number during the promotional period and receive a free model 1210, a value of $81.00! The Soft Grip Safety Air Gun is a Top Pick, and provides the ideal combination of forceful flow, quiet noise level and low compressed air usage. To get the special promotional item, use the special part numbers as detailed in the link below.
The Super Air Knife is the latest generation of the EXAIR engineered air knives with dramatically reduced compressed air usage and noise compared to other types of blowoffs. The Super Air Knife is truly a more efficient tool for cleaning, drying or cooling parts, webs, or conveyors. The air flow is a uniform sheet of laminar air across the entire length with a hard-hitting force.
Replacing a noisy blowoff with a Super Air Knife results is a significant reduction in sound. Operation at a high pressure of 80 PSIG (5.5 Bar) leads to a sound level of just 69 dBA for most applications. Air amplification ratios (entrained air to compressed air) of 40:1 is produced. It also meets OSHA maximum dead-end pressure and noise requirements, for safe operation in the vicinity of plant personnel.
Typical applications for use include-
Post wash part drying
Sheet cleaning in strip mills
Conveyor cleaning
Part or component cooling
Web drying or cleaning
Environmental separation (air curtain)
Pre-paint blowoff and cleaning
Bag opening/filling operations
Scrap removal on converting operations
Take advantage of the Promotional Offering by clicking on the link at the top of the page. Qualified orders receive the free model 1210 Soft Grip Safety Air Guns as shown below.
FREE! EXAIR Model 1210 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun
If you have questions about Super Air Knives, Safety Air Guns, or would like to talk about any EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Product, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or one of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.
We’ve seen in recent blogs that Compressed Air Dryers are an important part of a compressed air system, to remove water and moisture to prevent condensation further downstream in the system. Moisture laden compressed air can cause issues such as increased wear of moving parts due to lubrication removal, formation of rust in piping and equipment, quality defects in painting processes, and frozen pipes in colder climates. The three main types of dryers are – Refrigerant, Desiccant, and Membrane. For this blog, we will review the basics of the Refrigerant type of dryer.
All atmospheric air that a compressed air system takes in contains water vapor, which is naturally present in the air. At 75°F and 75% relative humidity, 20 gallons of water will enter a typical 25 hp compressor in a 24 hour period of operation. When the the air is compressed, the water becomes concentrated and because the air is heated due to the compression, the water remains in vapor form. Warmer air is able to hold more water vapor, and generally an increase in temperature of 20°F results in a doubling of amount of moisture the air can hold. The problem is that further downstream in the system, the air cools, and the vapor begins to condense into water droplets. To avoid this issue, a dryer is used.
Fundamental Schematic of Refrigerant-Type Dryer
Refrigerant Type dryers cool the air to remove the condensed moisture and then the air is reheated and discharged. When the air leaves the compressor aftercooler and moisture separator (which removes the initial condensed moisture) the air is typically saturated, meaning it cannot hold anymore water vapor. Any further cooling of the air will cause the moisture to condense and drop out. The Refrigerant drying process is to cool the air to 35-40°F and then remove the condensed moisture. The air is then reheated via an air to air heat exchanger (which utilizes the heat of the incoming compressed air) and then discharged. The dewpoint of the air is 35-40°F which is sufficient for most general industrial plant air applications. As long as the compressed air stays above the 35-40°F temperature, no further condensation will occur.
The typical advantages of Refrigerated Dryers are-
– Low initial capital cost
– Relatively low operating cost
– Low maintenance costs
If you have questions about getting the most from your compressed air system, or would like to talk about any EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Product, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or one of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.
An overseas company contacted me about an issue with drying copper wires. Their production process utilized fourteen wire drawing machines in their facility. They could make very fine wire in the range of diameters from 0.2mm to 2.6mm. Some of their drawing machines were able to make a maximum of sixteen wires at the same time.
Each wire is made by a process of drawing and annealing. The machine will draw a thicker copper wire through dies that will get progressively smaller in diameter. Before the material goes through the dies, the copper is annealed to make it ductile and workable. Annealing is a process of heating to make the material softer.
In this application, once the wire was to the correct diameter, it would go through a coolant bath to cool and harden. To remove the coolant from the wires, it would travel over a set of drying cloths. From there, the wire would travel out of the drawing machine and into a spooler.
The spooler places the wire onto a spool for packaging and shipping. The reason that they contacted EXAIR was because the wires were not properly dried before it went to the spooler. If any coolant was left on the surface, it would corrode the wires in that area. They needed a better way to dry the wires because they started to receive complaints from their customers.
Site for Super Air Knife on exit of Wire Drawing Machine
When the company first contacted me, they had an interest in the Super Air Wipes. The Air Wipes are designed to blow air in a 360 deg. pattern around the wire to dry the entire surface. But, after getting more details about their process, the sixteen wires were coming out of the drawing machine at 1.75cm apart.
With the gap between the wires being so small, the Super Air Wipes would not be able to fit around each wire. As another engineered solution, I recommended the Super Air Knives Kit, model 110212. The Super Air Knives are 12” long (30.5cm) to span across all sixteen wires. The kit includes a filter, regulator, and shim kit to accommodate different forces for different wire speeds.
The Super Air Knife can blow a laminar flow of air consistently across the entire width. Air, as a fluid, likes to “hug” the surface. Since the air stream isn’t turbulent, the contact time along the surface of the wire will be much longer; making it very effective at removing liquid.
I had the customer mount one Super Air Knife above and one Super Air Knife underneath, spanning across the entire row of wires. They were positioned at a 45 deg. angle to blow in the opposite direction the wires were traveling.
Being compact, the Air Knives could be placed at a close distance near the drawing machine to blow the excess coolant back into the machine. This would keep the floor clean and safe from coolant collecting on the ground. So, no matter the diameter of wires being drawn through the machine, the Super Air Knives would be a non-contact way of drying the surface without having to use the drying cloths which were inconsistent and had to be replaced often.
Super Air Knife Drying Wires
If you require a non-contact way of keeping your product clean and dry, EXAIR has many products to tackle this. No matter how large or small of a profile, we can efficiently and effectively accomplish this. You won’t have to replace items that wear or cause damage to your product by improper contact. EXAIR has the ability to use compressed air to create a strong force without scraping or scratching your material.
