Tag: energy savings

Turn it Down: Save Money by Reducing Compressed Air Pressure

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about compressed air, it’s that pressure is a lot like coffee. A little bit gets the job done, but too much just makes you jittery and costs you more than it should. The last step in our 6 Steps to Optimizing Compressed Air series is all about dialing that pressure back to where it actually needs to be. So why worry about pressure?

Compressed air is one of the most expensive utilities in your facility. For every couple of PSI you crank the system higher than necessary, your energy bill climbs right along with it. In most cases, your application doesn’t even need that extra pressure. It’s like using a fire hose to water a houseplant.

This is where pressure regulators come in. They’re simple devices, a knob, a spring, a diaphragm, but they’re doing some heavy lifting. Twist the knob, and the spring loads or unloads. That changes how much the diaphragm allows through, and suddenly you’ve got a steady, consistent downstream pressure without overfeeding your air tools or EXAIR products.

The real magic happens when you lower that setpoint. If your Super Air Knife is blowing water off parts just fine at 60 PSIG, why run it at 100 PSIG? Less pressure means less flow, and less flow means more savings. You’ll get the same result with a smaller demand on the compressor. That’s a win-win every plant manager can appreciate.

Now, before you start cranking down knobs all over the place, keep sizing in mind. Regulators need to be matched to the volume of air your application requires. If they’re undersized, you’ll experience droop, when the pressure drops off during demand spikes. EXAIR takes the guesswork out by offering properly sized regulators in kits with a lot of our products. We’ve already done the math so you don’t have to.

Turning down the pressure might be the last of the six steps to optimizing compressed air, but it’s one of the easiest changes to make and one of the fastest ways to save. A couple twists of the regulator could be all it takes to lighten the load on your compressor, cut operating costs, and keep your system running lean and efficient.

And if you’re not sure where to start, that’s what our Application Engineers are here for. Call us, chat with us, or shoot us an email. We’ll help you find the right pressure for your setup without the trial and error.

EXAIR is now partnering with EasyCAS by DirektIn software. This tool lets you actually measure and validate the savings you’re getting from steps like lowering pressure and implementing engineered solutions. No more guessing, you’ll have hard data showing how much air and money you’re saving.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

X: @EXAIR_TD

Free ROI Evaluation and Report with EXAIR’s Efficiency Lab Service

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

EXAIR’s Free Efficiency Lab

With any purchase process, it’s important to consider the return on your investment. This becomes even more important when trying to convince management that the upgrades you’re looking to make on the floor are worth the investment. At EXAIR, we offer a free service that allows you to send in your existing compressed air blowing devices to be compared with our recommended EXAIR manufactured equivalent.

Many facilities may not have the means to test the air consumption of their blowoff solutions. With compressed air being the most expensive utility in a manufacturing facility, it’s important to identify places where you can save money on your overall operating costs. EXAIR manufacturers a wide variety of products intended to help you reduce your compressed air usage. If you’re not able to accurately measure the consumption in your own shop, we invite you to send the products to EXAIR for testing.

All you have to do is contact an EXAIR Application Engineer and ship them straight to our warehouse in Cincinnati, Ohio. Once we receive it, our engineers will complete some in-depth testing to determine the compressed air consumption, sound level, and force that your current solution provides. With this information, we’ll be able to compare it to an EXAIR Engineered solution. This way, we ensure that you receive the best, safest solution possible. All while saving money through reduced air consumption and improved efficiency.  We’ll send you back a comprehensive report that’ll help you to make the best decision for your company.

This service is something that we offer to our customers completely free of charge. This way, you can be assured that by selecting a new solution from EXAIR, you’re making a well-informed decision. Oftentimes, it’s not known just how much some of these products cost to operate. Contrary to popular misconception, compressed air is certainly not free. In fact, it is rather costly, as a 4th utility in an industrial plant.

Check out the Efficiency Lab for yourself here in this video:

If you think there are applications in your facility that you suspect are consuming too much air, we’re here to help. Reach out to an Application Engineer to organize your own, free Efficiency Lab evaluation of your equipment. Allow us to show you the difference!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

The Advantage of EXAIR Air Jets

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

EXAIR’s Engineered Air Jets provide a superior solution to minimize compressed air usage and reduce noise levels for compressed air blow-off operations.

When compared to commonly used, open copper tubes or pipes, Air Jet compressed air savings can be as high as 80%. With less compressed air moving out of the Air Jet, sound levels are reduced to a manageable level. 10 dBA noise level reductions are typical.  All EXAIR Air Jets are compliant with OSHA guidelines for dead end pressure and sound level exposure.

EXAIR Nozzles and Jets are designed and manufactured to take advantage of the Coanda (wall attachment of a high velocity fluid) effect which can amplify the airflow volume up to 25 times. The compressed air exits through a small gap in the nozzle area (#1) which entrains the surrounding air from behind the nozzle. Additional air volume is entrained from behind and around the output of the Air Jet (#2) to provide the user with an “amplified” or multiplied airflow at (#3) to do the work or provided the intended effect desired. More force with less air consumption and less noise is the goal.

How the EXAIR Air Jet Works

The Air Jets are supplied with 1/8 NPT male threads and blow air out at a right angle from the inlet. They produce a vacuum on the larger diameter side which pulls in surrounding ambient air into the total output flow. Air Jets are available in brass or Type 303 stainless steel. You can choose from a fixed flow style or an adjustable flow style to provide flexibility for your applications. The adjustable flow models have a clear micrometer air gap indicator on the side of the body, opposite the inlet, to assure consistent and accurate results. All of our Air Nozzles and Jets  are engineered to meet or exceed OSHA Standard 1910.24(b) for 30 PSIG dead end pressure, they cannot be dead-ended as there is always a route for the air to escape. In addition, our products are going to meet the OSHA Standard CFR 29 – 1910.95(a) for allowable noise exposure levels. This means you can operate them with input pressures well above 30 PSIG to get harder hitting forces while still remaining OSHA compliant. This ability for our Air Jets to accomplish this task is where the rubber meets the road so to say.

Left shows Fixed Flow, Right shows adjustable flow

EXAIR’sSwivel Fittings Make it easy to adjust the position of the Air Jets.  The fittings allow for movement of up to 25° off axis for a total movement of 50°.  There are nine different models available and all of them are made from stainless steel

EXAIR Swivel fittings

If you would like to discuss blow off, noise levels, dead end pressure or any of EXAIR’s Intelligent Compressed Air® usage solutions, I would enjoy hearing from you…give me a call. Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer Send me a email


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“Under Pressure” Pressure Regulators!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

I recently recommended to a customer to turn their air pressure down on their system as low as their process would allow. Meaning regulate the pressure so you have enough to complete the operations needed but find that happy medium where your compressor isn’t working as hard to build those high pressures for no reason!

Compressed air is an amazing tool to have, and when used properly it can be more efficient that other non-compressed air tools that run off electricity. However, it’s pretty common to see compressed air systems running at their max just because.

Pressure Regulators “dial in” performance to get the job done without using more air than necessary.

Lowering the air system pressure reduces the compressor power consumption by about 1% for every two psi of lower pressure. Lowering the pressure also makes any unregulated operations reduce consumption by almost 1% for every one psi of pressure reduction. Not to mention the extra savings if your compressor system can turn down the compressor power because of the reduced flow and possibly shut off compressors that are no longer needed!

The best pressure at which to set your system is the level where your production can operate efficiently and effectively without waste: There is no right pressure—it depends on your operations and tools. You may have 90 to 100 psig at the compressor, but at the production machine, where the actual work is being done, you could have only 65 to 70 psig. In some cases, it may be even lower due to pressure drops in undersized piping, filters, regulators. The goal is to lower compressor discharge pressure without affecting the the operations at the end of the line.

Having artificially high plant-pressure can help you deal with surges in compressed air demand that might occasionally cause low-pressure and affect production. The higher pressure acts to store reserve air in the various volumes made up of receivers, pipes and such in your system. However, the higher pressure costs more to produce and makes unregulated end uses consume more air, which is an expensive trade-off. Another option is to make sure you have line pressure regulators at each point of use. This will allow you to regulate the operation to the pressure needed being sure to save compressed air and keep the over all system running more efficient.

You can regulate those point of use lines with a number of EXAIRs Pressure Regulators!

EXAIR offers a range of Pressure Regulators capable of handling air flow of up to 700 SCFM.

If we can help size a regulator, or have any other questions on how EXAIR can help you save compressed air in your system please reach out to me or one of our other Application Engineers!

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Find us on the Web 
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Twitter: @EXAIR_JS