Tag: engineered nozzle

EXAIR Products Entrain FREE Ambient Air For Maximum Force and Flow

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

Air entrainment is a term that we bring up quite often here at EXAIR. It’s this concept that allows many of our products to dramatically reduce compressed air consumption. The energy costs associated with producing compressed air make it an expensive utility for manufacturers. Utilizing engineered compressed air products that will entrain ambient air from the environment allow you to reduce the compressed air consumption without sacrificing force or flow.

Products such as the Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, Air Amplifier, and Super Air Wipe all take advantage of “free” air that is entrained into the primary supplied airstream. This air entrainment occurs due to what is known as the Coanda effect. Named after renowned Romanian physicist, Henri Coanda, the Coanda effect is used in the design of airplane wings to produce lift. As air comes across the convex surface on the top, it slows down creating a higher pressure on the underside of the wing. This creates lift and is what allows an airplane to fly.

EXAIR Super Air Nozzle entrainment

This is also the same principle which is allowing us to entrain ambient air. As the compressed air is ejected through a small orifice, a low-pressure area is created that draws in additional air. Our products are engineered to maximize this entrained air, creating greater force and flow without additional compressed air. Super Air Amplifiers and Super Air Nozzles are capable of up to a 25:1 air entrainment ratio, with just 1 part being the supplied air and up to 25 times entrained air for free!! The greatest air entrainment is achieved with the Super Air Knife at an incredible ratio of 40:1!

This air entrainment principle allows you to utilize any of these products efficiently for a wide variety of cooling, drying, cleaning, or general blowoff applications. In addition to reducing your compressed air consumption, replacing inefficient devices with engineered products will also dramatically lower your sound level in the plant. Sound level in some applications can even be reduced down to a point that would eliminate the need for hearing protection with the OSHA maximum allowable exposure limits set at 90 dBA for an 8-hour shift.

If you have inefficient blowoff devices in your facility, give us a call. An Application Engineer will be happy to help you select a product that will “quietly” reduce your compressed air consumption!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS


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

What OSHA 1910.242(b) Means For Compressed Air Product Users

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Medically speaking, our skin is an organ…and an amazing one at that. It protects our internals from an incredibly harsh environment as we’re bombarded by radiation (sunlight), subjected to summer’s heat & the cold of winter, attacked by fierce invaders (from viruses & bacteria to insects & spiders), all while we carry on at the bottom of a 60 mile-deep ocean (of air!)

Our skin requires some protection too: Sunscreen mitigates some of the harmful effects of solar radiation, shoes protect our feet from the ground, gloves & coats prevent frostbite, and compliance with OSHA Standard 1910.242(b) protects operators who use compressed air devices for cleaning purposes from air embolisms. That’s when air, under pressure, has enough energy to break the skin (tough as it is) and reach the tissue underneath. It’s painful, and serious enough that the victim should absolutely seek emergency medical treatment. If the air breaks a blood vessel and enters the pulmonary system, it can be deadly, in a hurry.

In 1971, the U.S. Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) determined that air under pressure higher than 30 pounds per square inch is capable of causing such injuries, if the pressurized source is dead-ended into the skin. Based on this determination, they included the following verbiage in Standard 1910.242, regulating the safe operation of hand and portable powered tools & equipment:

1910.242(b) Compressed air used for cleaning. Compressed air shall not be used for cleaning purposes except where reduced to less than 30 p.s.i. and then only with effective chip guarding and personal protective equipment.

In February 1972, OSHA issued Instruction STD 01-13-001 to clarify the meaning of 1910.242(b), with two illustrations of acceptable methods to meet compliance. The first is the use of a pressure reducer (or regulator):

While this method is compliant with the OSHA Standard, it’s kind of impractical, since you’re not going to get a whole lot of cleaning done with such a low energy air flow. If that’s not bad enough, it’s STILL going to be loud, and wasteful as far as the cost of compressed air goes.

The other method illustrated in the Instruction’s enclosures involves the nozzles themselves:

Compressed air product manufacturers use this method to make OSHA compliant Nozzles.

One design that complies with OSHA 1910.242(b) using this method is the cross drilled nozzle:

Unless it’s blocked off, practically all of the air flow goes straight out the end, but if you block off the end, it all goes out the cross drilled hole. As long that hole is properly sized, you won’t build up 30 psi at the main outlet.

If you’re not concerned about high operating cost or deafening noise, you can stop reading now; these are all you need for OSHA compliance with Standard 1910.242(b). If you DO care about spending less money on compressed air or complying with OSHA Standard 1910.95(a) (which you read all about here), let’s spend a minute on engineered compressed air nozzles:

EXAIR Super Air Nozzles discharge compressed air through an annular array of holes, recessed between a series of fins. This causes the primary (compressed air) stream to entrain an enormous amount of air from the surrounding environment.

In addition to making them cost less to operate (since most of the total developed air flow is entrained), they’re also VERY quiet (since the entrained air forms a boundary layer on the outside of the air stream), AND they can’t be dead ended:

Since the fins won’t allow for a complete blockage of the compressed air discharging from the Super Air Nozzle, this design is a prime example of a built-in “relief device” as defined by Instruction STD 01-13-001, above.

All EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products, in fact, incorporate a form of built-in “relief device”:

The overhang of the cap on the Flat Super Air Nozzles and the Super Air Knives prevent them from being dead ended.

If you’d like to discuss safe use of compressed air, it’s one of our primary goals here at EXAIR – give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR LLC
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Engineered, Intelligent Compressed Air® Products: Save Air AND Get a Rebate!

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

This rebate example results in FREE air nozzles – read on to learn more!

Here at EXAIR we are continuously trying to share the basic facts that engineered air nozzles save compressed air. We then connect that with the amount of money that it saves, this is generally backed with formulas, this isn’t a new concept, we blog, tweet and even have easily accessed calculators for it. The final part that we like to share is that, on top of saving throughout the life of the nozzle, there are also many energy providers and municipalities that extend a rebate program as well! That means this lowers the ROI on implementing engineered nozzles into your system.

https://www.hollandbpw.com/en/customer-service/business/business-rebates#air   
https://www.hollandbpw.com/en/customer-service/business/business-rebates#air   

For instance, if your facility is located in Holland, Michigan, the Holland Board of Public Works wants to offer a rather simple rebate that requires the engineered nozzle and application be installed and submitted by December 31, 2022. The program is offering up to $100 per engineered nozzle installed on an open pipe or tube. (The incentive cannot exceed 100% of customer cost.) Not sure if you have open pipes in your facility? I’m sure you will hear them if you walk near the production lines where air is used. Or, better yet, get in touch with your production maintenance team and have them go throughout the facility and perform an open tube/pipe tagging event. Then report back and contact an Application Engineer here at EXAIR. We will all be able to help you with selecting the appropriately sized engineered nozzle to convert that open pipe/tube blowoff to an efficient and safe blowoff.

The Holland program is focused on open pipe/tube blowoffs while there are countless other programs out there which focus on replacing any blowoff with an engineered nozzle that also fits certain flow criteria for select pipe sizes. These programs can be searched by using the site Dsireusa.org This is a site that is maintained by NC State University and NC Clean Energy Technology. You can easily navigate to your state and scan the list for a rebate program which will then even take you to the application and stipulations for the selected incentive.

https://www.dsireusa.org/

No matter where you are located in the world, you don’t have to use a rebate to save money by installing engineered nozzles. The savings and ROI all starts as soon as they are installed. The rebates available in various parts of the US are just ways to expedite the ROI. If you want to discuss any engineered nozzle application, contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Air Nozzles and Air Jets: An Overview

Published on by codybiehleLeave a comment

One of the simplest solutions to lower your air consumption and noise level when it comes to compressed air is to switch your open tubes or pipes and liquid nozzles which are being used for air applications to an engineered compressed air nozzle. EXAIR’s Engineered Air Nozzles and Jets provide a simple solution for a wide variety blow off and compressed air applications and can solve a multitude of process problems efficiently. These applications can include simple blow offs, cooling, part ejection, and much more.

Super Air Nozzles:
Super Air Nozzles are one of the more versatile of all of EXAIR’s Engineered Air Nozzles. They come in many different sizes from a tiny size of M4 threads and 13 millimeters long to the largest with  1-1/4 NPT threads which has a 2″ hex and is almost 5″ long. These are usually used for standard blow off applications that replace open pipes to reduce your air consumption and noise. The force values vary from 2 ounces to 23 pounds of force. 

Another variation of the Super Air Nozzles is the Flat Super Air Nozzles; these nozzles create a small flat curtain of air at a high force to provide a wider blow off area for smaller NPT sized nozzles. The 1” and 2” Flat Super Air Nozzle also have replaceable shims that allow you to adjust the force coming out of the nozzle by increasing the amount of air that is used.   

EXAIR Air Nozzles

Back Blow Air Nozzles:
Back Blow Air Nozzles are designed in a way that blows that makes it easy to blow out the inside of pipes. The Back Blow Air Nozzles have holes around the outside diameter pointed back that creates a cone of air around the air inlet port. This makes it easy to dislodge clogs in pipes that you don’t want going back into the machine and for blowing out liquid and debris from the inside. They are also commonly used with EXAIR’s Chip Shield as to prevent any particles from flying back and hitting the user. Back Blow Air Nozzles come in three sizes: M4, ¼”, and 1” and can be used on inside diameters ranging from ¼” to 16”. 

EXAIR Back Blow Air Nozzles

Super Air Nozzle Clusters:
Super Air Nozzle Clusters use a number of the ¼” Super Air Nozzles to create one nozzle that has a wider cone and larger force. Clusters are usually used in wide area blow off but can also be used for part cooling and part reject as they do supply a wider area of force. Super Air Nozzle Clusters are sized by the number of nozzles in the cluster; the three sizes that we offer are 4-nozzle cluster (3/8” NPT inlet), 7-nozzle cluster (1/2” NPT inlet), and the 12-nozzle cluster (1” NPT inlet). 

EXAIR Super Air Nozzle Cluster

Air Jets:
Air Jets amplify the total volume of air into a high velocity stream of air. This makes it very useful for blowing off/drying applications and cooling applications due to the higher volume of air flowing through the unit. Air Jets come in two variations which are the High Velocity Air Jet and the Adjustable Air Jets. The High Velocity Air Jet uses a 0.015” shim that allows the air to escape the unit at a high velocity laminar flow to entrain the surrounding ambient air; this can be adjusted down using the shim kit which includes a 0.006” and 0.009” shims. The Adjustable Air Jet allows the user to easily adjust the air gap using the micrometer gap indicator. 

EXAIR Air Jets

If you have any questions about compressed air systems or want more information on any of EXAIR’s products, give us a call, we have a team of Application Engineers ready to answer your questions and recommend a solution for your applications.

Cody Biehle
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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