EXAIR’s product line contains many products that can be used for cooling. The focus of this blog will be Super Air Amplifiers. These often times get placed in a head-to-head competition with an electric fan. The best part, they easily come out on top.
When looking at the benefits other than performance and rate of cooling due to air entrainment, many customers prefer the Super Air Amplifier due to the fact there are no moving parts. This comes into play when cooling within in a hard-to-reach area or within a harsh process is needed. Placing an electric motor with a blade held on by fasteners may not be desirable from a maintenance standpoint. The Super Air Amplifiers do not require electricity and there is not a motor or bearings that would need to be replaced or inspected.
Another benefit is the small footprint of the Super Air Amplifier. This can also be seen within the video below where the Air Amplifier is shown is able to produce 341 SCFM (9,650 SLPM) in amplified airflow. Compared to the fan in the video, the amplifier is less than a 1/4 of the size but outperforms the fan in cooling the metal block! This allows users to place a small unit inside a tight area or chamber that requires large volumes of air. For instance, a rotomolded part that has a large chamber, and it needs surfaces to be cooled in order for the part to hold its shape from the mold rather than warp. This can also be coupled with the fact that a Super Air Amplifier can be ducted on either the suction or discharge side in order to retrieve cool air or move the warm air out of the area.
Speaking of warm, the Super Air Amplifiers are also manufactured to withstand up to 275 °F (135 °C) from stock. Stainless Steel and High-temperature models go well beyond that temp, up to 700 °F (374 °C). Custom-designed (flanges and different materials are common) versions are also available with short lead-times.
If you would like to discuss the benefits to a Super Air Amplifier further, feel free to contact us.
1. Efficiency – With an air entrainment ratio of 40:1 (literally means it pulls in 40 SCFM of “free” air from the surrounding environment for every 1 SCFM of consumption), compressed air consumption is dramatically lower than any other blow off device.
EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products such as (left to right) the Air Wipe, Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, and Air Amplifier are engineered to entrain enormous amounts of air from the surrounding environment.
2. Laminar air flow – My colleague John Ball did a bang-up job in a video blog explaining the fluid mechanics theory behind this. Operationally, laminar flow is is beneficial because it’s particularly conducive to generating a stripping or sweeping action, as opposed to the turbulent flow from an open blow off, a blower, or a fan.
3. Quiet operation – The high entrainment ratio that makes the Super Air Knife so efficient also makes for amazingly low sound levels. The outermost entrained air creates a boundary layer that attenuates the sound level of the higher velocity, hard hitting center flow.
4. Lengths available – Super Air Knives are stocked in lengths from 3″ to 9ft. Custom lengths can be made if you’re space-limited for installation, and custom shims can be installed if you want to shorten the curtain width of a stock Super Air Knife. Super Air Knives can also be coupled together for even longer lengths.
Air Knife Coupling Bracket Kits are available from stock for Aluminum, 303SS, and 316SS Super Air Knives.
5. Material of construction – No matter how aggressive the environment is, odds are, EXAIR has a Super Air Knife that’ll hold up to it. Durable aluminum models are good to 180°F (82°C). There are also two Types of Stainless Steel to choose from: 303SS for high strength, and 316SS for protection from chloride pitting corrosion & higher strength. Both 303SS & 316SS are good to 800°F (427°C). For exceptionally harsh environments, PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) constructed Super Air Knives have Hastelloy C-276 hardware & PTFE shims, which are resistant to UV light, inorganic chemicals, solvents, ozone, weather, fungi, chlorinated hydrocarbons, highly corrosive acids, weak bases, and salts. They’re good to 275°F (135°C).
6. Easy installation – Like all of our products, the Super Air Knives – from the 3″ to the 9ft models – are “user friendly” as far as mounting & installation goes. The Model 9060 Universal Air Knife Mounting System makes for quick installation and easy positioning. 24″ to 42″ Super Air Knives need to be plumbed to both ends…if you hard pipe the air supply, the Super Air Knife itself will essentially be as well supported as the piping. The same holds true for longer Super Air Knives with Plumbing Kits installed. 3″ Super Air Knives can even be fitted with Stay Set Hoses, and Magnetic Bases. And the 1/4″-20 tapped holes on the bottom of the body allow for a wide range of mounting solutions…anything you can put a bolt through, really.
Yes, that’s a door hinge. No, it wasn’t my idea ( but I kind of wish it was.)
7. Low maintenance – With no moving parts, they’ll run darn near indefinitely, maintenance free, as long as you supply them with clean, moisture free compressed air. Oh, and keep them clean, externally, if they’re in an area where environmental contaminants can build up on the precision finished surfaces that are essential to their air entrainment.
8. Reliability – Hand in hand with #7, no moving parts also means there’s not much that can stop them from working. They can operate continuously, if needed, or you can cycle them on & off as frequently as necessary to keep from using valuable compressed air, except when needed.
EXAIR’s award winning EFC Electronic Flow Control can be set to operate a Super Air Knife (or any of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products) in cycles as low as 0.1 seconds.
9. Static Eliminator option -The laminar, high velocity air flow is ideal for many blow off applications, but if static charge is a problem, an Ionizing Bar can be installed, turning the Super Air Knife into a Super Ion Air Knife:
10. Free stuff – OK; this last one is “super” for a limited time. Order a Super Air Knife between 11/1/22 and 12/31/2022, and get a FREE Safety Air Gun. Click here for details.
If you’d like to find out how the Super Air Knife – or any of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products can help you get the most out of your compressed air system, give me a call.
Russ Bowman, CCASS
Application Engineer EXAIR Corporation Visit us on the Web Follow me on Twitter Like us on Facebook
Do you have a need to blow off a wide area? Do you like to save money on compressed air? Well, then I have a solution for you! EXAIR’s Super Air Knife is the BEST SOLUTION for all wide area blow off applications using compressed air. We have been manufacturing Air Knives for over 38 years and the Super Air Knife is the culmination of all that experience put into one design. The Super Air Knife was first released back in 1997 and it remains the most efficient knife on the market. We have seen copy-cat products and others that claim better performance, but testing proves otherwise. Super Air Knives remain the most efficient.
316SS Super Air Knife removes excess water from fish prior to flash freezing
The Super Air Knife works by taking a small amount of compressed air to create a high velocity laminar sheet of air. This sheet of air then entrains (pulls in) the surrounding ambient air at a rate of 40:1 (40 parts ambient air to one part compressed air), making it very effective in a variety of cooling, drying, and blow off applications. The Super Air Knife also comes in the most variety of lengths ranging from 3″ all the way up to 108″. And in 4 different stock materials which are Aluminum, 303 Stainless Steel, 316 Stainless Steel, and PVDF. This allows the Super Air Knife to fit your specific needs. Like all of EXAIR’s product lines, these air knives meet or exceed OSHA standards for safety.
Super Air Knife blowing off Parts
Starting in November through the end of the month, order any EXAIR Super Air Knife and receive a free 1210 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun. This applies to all stock Super Air Knifes. The Model 1210 is a top pick for many industrial applications. With the ideal combination of forceful air flow, quite noise level, and compressed air usage there’s not many applications that aren’t suited for this style of gun. All EXAIR’s Safety Air Guns are compliant with OSHA 1910.242 (b), relating to dead-end pressure, and can keep your personnel safe.
Click to view the Promotion Page
If you have questions about any of our engineered Intelligent Compressed Air® Products, feel free to contact EXAIR or any Application Engineer.
Cody Biehle Application Engineer EXAIR Corporation Visit us on the Web Follow me on Twitter Like us on Facebook
EXAIR uses the word entrainment a lot, all of our blowoff products use the principle to amplify the air stream and increase efficiency. But, what is entrainment and what causes the phenomenon? Entrainment can be defined as a fluid that is swept along into an existing moving fluid. This brings Bernoulli’s equation into the picture. When looking at specific situations and conditions Bernoulli’s equation can show some interesting significance with gases.
Bernoulli’s Equation
Bernoulli’s equation takes into account four main variables which are Pressure (P), Density (r), Velocity (v), and a height difference (z); along with a single constant for gravity. you can see the relationship between the velocity squared and the pressure from the equation above. Being that this relationship is a constant along the streamline; when the velocity increases; the pressure has to come down. Now we have to look at how fluids like to behave. Fluids within a system like to be at a constant pressure when at the same height and reach a state of equilibrium. This means that fluids will always flow towards a low pressure area, which means that if you create a constant low pressure area you can amplify the air stream. This is the same principle as to why airplanes can fly.
EXAIR Super Air Nozzle entrainment
Since compressed air can be an expensive utility, it is good to minimize it and maximize the surrounding entrained air. Therefore we have designed our products to use this entrainment principle to amplify the air blast while using less compressed air and more entrained ambient air. Products like our Super Air Knife can see an amplification ratio (ambient air to compressed air) of up to 40:1; this means for every 1 SCFM of compressed air used we are entraining 40 SCFM of ambient air.
EXAIR’s Super Air Knife
We use this principle for our Air Amplifiers, Air Knifes, Air Nozzles and Jets, Safety Air Guns, and our Gen4 Static Eliminators. Our goal is to save you money and give you better results in the process.
If you have questions about any of our engineered Intelligent Compressed Air® Products, feel free to contact EXAIR or any Application Engineer.
Cody Biehle Application Engineer EXAIR Corporation Visit us on the Web Follow me on Twitter Like us on Facebook
