environmental separation

An overseas customer manufactures a 2.2 meter wide non-woven material. In one of their processes, the media would travel through a spray booth to apply a water-based surfactant. The surfactant was atomized and blown onto the top and bottom of the material. The spray booth was equipped with a fume hood to capture any excess mist. The material would then travel out of the spray booth and into the oven to dry.

Because they were running at a speed of 160 m/min, a draft was being created as the media was exiting the spray booth. This draft was strong enough to overcome the vacuum pressure from the fume collection system. This would allow the excess mist to escape the spray booth. It was then collecting on the surface of the oven and floor outside the containment area. This created a safety issue as well as a large mess.

In looking at the problem area, the dimension of the opening of the spray booth was 2.65 meters by 300 mm. To blow a good curtain of air to contain the mist, we needed to have a laminar flow to create that “wall”. I recommended two pieces of a model 1102108 Super Air Knife Kits. At 108” (or 2.74m) long, they are the longest Super Air Knives in the market. With a steady flow of air along the entire 2.74 meter length, it can generate that curtain of air across the entire opening of the spray booth. The laminar flow was key as they did not want to disturb the spraying nozzles inside the booth.

The Super Air Knife Kit also comes with a filter, a regulator, and a shim set. With the included shim set, the force can be changed dramatically by using a different thickness of shim. Since they did not need much force to keep the mist inside the spray booth, they opted to put a thinner shim inside the Super Air Knife. This would reduce the amount of compressed air needed, and with a regulator, the customer could “dial” in the correct amount of force to create the proper air barrier. The Super Air Knives were mounted above and below the material to blow directly across the opening of the spray booth. Any fine mist that would come in contact with the air would be deflected back into the spray booth. With the extra mist removed from the process, the fume extraction system could then perform its duties the way it was intended. With air being used to create that barrier, it did not disrupt the structure of the material or the surfactant on its surface.

If you require a non-contact barrier for your application, EXAIR Super Air Knives could be your solution. For this customer, we were able keep the work place safe and mess-free.

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

It would be a memorable day in Application Engineering if one of us didn’t handle at least one call regarding a Super Air Knife. They’re just used for so many different purposes: from debris blow off, to drying, to cooling – in fact, a good number of “Super Air Knife calls” start as “Vortex Tube calls,” because both have their place, depending on factors such as how hot the part to be cooled is, what temperature you want to get it to, how fast does it need cooled, etc. More on that here, and here…today, I’m going to write about environmental containment and separation.

In a nutshell, that means keeping smoke, fumes, powder, etc., inside an area, or at the very least, away from another area. A couple of examples of this are documented in the Super Air Knives section of our latest catalog. If you don’t have one, click here.

The first features:

lens clearing — (2) Model 110024 24″ Aluminum Super Air Knives, which keep the smoke from machining oil that burns off during an engine test directed into the vent hood.

The second utilizes:

A Model 110006 6" Aluminum Super Air Knife to keep the slag, spatter, and smoke from a laser cutter away from the lens of the machine's visual inspection system. — A Model 110006 6″ Aluminum Super Air Knife to keep the slag, spatter, and smoke from a laser cutter away from the lens of the machine’s visual inspection system.

A third, which I don’t have pictures of yet because it’s brand-new, is a little larger scale: a recent caller was looking for a way to keep ALL the powder inside his powder coating spray booth. There’s an open vent with runs all the way across the top, and, when the booth is in operation, a very small plume exits along its 90″ width. They purchased a Model 110296 96″ Aluminum Super Air Knife Kit to blow a continuous curtain of air across this 4″ wide gap, angled down slightly into the booth. The Kit’s Pressure Regulator allows them to “dial down” the air flow to a level just high enough to keep the powder from exiting the gap, but also low enough to not disturb the powder coating process inside the booth.

A self contained blower unit was actually their first idea…these are very popular for large doorways…you’ve probably even seen them on large doors on shipping docks, or forklift paths inside plants where it’s necessary to keep pollutants from one room from entering another. For this situation, though, the compact size, low sound level, and precise adjustability of the Super Air Knife’s air flow made it the logical choice.

If you’d like to know more about EXAIR Super Air Knives, or any of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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Tag: environmental separation

Super Air Knives Used as a Non-Contact Barrier in a Non-Woven Application

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Versatile, Efficient And Quiet: The EXAIR Super Air Knife

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