One word I don’t think I ever used before I started working at EXAIR is entrainment. It was not a concept that I had ever needed to think about or discuss. But now, having worked here for a short while, it is a topic that I discuss regularly – daily even. Many of EXAIR’s quiet and efficient compressed air products are designed to maximize air entrainment.
Entrainment is defined in the simplest of terms as: to draw in and transport (something, such as solid particles or gas) by the flow of a fluid. In the context of EXAIR’s compressed air products, the surrounding ambient air is entrained by the primary air flow created by the compressed air.
For example, when compressed air exits the precise slotted nozzle of our Super Air Knife, a low pressure area is induced, which speeds up and draws in ambient air. This air entrainment (at a ratio of 40:1) is what makes our Super Air Knives so efficient. This same effect is true for our Super Air Amplifiers, Super Air Nozzles, Super Air Wipes, as well as many other products.
This effect was first described by Daniel Bernoulli in his book Hydrodynamica, where he first explained what we know as Bernoulli’s Principle. His principle states that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure. This is derived from the conservation of energy, where an increase in kinetic energy (speed) requires a corresponding reduction in potential energy (pressure).
Daniel Bernoulli was an interesting man, who we have written several blogs about, like this one here. But in summary, the work he did in the 1700s is fundamental to our products. If you would like to discuss your application, and how the Bernoulli Principle may be beneficial, feel free to give us a call!
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.
EXAIR has been manufacturing Intelligent Compressed Air® products since 1983. In the beginning, the Standard Air Knives and Full Flow Air Knives were very effective at that time. But as leaders in this industry, EXAIR did not want to stop there. We were able to engineer a more efficient, more powerful, and much quieter air knife, the Super Air Knife. In this blog, I will discuss the features and benefits that the Super Air Knives can offer.
Bernoulli’s principle explains how a high velocity fluid can generate a low pressure. The EXAIR Super Air Knife creates a high velocity air stream to produce that low pressure to entrain ambient air. What does this mean for you? It will save you money by using less compressed air. The mass of the ambient air is added to the compressed air stream to give it a strong blowing force. The Super Air Knife has an amplification ratio of 40:1, which means that for every 1 part of compressed air, 40 parts of ambient air are drawn into the air stream. Ambient air is free. Compressed air is expensive. EXAIR was able to engineer a design to use Bernoulli’s principle to make one of the most efficient air knives in the marketplace.
What else makes EXAIR unchallenged? We manufacture and stock the widest range of lengths and materials. To start, EXAIR has Super Air Knives ranging from 3” to 108” (76 mm to 2,743 mm) in three different materials; aluminum, 303 stainless steel, and 316/316L stainless steel. EXAIR also offers Super Air Knives in PVDF material with Hastelloy hardware for chemical resistant applications from 3” to 54” (76 mm to 1,372 mm). Depending on the temperature requirement, chemical resistance, OSHA and FDA regulations, or application details, we probably will have one on the shelf for you. If EXAIR does not have it, we can make special air knives in different lengths and materials to best fit your application. You can read more about specials HERE.
Air Knives are available in Super, Standard and Full-Flow styles, and all versions are able to be customized to a customer’s specific needs. For help solving any specific blowoff problems, please contact an Application Engineer. All Air Knives are CE compliant.
With today’s cost of making compressed air, it is important to use it as efficiently as possible. The Standard and Full Flow Air Knives would be good options to use. But the best way to conserve is with the Super Air Knife. In the U.S. and Canada, EXAIR offers a 30-day unconditional guarantee on our cataloged items, so you can try them out. You can see for yourself how effective these compressed air guns can be. If you have any questions about the Super Air Knife or if you would like to discuss an application, you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR. We will be glad to help you. And until December 31st, 2024, EXAIR is offering a free Soft Grip Safety Air Gun, a $115.00 value, as a complimentary gift for qualifying online Super Air Knife purchases.
Jordan Shouse Application Engineer EXAIR Corporation Visit us on the Web Follow me on Twitter Like us on Facebook
If you’re reading the EXAIR Blog, you’re probably well aware that compressed air is the most expensive utility in an industrial environment. The average cost to generate 1000 Standard Cubic Feet of compressed air is $0.25. If you’re familiar with how much air you use on a daily basis, you’ll understand just how quickly that adds up.
To make matters worse, many compressed air systems waste significant amounts of compressed air just through leaks. According to the Compressed Air Challenge, a typical plant that has not been well maintained will likely have a leak rate of approximately 20%!! Good luck explaining to your finance department that you’re carelessly wasting 20% of the most expensive utility.
The six steps to optimizing your compressed air system is something we cover a fair amount on this blog. And there is a real reason for that. Yes, we sell compressed air products. But we are also aware compressed air costs money to generate, so using this source responsibly is very important.
This is where the 6 steps come into play, but today we are just covering Step 3. Which is upgrading your blow off, cooling and drying operations using engineered compressed air products. (If you want to read about the other 5 steps, check them out here, Step #1, Step #2, Step #4, Step #5, Step #6)
I compare step three to replacing your house windows. We recently got some prices to replace our windows, but along with that comes the cost savings we expect to get as they are better designed now than in the 1990ies to retain your temperature inside. Thus reducing the cost to cool and heat your home.
Similar to my “upgrade” to new windows, upgrading blow offs, cooling and drying operations using engineered compressed air products is Step 3 in EXAIR’s Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System. We’ve assigned an order to these steps in accordance with basic good engineering practice & protocol, but it’s not necessary to follow them in any particular order. In fact, all six steps really don’t apply to every single compressed air system.
Step 3 does apply to most systems, though. I spent a fair amount of time in all sorts of industrial facilities in my previous roles, and almost all the time, regardless of the industry or the size of the facility, the maintenance and production part of the facility used air guns. However, I don’t recall ever seeing an engineered nozzle on one before I came to EXAIR. Since then, I’ve worked with a bunch of users to dramatically reduce compressed air consumption by replacing their cheap and inefficient air guns with EXAIR Safety Air Guns, or by retrofitting EXAIR Super Air Nozzles onto their existing air guns. We actually carry adapters to fit our Super Air Nozzles to a number of readily commercially available air guns for that very purpose.
In addition to air guns & nozzles, our Air Knives have a long history of replacing drilled pipes & pipe manifolds with inefficient nozzles used to make a curtain of air flow. The following chart details the savings you can get from the use of a 24″ Super Air Knife instead of similar devices for a 24″ wide air curtain:
Even though an electric powered blower will use less electricity than the amount of electricity an air compressor uses to supply an engineered product like the Super Air Knife, the maintenance costs make the total cost of ownership eclipse that of the engineered Air Knife.
Our Case Study Library documents many real-world situations where customers worked with us to gather & publish “before/after” documentation, proving the benefits of Step 3. I encourage you to check those out, and if you think you might have an opportunity to do a Case Study with us, we offer discounts or credit for that…give me a call.
At EXAIR we are proud of our ability to ship our stock and catalog products the same day or the next day on orders received before 2:00pm ET. If you need a replacement part, or a new solution altogether, we can likely get the product to you in no time at all. There are certain applications, however, where the solution is more specific, and our stock options are not going to work out best. There may be a need for a different material, or a specific geometry to get the results the customer is looking for. For instances like this, we work with our customers to create a special, non-stock option.
I was recently working with a customer that needed an Air Knife to cool their material coming out of a hot process. This is a common application for our Air Knives, but for this particular customer, the shape of the Air Knife wasn’t going to fit in their machine. After some discussion, we determined that a curved Air Knife was going to be the best fit (pun intended).
After the customer provided some initial specifications, we put a drawing together. With some back and forth, reviewing drawings, and signing off on final designs, we set to work, producing their specially designed product. Within a few weeks, we were able to provide the specific solution to meet their needs.
If you have an application that needs a more tailor-made solution, give us a call!
