The video below is a brief introduction to the EXAIR Efficiency Lab, a free service provided by EXAIR for customers within the USA and Canada.
If you have a single point blowoff that does not have an engineered nozzle, or if you have a wider format blowoff, manifold or home-made drilled pipe, contact an Application Engineer with EXAIR and let us help you to reduce your energy waste. Following are some examples of product where we have helped to save some serious air and reduced noise levels which heightens employee comfort.
Non-engineered blowoffsDrilled and soldered copper pipe.Custom manufactured inefficient pipe blowoff
This is my first ever attempt at a Top Ten List. I’m easily distracted, and, as such, I’d be lucky to come up with a list of three things on any given topic, on any given day without my attention being diverted…
"Squirrel!"
So, without further ado, and before I start writing about something else entirely, here’s my:
Top Ten List Of What’s Great About EXAIR:
1. We’ve got it. If it’s in the catalog, it’s in stock, and available for immediate shipment. No waiting…and waiting…and waiting…for product, as Brian Farno wrote about recently. With the exception of some of our long Air Knives, which might take a day or two to assemble, if we get an order by 3pm EST, we’ll ship it today.
2. We stand behind our products. EXAIR offers a 30-Day Unconditional Guarantee on all of our products. As hard as we try to specify the right product for your application, sometimes we don’t know until we try. I’m working with a new customer on a Line Vac project right now, where the Stainless Steel unit I recommended is experiencing unexpected abrasive wear. We’re looking at a Heavy Duty Line Vac, and he was hesitant to send the Stainless Steel one back, because he feels he’s taking advantage of us. He’s not.
3. Tech Help. I won’t say I don’t want to brag about the stellar level of technical assistance we offer, because I am indeed compelled to brag about. If you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers to almost all of them. And if we don’t know, we’ve got our Efficiency Lab…we’ll find out.
4. Professor Penurious. Not the person, although he’s a good guy that we all respect and admire (and at times, ridicule mercilessly), but the attitude of efficiency and focus on sustainability that we try to get noticed in those outrageous videos.
5. Social Media. A lot of companies are embracing it as a way to augment and/or enhance the way they do business. We’re one of them, and, it turns out, people notice that we do it well.
6. Quality Control.Statistically, if you never do anything wrong, you’re probably not doing much. As much as we can brag about our low number of defective product returns, we can brag even more about the way they’re handled. Not only do we have a great reputation for righting the wrongs, we have a strong program for making the wrongs not happen again.
7. Innovation.You know, we probably wouldn’t need a new catalog every year if we’d just stop coming up with new, and better, products. We’d also have a lot more room in our trophy case without all those awards that those products keep winning. Oh, the cost of winning…
8. People. One the first Thursday of the month, the whole company gathers together for a brief meeting. Our President, Bryan Peters, tells us how we did on sales & shipments over the past month…it’s always good to know from whence your paycheck cometh…but he never misses an opportunity to point out WHY we did so well: At every meeting, he’s got a list of praises from customers, on everything from how well our products are designed, to how great our technical assistance and customer service is, to how impressive our website and literature are, and how fast & flawlessly we ship. It is indeed a group effort, and I really like being part of this group.
9. Cincinnati.I grew up here, and as soon as I graduated high school, I joined the Navy to see the world and swore I’d never come back. I’m glad my plans didn’t work out, because this is a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Mark Twain may or may not have said “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it’s always twenty years behind the times,” and yes, our airport is in Kentucky, but I bet somebody, somewhere, makes jokes about where you live too. And you don’t have a Big Red Machine. ‘nuff said.
I recently had a customer contact me asking about some of our products, mainly our small Air Nozzles. When asked what their application was for the nozzles I learned they were trying to reduce their Air consumption and had no idea what their current system was using. I mentioned that we offer the EXAIR Efficiency Lab which is a free service where you can send your existing nozzles or blow off to us and we will evaluate it in our lab then recommend an EXAIR product that will improve the current system.
After explaining this all to the customer they said they are going through an entire system audit and this would be perfect for their needs. I gave them the information and within a few days I had the nozzles, shown below, on my desk with a letter of what application each nozzle has and also what their operating pressure is.
The customer explained to me that they are using the aluminum block in several different applications, one as a blow off, one as a product kicker, and one to help stir up dust so a vacuum can remove it. I then went to the Efficiency Lab and performed a test run on the aluminum block. I performed the test several times at 90 PSIG to ensure my data was legitimate. The block was flowing 19.75 SCFM of compressed air, giving off 103 dBA at three feet away from the block and approximately one pound of force.
I took this information and cross referenced our catalog. With the application descriptions for the block and the flow data I determined that our Adjustable Air Jet Model 6019 would be an easy substitution for their aluminum block. This would keep the one pound of force they were using to help move the product along with blow it off while only using 18 SCFM at 80 PSIG and emit 83 dBA. On top of the fact that our Engineered Adjustable Air Jet meets or exceeds the OSHA requirements for dead ended pressure, which means they will not have the risk of an operator getting injured with the compressed air from the jet.
The second blow off they were using is a copper pipe that has to be manually welded to a fitting. This blow off was used to assist in both part blow off and moving the part down a line. The pipe would consume 8.54 SCFM at 90 PSIG with .5 lbs. of force while emitting 86 dBA. Our comparable nozzle would be the 1110SS which will consume 8.3 SCFM at 80 PSIG with .5 pounds of force and only emit 75 dBA. This nozzle like all of our nozzles meets or exceeds OSHA requirements for dead ended pressure. Also they will still save compressed air while running a lower pressure and noise level.
The final blow off the customer sent is a small inner diameter stainless steel pipe that was consuming 2.14 SCFM at 90 psi while giving off .5 pounds of force and emitting 70 dBA. For a solution to this blow off we suggested our 1010SS Micro Air Nozzle with the pressure regulated down to match similar flow characteristics of the small pipe. This allowed us to maintain performance while still lowering noise and meeting the OSHA dead-end pressure standard.
With several machines in place and dozens of nozzles there is a large potential to cut energy costs along with make the shop quieter and help with OSHA compliance. If you have a blow off system that you aren’t sure if it’s the best method please take the time to look at our Efficiency Lab. We are here to help you with not just new applications but to improve existing ones also.
One of my Dad’s outlooks on life goes like this; life is nothing more than a series of problems. If he did not have something to fix, negotiate, extinguish or solve he wouldn’t have much to do. The interesting part about his perspective is that problems are not a nuisance to him; they are simply part of the plan. He has relayed this message to me over the years in hopes of helping me react well to adversity; but sometimes it is hard to find a solution before the next problem arises. So when do you find the time to be proactive?
For instance last week upon arriving home – I mean only moments after pulling in the driveway, my 6-year-old son wipes out while ramping his bike. Here is the result…
A badly smashed finger. OUCH! That was about a week ago, that fingernail is getting darker by the day and well on its way to falling off.
So what’s the problem? Sooth the boy and then the finger, check the ramp for integrity, check the bike for damage, find the damage and straighten the seat. Problem solved.
Dad’s theory says if you don’t have an emergency or fire to put out, go work on the next problem (“The List”). So I took some time to check some other springtime equipment. I looked at the other kids’ bikes just in case. Then moved on to make sure swing set bolts are tight, checked the trampoline springs (which really just means a good excuse for me to jump on it) and other springtime maintenance.
This, I know, is mirrored by our work lives as well. One fire after another must be put out. The normal workload piles up along the way. Many companies working with fewer people due to the economy. The projects on “The List” we get to in between putting out fires – or at least we should. In our work lives those emergencies bring to light other situations which also need attention. It takes focus and perspective not to get overwhelmed with putting out fires, but instead take advantage of time to fix other things on “The List” which also need attention.
We talk to customers on a daily basis who have an item on their list which says – Reduce Compressed Air Consumption. It is an item that falls down the priority list as the emergencies come up, as the product continues to roll out the door and as we get busier. Many times it is a large system approach to reduce compressed air consumption and that can be overwhelming.
Our EXAIR Efficiency Lab can help you in between putting out fires. We can tackle one little blow off area at a time and provide air savings feedback, including ROI for each little compressed air application. We can solve one of the problems on “your list” while you are called away for a different problem. The Lab’s Product Efficiency Survey is a tool used to provide EXAIR the information about your compressed air application, we can take it from there. The information we provide along the way can be tallied each time we optimize a small area of your system.
This tool will help you be proactive between putting out fires. It is after all, just another problem to get taken care of; And if you didn’t have any problems to solve what would you be doing anyway?
