If you have been around our blog for any length of time, you may see that we tend to do these things called webinars. I’m sure you have even attended a few webinars over your professional career. Well, this is my shameless plug for you to register for the one I am presenting.
I’ve always been a person who has leaned into continually improving. I struggle with this from time to time. However, improvements don’t always come in the form of losing half the weight you need to within a month or a radical change in how you structure your day. Bettering yourself, to me, can more often than not mean a 5mm change. Why did I choose 5mm? I don’t know. Actually, it was due to a sermon I heard years ago and felt as though it was directed at me.
See the thing is, these very small changes that you may not notice so much day to day add up over time. Just like compressed air leaks, inefficient blow offs and artificial demand. That’s why I have put together this webinar. CCASS holders can utilize it for a continuing education credit, and others can use it as their 5mm change for the day, week, month, or year.
This event won’t be an infomercial for just EXAIR products. Instead, there will be a block of time when I try to explain where these compressed air costs come from and then methods that can result in a much bigger change than a 5mm change in the amount of money spent on compressed air.
Please follow the link and register, even more importantly, show up on October 24th, 2024 and listen to my spiel.
The Line Vac conveys scrap trim quickly and easily, and can be sized for most any product.
The EXAIR Line Vacs can be used for anything from launching bean bags to more popular uses like removing scrap, trim or conveying dry goods. An example of this is shown below where chips from drive train differentials are removed using this setup with a 2” Line Vac. The Line Vac is positioned at the top of this purpose built assembly and the bottom shroud fits over the differential housing of what will become a drive axle. It has internal nozzles to generate positive air flow within the housing in order to direct the chips into the suction side of the Line Vac.
For some applications like this, the discharge side of the Line Vac is connected to a hose and aimed into a bin or some form of a container without a lid, or filter, anything to simply catch the larger pieces of swarf. In other operations, the output flow may go straight into something as small as a 5 gallon bucket. Rather than blowing all of this debris, sand, or dirt into an open-top container and risk it being released back into the local area, or missing the container and falling onto the floor, it can be channeled into a container with one of our Drum Covers.
The Drum Cover is a general purpose filter material that will trap debris inside either a 30 or 55 gallon open-top container that has a rolled lip on it. The spout of the Drum Cover can accept up to a 3″ flexible conveyance hose and includes several hose clamps to be able to secure the discharge hose down into the container. This means you could also put two or three smaller hoses if it is a small trim or debris removal, and combine all into a single container to simplify the cleanup. These have also been used to help convey adhesive backing paper out of an automation zone and into an area where operators can easily stay out of the way of production equipment and remotely empty waste bins.
We have seen this work in multiple applications from collecting sand from a drilling operation that was being performed on a sand casting, to material trim removal and metal chip removal from machining operations. If you want more information on these or have a similar application, feel free to contact me.
Today, I want to show you another trick that I am almost certain I saw when I was a kid on Mr. Wizard. I saw this in High School, learning from one of my amazing educators in the Science department, and then again in college taking basic Chemistry courses. The trick is maybe not something that you would use regularly, but it is a great visualization for something that may help some DIY’ers and even some industrial engineers. So what is the process exactly? Well, it is using a vacuum to “boil” water, except we aren’t really boiling the water, it just appears that way.
That’s right, in this video you can see I have a very small E-Vac Vacuum Generator connected to a glass jar with some water in it. Now there is some condensation in the jar from the water being warmer than the environment we were in. As I energize the E-Vac, you will see the operating pressure go up on the gauge to the right, and you will see the pressure in the jar go down on the vacuum gauge to the left. You can also see just how quickly the small E-Vac removes all the air from the chamber and then begins to build the vacuum, effectively pulling the gas from water, making it appear as though it is boiling due to a temperature increase. Instead, it is actually “de-gassing” the water and removing the oxygen.
This same process can be used in molding operations, epoxy resin processes, and even off-gassing operations. If you can get the surface or container into a vacuum condition, then an Inline E Vac or Adjustable E Vac can be used to evacuate the gases from the fluid within the chamber or area. This makes them more conducive for use without bubbles forming during the curing phase. The size of the E Vac needed for this will be determined by the size of the area and that is exactly what our Application Engineers are here to help with.
A sticker on my dad’s old lunch box. I still use the lunchbox today. He worked for a steel mill in maintenance for more than 35 years. This was from one of their many safety program pushes.
6S is a standard in many facilities. This standard spawns from the Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma standards of 5S. Of course, it adds one more characteristic to it: the sixth S, Safety. Back in 2006, I achieved a Green Belt in Six Sigma and Safety was mentioned a good amount as a driver for several of the processes. The fact Safety was not one of the fives shows two things, I’m getting older and getting closer to that age where I have been out of school longer than I was in; and Safety is and should be a top priority, maybe it always should have been.
In case you have never been introduced to Lean Manufacturing or Six Sigma, this principle focuses on a single piece flow and optimizing a work process to minimize the amount of time it takes. This increases efficiency in the manufacturing process and ultimately puts money back into the bottom line of the business.
The first S is Sort, you should remove anything that is not needed for the production process, this could be additional tooling or resources that are not needed for the specific work station or task. This prevents any kind of clutter or confusion on what is needed.
The second S is Set In Order, just like the photo above, every tool and bin should have it’s place at the work station. This helps operators find what they need when they need it. The outlines also give a visual indicator to any tool or device that may be missing and or in use. Again, it helps with the operators time efficiency and reduces risk of leaving a tool in a process.
Third is SHINE, every aspect of a work area should be cleaned up, sometimes this needs to be done throughout the shift and other times just at the end of the shift to put everything back in place and prepare for the next operator or day. When I worked in retail I would hear managers tell people, “You have time to lean, you have time to clean.” and while it isn’t the best approach, it is a true statement. This does contribute to keeping production running at high efficiency, being able to spot leaks or wear issues on equipment that aren’t caked in chips, grease, and used fluids. It can also aid with safety by preventing slips or falls from a leak or debris building up from a process.
Fourth, Standardize, this means all work areas should look the same, maybe not the exact same tools, or process, but any operator should be able to walk into a work station, read the documentation, and be able to function sufficiently. This also helps to keep the old ways of tribal knowledge from happening which will prevent changes and adjustments from not being documented and will help to reduce learning curves when changes happen.
Fifth, Sustain, this is one of the hardest. This means the standards that have been set in place are kept. Repetition is key in a scenario where 5S or 6S are being implemented and even where they have been set in place for a while. Revisiting the standards and ensuring they are aligned to production and operator needs is always good.
A Safety Sticker from my dad’s 1988 lunchbox that I still use to this day. They were running safety programs before it was cool.
Sixth, Safety, this should always be at the forefront of any process. Being able to keep operators safe during a work day is always a high priority and one of the many ways to do that is to use the other five Ss to make sure that they can efficiently and safely work throughout their day.
Whether it is replacing open pipe blowoffs with engineered nozzles, cross drilled blowguns with Safety Air Guns, installing Line Vacs to help evacuate trim or debris, Super Air Amplifiers to cool down a part before it is being handled. I’ve even helped customers with custom length air hoses to ensure their operators can’t reach the air hose into a process too far in order to ensure operator safety. EXAIR is always focused on safety and ensuring our products help increase process efficiency. If you want to see how we can help you and your team, contact an Application Engineer today.
