Tag: Exair_DW

Using Water and Air to Clean or Cool Cylindrical Parts

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

In the last year EXAIR has released two products that aid in cleaning and cooling cylindrical shapes. The liquid sprayed from our AT1010SS Internal Mix Spray Nozzle creates a 360° Hollow Circular Pattern that is excellent for cleaning the inner diameter of a pipe, a casting, or a bore. The 1006SS Back Blow Nozzle is an air only nozzle that is designed to clean, dry or cool the inside diameter of a hose or tube and also effective cleaning out channel. These products can be used in conjunction to create a more powerful system than either component by itself.

360 degree Internal Mix Hollow Circular Pattern
AT1010SS – 360° Internal Mix Hollow Circular Pattern

The AT1010SS spray nozzle can be used in a variety of applications. As I mentioned above the 360° spray pattern is great for spraying out the inside of a pipe or duct-work. In addition to these applications, the nozzle can be used to cover a wide area with spray patterns up to 53 inches in diameter. This wide spray area can be used for humidification, dust suppression, cooling or sanitizing. The 303 stainless steel construction of the nozzle will hold up to a variety of chemicals and environments.  These nozzles can cover a significant area while using a relatively small amount of air and liquid. The AT2010SS is also available which features EXAIR’s No Drip design (patent pending), which will positively shut off the liquid flow when air pressure is removed. This eliminates unwanted drips which can ruin surfaces and waste expensive liquids. The 360° Circular Hollow spray pattern is a versatile nozzle that covers a variety of applications.

The EXAIR Model 1006SS - Back Blow Nozzle
The EXAIR Model 1006SS – Back Blow Nozzle

The 1006SS back blow nozzle features a number of orifices around the outside of the nozzle which force air back toward the operator and away from the air inlet. In most applications this will be used to pull water, chips, coolant, or debris out of the end of a pipe, channel, or tubing to clean the inner diameter. The Back Nozzles will typically be offered with a chip shield to contain any chips or debris from blowing towards the operator.

These two nozzles used in conjunction would work great to cool, clean, and dry the inside of, say, a welded pipe. The AT1010SS could be used to flush the inside of the pipe with water to cool the weld and blow out and weld slag or grinding dust from preparing the area. The 1006SS could pull out the water or debris from the inside of the pipe. The AT1010SS can be reinserted to spray the inside of the pipe with a rust inhibitor to maintain the quality of the weld until installation.  These nozzles work well together to clean the ID of the channel, tube or hose in your application.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com

Air Knives – What Are They Good For?

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

It is rare that a week goes by without a unique application of an EXAIR product…

This week I was speaking with a DJ who wished to use an air knife to create a blast of air that would add emphasis to the musical experience had by his fans. He wanted a small burst of air that would last less than a second, but would add an additional element to an already very complicated setup. My initial reaction was that no DJ I have ever seen would possibly be able to supply an air compressor big enough to feed the air knives, but over the course of our conversation, I found out that the DJ travels with 2 semi trucks of equipment, so he had some space.

SAK
An Aluminum EXAIR Super Air Knife

Another topic that came up in our conversation was how air knives were generally used. I have been asked this in a number of ways: What are they designed to do? Where do they work best? or What are they for?

I never have a succinct answer… The air knives create a flat laminar sheet of air in various sizes from 3″ up to 108″. This laminar sheet of air can be used to move, open, float, or separate. It can be used to clean, dry, or cool. I try to categorize these applications as best I can when speaking to customers, but then you talk to a DJ, and he wants an air knife to make a crowd cheer. I never thought that would be an application for an air knife. Knowing this, how do you convey all the air knife can do in a succinct answer?

Well, I can’t, so please be patient when you ask me the same question and I run through applications from cleaning surfaces to entertaining DJ crowds.

Here is a rundown of air knife applications. In case you don’t believe me.

Move: Air Knives are used around to world to move product from a conveyor to another location.

Open: Air Knives uniform air flow is perfect for opening bags or other packaging on a packaging machine.

Float: If you need to bridge a gap between two conveyors, the air knife has done this for products from pizza dough to sheets of veneer.

Clean: Blowing products off after removing them from a CNC machine is an easy air knife application.

Dry: One of my tastiest applications was to use an air knife to blow water from a potato chip after washing, but before frying.

Cool: Extrusion, molds, and baked goods have all been cooled with an air knife.

Just because it isn’t on this list though, doesn’t mean it is not possible.  This is why we will stand behind our stock product with our 30 day guarantee.   So if you want to try an EXAIR Air Knife in your application, give us a call.

30 Day Guarantee
30 Day Guarantee

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com

EXAIR’s Free Efficiency Lab – How Much Money Can It Save You?

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

In many of my blogs, I talk about specific products benefits or applications, but this week I want to talk about a service that EXAIR provides to our customers: Efficiency Labs. The Efficiency Lab is comprehensive study of your current blow off. You can ship your current blow off to our facility. We can test it with our calibrated equipment and record your current product characteristics. Our most popular efficiency lab is testing home made blow offs. These are blow offs made from copper tubes, thumb guns with nozzles removed, or drilled pipe. These blow offs can get the job done, but they are noisy, wasteful and dangerous. Every compressed air expert knows that these blow offs need replaced, but sometimes it may difficult to decide which nozzle to use. By sending us your current blow off product(s) we can measure the force, flow, and noise of the blow off and provide a comprehensive report. This report, in most cases, compares your current setup against what EXAIR we would recommend to save compressed air, lower noise levels and maintain performance.

 In addition to providing a blow off suggestion, EXAIR’s efficiency lab can identify your energy cost for these blow offs. The standard industrial cost for compressed air is $0.25 per 1000 standard cubic feet. At first glance that might not seem like much, but it can add up. This week I did an efficiency lab for a customer that used 1/4 ID copper tube as their home made blow off.

open copper tube
This 1/4″ Open Blow off uses 30.8 SCFM of compressed air.

This small open tube ran continuously for 10 hours per day five days a week.

To run this tube, cost a company $1,175 per year. The tube would flow 30.8 SCFM of compressed air when fed with 80 PSIG. By installing an EXAIR Super Air Nozzle,  part number 1100, the company could save 16.8 SCFM of compressed air and $650 per year. Once again $650 may not seem like much, but they used up to (40) of these open blow offs depending on what part they ran. Replacing all (40) of these blow offs saves $26,000 per year at a capital investment of $2,880 for (40) 1100-9212, Super Air Nozzle with 12 inch stay set hose. That would be a simple ROI of 72 days.

That ROI is only taking into account compressed air cost. Additionally, the 1100 Super Air Nozzle will reduce noise by 28 dBA and it complies with OSHA Standard CFR 1910.242(b) for dead end pressure.

We have found that our customers all have unique setups which greatly vary the values of their particular blow off. Even if customers have the same 1/4″ tube, the way they implement it can greatly affect its performance. Variations in inlet pressure, length, diameter tolerance and even what they used to cut it to length can have an impact on how much air it will consume. If you want to know for certain how much air and money you can save, use our free Efficiency Lab service.

EXAIR can save a lot for you!

Dave Woerner
Engineer, BSME
EXAIR Corporation

Product of the Year Award Winner- Long Super Air Knives

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment
20150327_134253
Plant Engineering’s 2014 Product of the Year Award!

 

Last week, Plant Engineering presented EXAIR’s Long Super Air Knives the Bronze award for Product of the Year in the compressed air category.  In 2014, EXAIR introduced one piece, seamless Long Super Air Knives up to 108″ in length. No other company in the world can provide a one piece compressed air operated air knife over 54″ long. This one piece design allows for minimal footprint for long units, and an unparalleled uniform sheet of laminar air flow.  These long Super Air Knives conserve compressed air over drilled pipes or a manifold of air nozzles. Their compact design excels at large web drying and cleaning operations i.e. paper, rolled steel, aluminum foils, or plastic sheets. Air knives also excel at cooling extrusions, molds, heated rollers, or components. The air knives entrain ambient air at 40:1 ratio (40 parts ambient to 1 part compressed air) which means it moves a tremendous volume of air and delivers it to your target. The Super Air Knives provide all of these benefits quietly and efficiently. The air knife creates only 69 dBA of noise at 80 PSIG of pressure and it would be a great addition in areas where anyone is trying to limit harmful noise exposure to personnel.

 

LSAKpr_110072PKI_300x300
72″ Long Super Air Knife – One Piece Air Knives available in lengths up to 108″

These air knives continue EXAIR’s history of pushing the envelope in air knife technology. In 2010, EXAIR introduced the first polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) air knife to the market. The PVDF Super Air Knives provide resistance to UV light, inorganic chemicals, solvents, ozone, weather, fungi, chlorinated hydrocarbons, highly corrosive acids, weak bases and salts while maintaining a quiet operation (69 dBA).  This material change opened EXAIR to a variety of environments that cannot be served by blowers, aluminum, or stainless steel air knives.

For any questions about EXAIR’s Air Knives please contact an Application Engineer at 1-800-903-9247.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com