Compressed Air Efficiency! “Step One”

I’m currently in the closing process of selling my first home. This is the house I got married in, brought my first child home to. Needless to say there has been a lot going on to get the place up to selling shape, one of those things was getting the HVAC system checked out to verify its running correctly and efficiently! (Spoiler, mine was running very well thank goodness)

With compressed air being considered a fourth utility its important we check the efficiency of the system and fix issues and install upgrades where we can! EXAIR has six simple steps to optimize your compressed air system. Following these steps will help you to cut electrical costs, reduce overhead, and improve your bottom line. In this blog, I will cover the first step – Measure the air consumption to find sources that use a lot of compressed air.

EXAIR Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System

Data is important to have when diagnosing wasteful and problematic areas within your compressed air system. To measure air consumption, flow meters are used to find the volume or mass of compressed air per unit of time. Flow rates are very useful data points to find problems like leaks, over-use in blow-offs, waste calculations, and comparison analysis.

The first step to optimizing compressed air systems within an industrial facility is to get a known baseline. To do so, utilizing a digital flowmeter is an ideal solution that will easily install onto a hard pipe that will give live readouts of the compressed air usage for the line it is installed on.  There is also an additional feature that we offer on the Digital Flowmeters that can help further the understanding of the compressed air demands within a facility.

The Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters are available from 2″ Sched. 40 Iron Pipe up to 8″ Sched. 40 Iron Pipe.  As well as 2″ to 4″ Copper pipe.  These will read out and with the additional Data Logger or Wireless Capability options record the information. When coupled with the wireless capability an alarm can be set for pressure drops that give live updates on the system as well as permits data review to see system trends throughout the day.

Generating a pressure and consumption profile of a system can help to pinpoint energy wasters such as timer-based drains that are dumping every hour versus level based drains that only open when needed. A scenario similar to this was the cause of an entire production line shut down nearly every day of the week for a local facility until they installed flowmeters and were able to narrow the demand location down to a filter bag house with a faulty control for the cleaning cycle.

If you would like to discuss the best digital flowmeter for your system and to better understand the benefits of pressure sensing, please contact us.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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EXAIR NEW Product Offering – Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters

Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System

The first step to optimizing compressed air systems within an industrial facility is to get a known baseline. To do so, utilizing a digital flowmeter is an ideal solution that will easily install onto a hard pipe that will give live readouts of the compressed air usage for the line it is installed on.  There is also an additional feature that we offer on the Digital Flowmeters that can help further the understanding of the compressed air demands within a facility.

The Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeters are available from 2″ Sched. 40 Iron Pipe up to 8″ Sched. 40 Iron Pipe.  As well as 2″ to 4″ Copper pipe.  These will read out and with the additional Data Logger or Wireless Capability options record the information. When coupled with the wireless capability an alarm can be set for pressure drops that give live updates on the system as well as permits data review to see trends throughout the day of the system.

EXAIR Digital Flowmeters w/ Wireless Capabilities

Generating a pressure and consumption profile of a system can help to pinpoint energy wasters such as timer-based drains that are dumping every hour versus level based drains that only open when needed. A scenario similar to this was the cause of an entire production line shut down nearly every day of the week for a local facility until they installed flowmeters and were able to narrow the demand location down to a filter baghouse with a faulty control for the cleaning cycle.

If you would like to discuss the best digital flowmeter for your system and to better understand the benefits of pressure sensing, please contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Need A Flange? We Can Do That!

I recently had a customer call in that was trying to boost an exhaust on a hot operation that he had in his facility.   We discussed what kind of fumes he was trying to evacuate and it appeared at face value that a High Temp Air Amplifier would be the perfect solution for his application.

A Model 121021 1-1/4" High Temp Air Amplifier directs hot air to a rotational mold cavity for uniform wall thickness of the plastic part.
A Model 121021 1-1/4″ High Temp Air Amplifier directs hot air to a rotational mold cavity for uniform wall thickness of the plastic part.

Then the words that strike fear into some manufacturers came out.  The customer asks, do you have any way to put a 4 bolt flange onto the unit so I can mount it straight into my piping system?   My response, “All I need are the dimensions of the flange you need and we will see what is possible.”  After a few further questions and verification, we had a drawing  with dimensions of a Flanged High Temp Air Amplifier.  We sent the drawing to the customer for approval, and once approved, we began to manufacture the custom product and provided it to the customer.  This unit will allow the customer to easily boost the exhaust on his operation and will bolt straight into his piping so there are no worries on his end about exhaust gas escaping.  His 500°F air temperature of the gases are of no concern to this special as it carries with it the high temperature rating of 700°F.  The pictures below show the Special – Flanged High Temp Air Amplifier.

IMG_5290
The air inlet and side view of the Special High Temp Air Amplifier

IMG_5291
Here you can see the low pressure side (intake) of the Special High Temp Air Amplifier.

IMG_5294
The O.D. of the flanges was 6″ with 4 – 3/4″: bolt holes. The Bolt holes were not required to align with the opposing side.

If you think there is no way we can find a product that will fit your compressed air application, or adapt a product to fit then give us a call, you might just be surprised at what we can offer in a quick turn around.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

The Bigger, The Better

One of my favorite hobbies over the summer months is going camping with my family. I grew up camping with my grandparents, brother and 2 cousins. My grandparents did have a camper but the majority of the time, the 4 of us kids, camped behind the trailer in tents. My wife on the other hand was a “newbie” to the whole camping scene so when we decided to begin this adventure we purchased a low-cost, lightweight hybrid style camper so she could have all the amenities to keep her comfortable – a bed, A/C, toilet and TV.

This year we were planning on going on an early vacation in May so I wanted to get the camper out of storage and prepare it before we left so when we got back we could start our weekend camping trips right away. I headed over to the storage lot only to find a tree branch had fallen through the roof! Needless to say, I was not a “happy camper” (pun intended). Not only that but it appeared it happened some time ago as the ceiling and certain parts of the floor were getting soft from rain. I immediately called my insurance company to file a claim and dropped the unit off at my local RV shop.

Roof 1
View of branch through the roof

Ceiling 1
Uuummmm – I need to speak to the “Branch Manager”

After about a week, I received the call from the RV shop advising of the repair costs which were about $3,000 higher than the actual value of the trailer. The insurance reviewed this information and determined the unit as a total loss and would be issuing us a check for the market value of the unit. We were somewhat bummed because we really liked our little camper and the memories we shared. Our oldest son learned to ride his bike w/o training wheels and he caught his first fish while camping in that trailer. Now that my wife is on board with camping and with the extra $ in our pocket, it’s time to shop for a bigger, new camper – I am thinking 5th wheel! This also means a truck upgrade to something bigger, at least a 3/4 ton, something I am sure will make my wife happy.

Keeping with the bigger theme, here at EXAIR we recently released our NEW 1/2″ Atomizing Nozzles. The larger size allows for higher flow rates and larger coverage areas.

Model EF5010SS
NEW Model # EF5010SS – 1/2″ NPT External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan Pattern Atomizing Nozzle

We offer the following options:

Internal Mix Narrow Angle Round Pattern – Flows up to 231 GPH, require pressurized liquid and air.

Internal Mix Wide Angle Round Pattern – Ideal for covering a large area, adjustable to a fine mist or heavy spray.

Internal Mix Flat Fan Pattern – Perfect for efficient output of costly liquids.

Internal Mix 360° Hollow Circular Pattern – Provides 360° even flow in all directions.

External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan Pattern – Able to handle thicker fluids than internal mix and providing independent air and liquid control.

Siphon Fed Round Pattern – For non-pressured liquid applications, up to 24″ of suction lift.

All of the above are also available with our No Drip feature to stop the liquid flow after the air supply has been turned off.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN