Tag: floor sweeper

The Soft Grip Super Air Scraper Easily Cleans Floors

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment
Scrape off, and blow away, stubborn debris with the Soft Grip Super Air Scraper.

Have you ever tried to remove a sticky substance with a putty knife? You scrape and scrape, then stop to remove the loose material. Then start scraping again that same area which has material remaining. It can be very time-consuming. And, if the material is on the floor, it can ergonomically hurt your back and knees.

A subcontractor that worked for an automotive company contacted EXAIR for a solution. They needed a faster, better, and easier way to remove tape from the floor. Personally, I have been through many automotive plants, and they have everything marked with tape. They use different sorts of tape to mark pedestrian walkways, machine locations, and fork truck lanes. So, when a work area gets new equipment or altered for better workflow, the tape has to be removed. And since downtime affects productivity, the work has to be done quickly. Their current mode of operation was for the staff members to work on the floor with hand scrapers to remove the tape.

The answer to the subcontractor’s problem was the EXAIR Soft Grip Super Air Scraper. This product uses a nozzle that combines a scraping blade with our 2” Flat Super Air Nozzle. It uses the mechanical force of a blade with the force of compressed air to remove stubborn sticky materials. The corrosion-resistant steel scraper is robust and durable, and they can be easily sharpened or replaced when worn. To add flexibility to the Super Air Scraper, a shim set can be used to increase the blowing force. This combination of the nozzle and the scraper is an effective and powerful way to remove material with compressed air.

Soft Grip Super Air Scraper

To get pressurized air to this patent-pending nozzle, EXAIR attached the Super Air Scraper to our Soft Grip Air Gun. The Soft Grip Air Gun has an ergonomic soft handle and a full-grip trigger for hours of use without fatigue.   We include different extensions for hard-to-reach applications ranging from 6” (152mm) to 72” (1,829mm) in length. With extensions that are 36” (914mm) and longer, EXAIR installs an additional foam grip sleeve. This gives more leverage for scraping material at a distance like at the floor level. Chip Shields can also be added to prevent blow-back onto the users.

For the subcontractor above, this was the perfect tool for their next assignment. I recommended the model 1244-36 Soft Grip Super Air Scraper which had a great length to reach the floor and a foam grip to force the blade under the tape. With the compressed air, it helped to keep the area clean during scraping and aided with the tape that was really stuck. They ordered six pieces, one for each staff member, to work the entire area to remove tape. The subcontractor was able to cut his scraping time by 75% as compared to the putty knife method above. And the staff members appreciated the need to not get on the floor.

To give some other areas for the Soft Grip Super Air Scraper, they can be used for removing gasket material, caulk, adhesives, paint, labels, and much more. If you have a “sticky” situation at your facility, an Application Engineer at EXAIR will be happy to discuss it with you.

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

Industrial Vacuums For Most Any Cleanup Need

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Vacuum cleaners…most of us think of the electric-powered devices that we clean our carpets at home with. The idea of utilizing vacuum in cleaning applications, however, predates the widespread introduction of electric power by a couple of decades. The original idea was to marry a manual vacuum generating device to a carpet sweeper. These had been around for some time, and they’re still seen today: the beater brush turns as the sweeper is pushed across the floor; it picks up dirt in the brush bristles, and deposits it in an internal receptacle. You’ve probably seen them used in restaurants to tidy up small messes on the floor, in lieu of dragging out the noisy vacuum cleaner while folks are eating.

Anyway, these first vacuum cleaners relied on a bellows, piston cylinder, or other such device that was operated by hand, foot – or, according to one source, a rocking chair – to generate a vacuum. Since it took one person to operate the vacuum generating part, and another to push the sweeper, they weren’t very popular at a time when folks were generally looking for labor SAVING products.

The proliferation of electric power around the turn of the 19th/20th century brought about electric vacuum cleaners.  Most homes have one…including the ‘shop vac’ in my garage, my home actually has three.  These are great for home use; many have long cords that allow you to clean the floors in adjacent rooms without unplugging & re-plugging, and most come with a convenient set of tools for baseboards, furniture, HVAC vents, etc.  For carpet & upholstery, they can’t be beat.

In industrial settings, though, the electric-powered models can find themselves at a disadvantage.  The impellers can clog or break, and the electric motors will, in time, burn out.  If used in wet environments, great care must be used (as with any electric products) or there can be a very real shock hazard.

EXAIR Industrial Housekeeping Products offer a solution to all of these issues.  With no moving parts or electric motors, they are extremely reliable.  If you supply them with clean air, they can run darn near indefinitely, maintenance free.  And no electric power means no shock hazard.

We have a variety of products to meet most any need.  Our Chip Vacs and Heavy Duty Dry Vacs are made for dry material cleanup.  They install (in minutes) on an open top drum, and are available with a variety of accessories…tools, drum dollies, tool holders…even the drum itself if you need one.  The Chip Vac is specified for most ‘general purpose’ jobs; the Heavy Duty Dry Vac is more powerful, and abrasion resistant, for more aggressive needs.  Both exhaust the vacuum air flow through a Filter Bag to contain the particulate in the drum.

The Heavy Duty HEPA Vac features the same high power and rugged construction as the Heavy Duty Dry Vac, but replaces the Filter Bag with a HEPA (High Efficiency Particulate Air) Filter for maximum dust containment.  These are used where critical dust removal, mold & allergen containment, or trapping airborne irritants are called for.

(Left to right) Chip Vac, Heavy Duty Dry Vac, Heavy Duty HEPA Vac
Reversible Drum Vac Family

The Reversible Drum Vac is a two-way liquid pumping system, also made for mounting on standard steel drums…closed top drums, in this case.  They can fill or empty a 55 gallon drum in 90 seconds.  Options include 5, 30, and 110 gallon drum sizes, and a High Lift model – increased suction head for deep wells, underground tanks, or higher viscosity liquids, up to 1,400 cP.

Chip Trapper Systems come complete, ready to go, right out of the box.

The Reversible Drum Vac is also at the heart of our popular and award-winning coolant filtration system: the EXAIR Chip Trapper.  A Filter Bag in the “fill” line traps chips, swarf, and shavings.  The liquid passes through, and is able to be immediately pumped back out.  Not only is coolant life extended, regular cleaning of the coolant sump prevents loss of coolant flow due to clogging of the supply lines.  The Chip Trapper is available in 30, 55, and 110 gallon sizes, and also in the High Lift version.

Speaking of two-way operation, the EXAIR Vac-u-Gun is both a vacuum AND blow gun…simply reverse the orientation of the nozzle insert to reverse the operation:

EXAIR’s Vac-u-Gun transforms in seconds from powerful vacuum to efficient blow gun.

The Vac-u-Gun is an efficient, quiet, and versatile tool with numerous applications, from vacuuming sawdust or shavings, to conveying small parts or pellets, to blowing off chips, water, coolant, or scrap.  And, just in time for Spring Cleaning season, we’re letting you find out just how handy it is, for free – by including one with any qualifying Industrial Vacuum purchase, now through April 30, 2019.

If you’d like to discuss a cleanup application, and how an EXAIR Industrial Housekeeping Product can suit your needs, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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