Tag: fluid handling

More And More Award Winning Products From EXAIR

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As you might expect, a LOT of things have changed at EXAIR Corporation since 1983. Most of our current senior management had yet to graduate high school, and a fair number of current employees had yet to BE BORN. According to our computer system (another BIG change since 1983), our first ten customers were here in southwest Ohio (#11 was in Michigan), and now, we sell direct across the US & Canada, and our worldwide distributor network offers representation on six continents. One thing that hasn’t changed, though, is our founder’s vision of manufacturing quiet, safe, & efficient compressed air products for process improvement in just about any industry that uses compressed air. And THAT, dear reader, continues to gain high profile attention. The photo above shows the seven awards that our products have recently won, which were announced in 2021 or early 2022. Here’s a rundown:

Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Fluid Handling) GOLD AWARD:
1/2 NPT No Drip External Mix Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles

No Drip External Mix Atomizing Spray Nozzles

The 1/2 NPT models are the latest addition to our newest product line. The External Mix version offers the highest liquid flow rate, and largest pattern coverage. Among the applications where they’ve excelled so far are:

  • Snack food provider – applying flavoring to bulk snack materials.
  • Commercial bakery – spraying cooking oil onto pans used in a conveyor oven.
  • Sporting goods manufacturer – applying adhesive to the tops of skateboard decks to glue the grip tape on.

Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Material Handling Systems) GOLD AWARD:
2-1/2 NPT 303SS Threaded Line Vac™

EXAIR's Threaded Line Vac Family
EXAIR Threaded Line Vac + Your Pipe + Compressed Air = Instant Conveyor System

For bulk material conveyance, it really doesn’t get any simpler than EXAIR Air Operated Conveyors. Stainless Steel models are especially popular when the environment – or the product – is corrosive, or hot…they’re good to 400F (204C), and can even be modified with High Temperature components for exposure up to 900F (482C). The Threaded versions have been successfully used to:

  • Recycle sprinkles applied to wafers into a return hopper in a candy production facility.
  • Replacing an auger conveyor to allow for homogenous mixing of grains & supplements in feed stock at an agricultural mill.
  • Providing a low cost solution to convey product into a hopper at a grain processing plant.

Plant Engineering 2020 Product of the Year (Maintenance Tools & Equipment) SILVER AWARD
Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Industrial Hygiene-Dust Control) WINNER
Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Health & Safety/Cleanup) PLATINUM
EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac

Like our Spray Nozzles product line, our Industrial Housekeeping Products line has also grown considerably over the years. The Deep Hole Vac-u-Gun and Heavy Duty HEPA Vac were real game changers when they came along, and the EasySwitch® Wet-Dry Vac Systems are likewise making an impact. Switching from wet to dry operation is, as advertised in the name itself, INCREDIBLY easy. Among our satisfied customers are:

Occupational Health & Safety 2021 New Product of the Year (Lab Safety) WINNER
Intellistat® Ion Air Gun™

The newest innovation in a long line of EXAIR static elimination solutions, the Model 8500 Intellistat® Ion Air Gun is made for laboratories, clean rooms, medical & electronic applications, and carries an ISO 14644-1 Class 5 rating for clean room use. Because of their rapid decay rates and lightweight construction, they’re used in a diverse range of applications and areas, including:

  • A supplier of fiberoptic parts uses an Intellistat® to remove dust and static charge from product prior to packaging.
  • A medical device manufacturer has one in a Class 7 clean room for silicone parts cleanliness.
  • A nutritional supplements maker uses their Intellistat® to remove static charge & powder residue from the tops of plastic bags before sealing them. The excess/residual powder causes them not to seal correctly.

Machine Design 2021 Big Idea! (Electrical Components) BRONZE AWARD
Gen4® Static Eliminator Power Supply

All EXAIR Gen4 Static Eliminators use one of two Power Supplies – your choice of the 2-port Model 7960, or the 4-port Model 7961.

EXAIR Static Eliminators produce ionized air via a Corona discharge, which requires high voltage, low current electricity. The Gen4® Static Eliminator Products feature armored & shielded cables with an internal ground, for safety and reliability. The ground path is completed through the cable and the Power Supply port, eliminating the need for an external ground connection. Faults in external ground connections result in the majority of the problems with those devices, so the internal ground is a “Big Idea!” indeed. The Gen4® Static Eliminator Power Supplies are switchable for 115VAC or 230VAC voltages, and are offered in 2, or 4 outlet designs, which can power any 2, or 4 EXAIR Static Eliminator Products. Like most EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products, they’re used for a wide range of applications, in a wide range of industries:

If you’d like to find out more about these, or any of our other engineered compressed air products (we’re pretty proud of them all), give me a call. I can talk about them all day long…and sometimes I do!

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Big Nozzle, Big Award…Again!

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The year was 2016, and it was quite a time for sports fans:

  • Team USA dominated at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Swimmer Michael Phelps won five Gold Medals, and gymnast Simone Biles won a Gold Medal on her own, and another for the team event, contributing to the 46 total Gold Medals won by United States Olympians.
  • The Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians took the World Series to all seven games…and extra innings in Game Seven. That makes it hard to disparage either team, but the Cubs prevailed, winning the Fall Classic for the first time in 108 years.
  • World Series heartbreak notwithstanding, Cleveland sports fans were pretty happy a few months earlier when the Cavaliers cinched the NBA Championship in seven games, defeating the heavily favored Golden State Warriors…who beat the Cavs in both of their regular season games that year.

Another big winner (non-sports) that year was EXAIR Corporation’s Model EF5010SS External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan Pattern 1/2 NPT Atomizing Spray Nozzle…it won Plant Engineering’s Product of the Year Bronze Medal Award in the Fluid Handling category. Yes, there’s a Compressed Air category, and our products have won a TON of those too…as well as some other categories:

  • Material Handling (Line Vacs)
  • Maintenance Products (Super Air Nozzles)
  • Environmental Health (High Lift Reversible Drum Vac)
  • Automation & Controls (EFC Electronic Flow Control)
Just a few of our past Product of the Year award winners in categories other than “Compressed Air”.

Anyway, now it’s 2021, and the No-Drip version of that Atomizing Spray Nozzle – Model EF6010SS – has won Plant Engineering’s GOLD Medal Award in the Fluid Handling category. Model EF6010SS offers the same performance as the EF5010SS:

  • Liquid flow rates from 141 to 303 gallons per hour (tested with water)
  • Flat fan spray dimensions from 15″ wide (6″ from target) to 25″ wide (15″ from target)
  • Atomized spray at a distance of up to 35 feet away

And, of course, the No-Drip feature means you can instantly stop liquid flow by shutting off the compressed air supply, up to 180 cycles a minute, if needed. This is a great feature to have to cut down on the cost – and the MESS – associated with overspraying.

Our comprehensive line of Atomizing Spray Nozzles has options for most any liquid that can be sprayed, with a wide range of flow rates and pattern size/shapes. The 1/2 NPT External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan model is ideally suited for liquids with higher viscosities where a higher flow rate/thicker coating is needed, as opposed to a humidification or misting application, where a smaller Atomizing Spray Nozzle might be specified. Some current, successfully reported, applications include:

  • Snack food provider – applying flavoring to bulk snack materials.
  • Commercial bakery – spraying cooking oil onto pans used in a conveyor oven.
  • Sporting goods manufacturer – applying adhesive to the tops of skateboard decks to glue the grip tape on.

If you’d like to discuss a particular liquid spraying application, I’d love to help…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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The Case For The High Lift Reversible Drum Vac

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If you need to fill -and empty – a drum with water, or water-like liquid quickly and easily, there’s really no quicker – or easier – way to do it than the EXAIR Reversible Drum Vac.  They’ve been around for decades, and are successfully used in a wide variety of applications.  The Reversible Drum Vac pulls a -96″H2O suction head on a 5, 30, 55, or 110 gallon drum, which makes it ideal for a number of typical Industrial Housekeeping or fluid handling applications.

EXAIR Reversible Drum Vac Systems come in a variety of sizes and configurations to meet the needs of most any application.

In cases where the liquid has a higher viscosity, or is below grade, the High Lift Reversible Drum Vac was developed with those exact situations in mind.  It generates a -180″H2O suction head, and comes with a 20ft vacuum hose.  Since its introduction, the High Lift Reversible Drum Vac has been successfully implemented in numerous uses where the extra suction head has been key:

  • A maker of bottled condiments (think barbecue sauce- or ketchup-like consistency) uses them to clean up accidents when bottles are overfilled, or a conveyor malfunction results in dispensing a bottle’s worth of condiment when there’s not a bottle under the nozzle.  The 20ft hose gives them the reach to service several production lines from one centrally located drum, and the two way pumping action allows them to easily pump the drum into their waste collection system.
  • A precast concrete company uses one for various cleanup applications.  The High Lift RDV‘s suction head is needed, in particular for their hydraulic oil leaks & spills.
  • A ferry operator uses one to clean out the engine room bilge.  They put the High Lift RDV on a deck above the engine room…the 20ft hose extends down to the bilge to pump it out, and when the drum is full, it reaches to the main deck so the drum can be emptied into their waste recycling company’s receptacle.
  • A construction company uses one to clean up the slurry created during concrete cutting operations.  The High Lift RDV is able to keep up with the slurry from even their largest saws, and the 20ft hose allows them to keep the drum conveniently out of the cutting area.

EXAIR High Lift Reversible Drum Vac Systems come in different configurations for 30, 55, or 110 gallon drums.

EXAIR Corporation has a variety of Industrial Vacuums to meet most any cleanup need.  They’re all compressed air operated, which means they have no electric motors to burn out, or moving parts to wear out.  If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.

***Order before 5/31/2021 and get a FREE Vac-u-Gun with any qualifying Industrial Vacuum System purchase***

Russ Bowman, CCASS

 

 

 

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Liquid Handling With Compressed Air: An Overview

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There are some very good reasons to consider an EXAIR compressed air operated Industrial Housekeeping Product for liquid applications:

*Durability. No moving parts means nothing to wear or get damaged.
*Safety. No electricity means no dragging an energized cord through a wet area.
*Convenience. All you need is a supply of compressed air.
*Reliability. If you supply it with clean, dry air, it’ll run darn near indefinitely, maintenance free.

Depending on the needs of the application, we have different models to choose from:

Reversible Drum Vacs

If you’ve got a closed top steel drum that’s in good condition, look no further than the Reversible Drum Vac System.  It comes with everything you need to turn that drum into a powerful, 2-way liquid pumping system.  This is great if you just need to park the drum in one spot and suction out a sump or tank on a regular basis, using its 10 foot Vacuum Hose & Suction Wand.  They’re in stock for your existing 30, 55, and 110 gallon drums.  A 5 Gallon Mini Reversible Drum Vac System is also available; it includes the drum as well.

Reversible Drum Vac Systems come in sizes from 5 to 110 gallons.

If you’d like a little mobility, and a way to clean up floor spills, then the Deluxe Reversible Drum Vac System might be what you’re looking for.  It adds a Drum Dolly and our Spill Recovery Kit…it consists of a floor-length wand and a dual squeegee tool.  It also comes with a set of plastic tools (crevice tool, small skimmer, and two 20″ extensions) and a Tool Holder with clips for the tools, and magnets to attach to the drum.  We keep them in stock for your existing 30 and 55 gallon drums.  It also comes in the 5 Gallon Deluxe Mini Reversible Drum Vac System (drum included.)

 

Deluxe Systems add a Spill Recovery Kit, and a Dolly for your drum.

For a complete system, the Premium Reversible Drum Vac Systems have everything you need for most any liquid drum transfer job: they add a drum, lid & latch ring, as well as a compressed air supply hose & shutoff valve, and an upgrade to Heavy Duty Aluminum Tools.  They’re available with 30, 55, or 110 gallon drums; in stock.

Premium Reversible Drum Vac Systems come with everything you need, right out of the box.

Any of the 30, 55, or 110 Gallon systems are also available with our High Lift Reversible Drum Vac.  These provide for increased performance with more viscous liquids, and/or when the liquid needs to pumped from a depth of up to 15 feet.  They are outfitted identically to the standard Reversible Drum Vac Systems, except they come with a 20 foot Vacuum Hose.

The High Lift Reversible Drum Vac System converts a drum and dolly into a mobile pumping system.

As versatile as the Reversible Drum Vacs are, we also incorporate them into another 2-way pumping system, designed to help you get maximum life and performance from machine tool coolant and cutting oils:  The award-winning Chip Trapper Systems.

The vacuum hose (1) is attached to the barbed connection of the Chip Trapper (2). The directional flow control valve on the top of the drum (3) and knob on the pump (4) are set to the “fill” position. The air supply valve is opened to permit compressed air at 80-100 psig (5.5-6.9 BAR) to flow through the pump which pulls the liquid through the hose, then into the reusable filter bag (5). When all liquid is in the drum, the air supply is turned off. The filtered liquid can then be pumped out by setting the directional flow control valve on top of the drum and the knob on the pump to the “empty” position. Once the air supply valve is opened, the air pushes the liquid back through the hose while all solids remain in the reusable filter bag.

Powered by the Reversible Drum Vac, the Chip Trapper System draws the incoming liquid into the drum through a Filter Bag, which retains (or “traps”) any particulate as the drum fills with liquid.  Then, the freshly filtered liquid can be immediately pumped back out, while the particulate remains in the bag.  Once the bag is full, simply remove the drum lid, unhook the bag, empty it out, and return it to service.  The Chip Trapper System comes with two Filter Bags, in fact, so you can clean one while you use the other.  They are available, from stock, in 30, 55, and 110 gallon sizes.  They are all three available in High Lift configuration as well, with a 20 foot Vacuum Hose.

If you’d like to find out more about safe, reliable and effective liquid handling with EXAIR’s compressed air operated Industrial Housekeeping Products, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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