Tag: food blowoff

Super Air Knife in the Food Industry: Cheese Blowoff

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

I was recently contacted by a manufacturer of specialty food products that was looking to increase productivity on one of their packaging lines. In order to do so, they needed a longer Super Air Knife.

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Model 110012SS-316 Super Air Knife

They manufacture a variety of different products, but this application involved small snack-sized blocks of cheese. They’re placed into individual plastic containers, and before they seal the packaging any residual particles must be blown off, or affect the seal. Any residual particles of cheese around the container would allow air to come into contact with the product and affect shelf-life.

In the current setup, the customer is using EXAIR’s Model 110012SS-316 a 12” 316 grade Stainless Steel Super Air Knife, and the Model 9060 Universal Mounting System. They wanted to add in an additional two rows of cheese to help increase throughput. To do so, he needed an overall width of 18”. We do have an 18” available from stock, but rather than having a spare 12” model lying around, he wanted to try and utilize what he had without having to purchase an entirely new knife.

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Model 9060 Universal Mounting System

Fortunately, EXAIR’s Super Air Knives can be coupled together to create a wide variety of different lengths. From stock, the Super Air Knife is available from 3”-108”. With the help of a Super Air Knife Coupling kit, we can achieve much longer lengths. In this case, although we did have an 18” knife available, we could also couple the existing 110012SS-316 (12”) with our Model 110006SS-316 (6”). This option was a bit cheaper than going with a new knife, and still allowed them to utilize the 12” that they already had.

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Coupling Kit for Aluminum Super Air Knives

While this isn’t the typical application we’d recommend a coupling kit, it was an option that allowed the customer to save a bit of money but still get the same effect that they’d achieve with the 18”, single piece Air Knife. We also manufacture a wide variety of custom knives per customer specifications. If you’ve got an odd application that you don’t think is best served by a stock offering, give us a call. An Application Engineer will be happy to take a look at your application and help recommend the most suitable product.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Adjusting Mounting Angle Helps Food Packaging Manufacturer Enhance their Super Air Knife Blowoff

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

EXAIR’s Super Air Knives are the ideal fit for any application requiring a laminar “curtain” of air for blowoff purposes. The high-velocity airflow does an excellent job of cleaning off surfaces, cooling, and drying in a wide variety of applications throughout industry. These products are engineered to provide a consistent and reliable force across the full length of the knife, ensuring repeatable performance in any application.

The Super Air Knife utilizes a source of compressed air to create a laminar sheet of high velocity air. This supplied compressed air mixes with ambient air that is entrained into the primary airstream. The Super Air Knife entrains ambient air at a rate of 40:1, making it VERY effective for a variety of drying, cleaning, and cooling applications. Available in lengths ranging from 3”-108” and in a variety of different materials of construction, there’s a Super Air Knife available for just about any application. Any time you have product moving along a conveyor that needs to be cleaned, dried, or cooled off, a Super Air Knife is the ideal fit.

The key to any successful Super Air Knife application is ensuring proper plumbing is assembled to the Air Knife as well as the correct mounting angle for the blowoff. This was the case in a recent application I assisted with for a company who deals in packaging raw foods using a method to increase longevity. The foods are bagged where they’re submerged in a water tank and exposed to high pressures. This process results in a significantly greater ability to preserve the quality of the food and keep any bacteria at bay for longer than just simply sealing the bags alone.

Once the products emerge from the water bath, they’re placed on a conveyor to dry. EXAIR’s Super Air Knives are being used to blowoff any remaining water from the package before they’re boxed. Looking to speed up the process a bit as they had residual water remaining on the packages that was being dried manually, they reached out to EXAIR for some assistance in improving the overall result.

As you can see in the photo above, the knife has been installed blowing directly down onto the conveyor. When positioned in this way, the product is only in contact with the high velocity airstream for a brief moment. For any blowoff operation where products are traveling along a conveyor, we want to angle the knife against the direction of travel to maximize time in contact. By blowing against the direction of travel, we maximize the contact time and can dry the packaged food far more effectively.

A situation that originally started with the customer looking to either increase air consumption by adding thicker shims to their existing Air Knife or adding new Air Knives altogether was solved by simply adjusting the current angle of their existing installation.

In doing so, they saved what would’ve been unnecessary compressed air usage and were able to immediately case pack the food in boxes once it made it to the end of the conveyor. If you have an existing EXAIR product that you’d like assistance with, EXAIR’s team of Application Engineers is ready to take your call. Reach out to us today, and we’ll be happy to help you to determine the best products for your application!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Cookie Blowoff Using The Full-Flow Air Knife

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

A machine manufacturer was working with a food company who was looking to design a blowoff station for their cookie making process. During the production cycle, the cookie dough is put into a former that pushes the dough through round dyes that forms several rows of cookies across a conveyor. As the cookies travel down the conveyor, they are topped with ground peanut bits and sent through a flash freezing process. It was after this process, the company was looking to install the blowoff station to remove any excess peanut bits but were concerned if the air velocity was too high, they may remove too much of the ground peanuts or possibly blow the cookies themselves off of the conveyor. Another area of concern was the amount of space available to install the station was limited, so they were needing something “compact” so they could design the machine to take the least amount of real estate as possible.

The machine designer was somewhat familiar with our Air Knives, but was unsure which design would best fit the customer’s needs so they decided to reach out for assistance. After discussing the particulars, I recommended our 36″ Stainless Steel Full-Flow Air Knife Kit. Of the 3 designs of Air Knife we offer, the Super, Standard and Full-Flow, the Full-Flow Air Knife produces the lowest outlet velocities, it is also our smallest profile offering at only 1.25″ x 1″  for stainless steel construction. The Full-Flow Air Knife provides a laminar flow of air the entire length of the knife and uses a 30:1 amplification rate (entrained air to compressed air) for efficient compressed air usage. By incorporating the pressure regulator included in the kit, they would be able to easily control the exiting air velocity to effectively remove the excess peanut bits without ejecting the cookies from the line.

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The Full-Flow Air Knife is the ideal choice where mounting space is limited. Lengths available up to 36″ in aluminum or stainless steel construction.

For assistance in selecting the best Air Knife to fit your needs or for additional support with another application or EXAIR product, give me a call at 800-903-9247, I’d be happy to help.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN