Tag: foot pedal

EXAIR Solenoid Valves and Ball Valves

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

EXAIR has been a pioneer in compressed air products for efficiency, safety, and quality.  We have designed our products using some interesting inventors from the past; like Henri Coanda and Giovanni Venturi.  These fluid dynamic engineers found a way to entrain ambient air.  We use these phenomena to increase the efficiency of our products by adding free ambient air to the airstream.  This will create a hard-hitting force without using a lot of compressed air.  Since compressed air is very expensive to produce, it will save you much money when using our blow-off devices.  To save even more money, EXAIR does offer valves to turn off the compressed air supply when not in use.  In this blog, I will go over the types of valves that we have.

The Manual Valves allow operators to turn on and off their system by hand. The full-flow ball valves range from ¼” NPT to 1 1/4” NPT in size and will not restrict flows.  EXAIR also offers a manual foot pedal valve for hands-free operations.  This ¼” NPT foot valve has a 3-way operation and works great if the operator has to use both hands in their process.

EXAIR also offers Solenoid Valves to turn on and off the supply of compressed air electrically for automated systems. We offer Solenoid Valves in three different voltages; 110Vac, 240Vac, and 24Vdc.  They have a large range of flows with ports ranging from ¼” NPT to 1” NPT.  All models are UL listed and are CE and RoHS compliant.

In more elaborate situations, EXAIR has attached these solenoid valves to a miniature PLC-like controller.  It is called the Electronic Flow Control, or EFC.  It uses a photoelectric eye to detect the part and trigger a timing sequence.  We have eight different timing operations to best combine the trigger mechanism with the blow-off device.  This is the next step in optimization, which will keep the compressed air usage to a minimum. 

EXAIR created a chart that shows “Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System.”  Even though EXAIR has the most efficient products on the market for pneumatic systems, we still want to help our customers save even more money.  When not in use, the compressed air should be turned off, according to the fourth step.  In this blog, I discussed some products that can assist you with this.  If you wish to discuss further how to optimize your compressed air system, an Application Engineer at EXAIR will be happy to assist you. 

John Ball
Application Engineer


Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

“It’s Not Rocket Science”, or How Compressed Air Has Straightforward Applications In Aerospace

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

On the submarine I served on, many of us used math, specific to our jobs. Torpedo (and missile) fire control, navigation, reactor operations…even meal cooking…involved certain formulas to accomplish particular tasks. One formula we all knew and kept near & dear to our hearts, though, was:

Number of surfaces = Number of dives

And those who fly aircraft and spacecraft, in – and out of – the atmosphere, have a similar formula:

Number of landings = Number of takeoffs

While this certainly requires a great deal of skill of the operators (as does diving and surfacing a submarine), it also takes a great deal of technical acumen in the engineering and construction of those aircraft & spacecraft (and warships). Terms like “aircraft grade” inspire a high degree of confidence in the integrity of materials, and rightly so – the quality standards that manufacturers and suppliers are held accountable to are stringent and inviolate. That’s why aerospace professionals need reliable, durable, and effective equipment to do their jobs.

EXAIR Corporation has been providing this kind of equipment to the aerospace industry (and others) since 1983. Here are some examples of the applications we’ve worked with “steely eyed missile men” to solve:

  • A jet engine manufacturer makes a titanium assembly consisting of a honeycomb shaped extrusion bonded to a rigid sheet. The cells of the honeycomb are only 1/8” wide, and 3/8” deep. After fabrication, they’re washed & rinsed, and the tiny cells tend to hold water. They would invert & tap the assembly to try to get the water out, but that wasn’t always effective and occasionally led to damaging the assembly. To reduce the chance of damage (and loss) of an assembly, they built a cleaning station, using EXAIR Model HP1125 2” High Power Super Air Nozzles and Model 9040 Foot Pedals, for hands-free control of the high force blow out of the honeycomb cells. The results were increased production, decreased defects, and lower labor costs.
  • A machine shop makes composite material parts for the aerospace industry. Static charge would build up, causing the shavings to cling to most of the surfaces inside the machine. The vacuum system was unable to overcome the force of the static charge to remove it, so they called EXAIR. Our expertise in static elimination led to the specification of a Model 8494 Gen4 Stay Set Ion Air Jet System to direct ionized air onto the tool during cutting. This eliminated the static as it was generated on the shavings, allowing the vacuum system to perform as advertised. Not only did it make for a cleaner work station, the air flow provided cooling for the cutting tool, improving performance & extending life.
  • If a company works with metal parts, there’s a decent chance they operate a welding machine, and those things make smoke & fumes that, at best, are a nuisance, and at worst, are toxic. An airplane repair shop that has to weld in tight spaces needed a convenient, portable, compact way to evacuate the welding smoke and fumes. They chose a Model 120024 4” Super Air Amplifier. They’re capable of pulling in over 700 SCFM, and with a sound level of only 73dBA and lightweight aluminum construction, they’re an ideal fit for this application.
  • Certain satellites have components whose batteries must be fully charged to ensure that everything works just right. Because of the heat that charging generates, they couldn’t be charged with the spacecraft on the launch pad without cooling. Conventional methods of providing cold air (refrigerant based or cold water chillers) are too bulky, so they instead use a Model 3230 Medium Vortex Tube, capable of providing 2,000 Btu/hr worth of cooling air flow. This enables them to charge the battery until just prior to launch, making sure the batteries are as fully charged as possible, prior to deployment.
  • While the lion’s share of Vortex Tube applications involve the use of their cold flow, a number of folks do use the hot air flow, with great success. A major material supplier to the aircraft & aerospace industry makes a flexible, porous strand of material that, after fabrication, passes through a wash tank prior to cutting to size. They wanted to speed up the drying time, but it was impractical to use electrically powered hot air blowers or heat guns. By using an EXAIR Model 3275 Large Vortex Tube set to a 70% Cold Fraction, they’re able to blow a little over 22 SCFM of 220°F air onto the strand, which effectively dries it to their specification, quickly & safely.
These are some of the EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products used in the aerospace industry.

Exacting jobs call for safe, efficient, and reliable tools. Even if your job “isn’t rocket science”, the value of the right tool cannot be stressed enough. If you use – or want to use – compressed air for such a task, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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“Math Wall” image courtesy of João Trindade, Creative Commons License

How To Plumb and Use EXAIR Model 9040 Foot Valve

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

If you’re looking for a convenient, hands-free (but still operator controlled) method of operating a compressed air product, look no further than the EXAIR Model 9040 Foot Valve. Here’s how to install and operate it:

This is one of many ways we can help you optimize, automate, and simplify your use of your compressed air.  If you’ve got an application you’d like assistance with, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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1004SS Back Blow Air Nozzle Clean Inside Small Diameters

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

Model: 1004SS

A metal fabricator made stainless steel tubes with a ½” (13mm) inner diameter.  Their process started by cutting the tubes into 8” (203mm) lengths.  The tubes would go through a wash system, then to a honing machine.   Once the inner diameter was honed to the specific diameter and concentricity, the tubes would be washed again for packaging.  The honing machine used oil to accurately grind the inner diameter.  Since oil and water does not mix, they had to dry the I.D. before honing.  They contacted EXAIR to see if we could find a solution.

Back Blow Air Nozzle Family

For cleaning the I.D. of parts, EXAIR manufactures three different sizes of Back Blow Air Nozzles that are designed to clean inside tubing, pipes, hoses, and channels.  They can range from internal diameters from ¼” (6.3mm) up to 16” (406mm).  The 360o rear airflow pattern can “wipe” the entire internal surface without contacting the surface to remove water, coolant, chips, and debris.  In reviewing the inner diameter above, I was able to recommend a model 1004SS Back Blow Air Nozzle.  This 316SS robust designed nozzle can fit inside and clean tubes with internal dimensions ranging from ¼” (6.3mm) to 1” (25mm); perfect for the ½” (13mm) diameter tube.

Model: 1604SS-12-CS

The customer indicated to me that there was a rush to start this project.  EXAIR stocks thousands of cataloged items for same day shipping.  He asked if EXAIR had any other components to help them to expedite their drying process.  Well, of course we do!  Since the tube was 8” (203mm) long, EXAIR has extension tubes that are used with our VariBlast Compact Back Blow Safety Air Gun.  We have them ranging from 6” (152mm) to 72” (1829mm) in incremental lengths.  For this customer, I recommended the 12” (305mm) extension to reach through the tube.  And, since it was a manual operation, I also recommended the model 9040 Foot Valve.

Model 9040 Foot Valve

Their operator could place the tube over the model 1004SS Back Blow Nozzle and with the Foot Valve, turn on the compressed air to dry the tubes.  With the powerful air stream, the entire internal surface was dry for the honing process to follow.

If you need to clean the inside of tubes, hoses, pipes, etc., EXAIR has the perfect nozzles for you, the Back Blow Air Nozzles.  EXAIR can attach these nozzles to our VariBlast Compact, Soft Grip and Heavy Duty Safety Air Guns for easy-to-use operations.  For this customer above, they were able to use components to get the operation running the next day.  If you need more information, you can share your application with an Application Engineer at EXAIR.  We will be happy to help.

John Ball
Application Engineer

Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb