Tag: golf ball

Golfing with EXAIR Products

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Well it’s that time of year again, at the time of writing this blog thousands are lining up in Augusta Georgia ready to see the 87th edition of the Masters Tournament! Some go for the high level of talent and golf that is played over four days. Others go for the cheap Concessions foods! I mean come on $1.50 for an egg salad and Pimento Cheese Sandwich! Sign me up!

Photo by Best of Both on Flicker.com

But here at EXAIR we happen to have a few things that can help you with your Golf Game!

  1. Forgot your Tee? No Worries we have you covered with our E-Vac Vacuum Generators! Check out the video below! (They can also be used to suction cup the ball out of a Gators mouth, RIP Chubbs)

On a serous note, when you’re not using an E-Vac as a golf tee, they are very commonly used in applications for bag and package opening, label placement, vacuum forming, leak testing and pick and place applications.

EXAIR Also has accessories to round out vacuum cup systems including vacuum cups themselves, mufflers, check valves, vacuum tubing and fittings.

2. Stuck in a sand trap and really need to get it with in a foot to knock down that par? Again we have you covered the Line Vacs can convey your ball with in inches of the hole. So all you’ll have to do is just tap it in! (Just below the best clip of Happy Gilmore is the line vac conveying some golf balls!!)

While the line vac could help you take a few strokes off your golf game, they will also help you get rid of your buckets and ladders, for filling and moving product. These small units can move large volumes of material.

They are a perfect solution for moving things like plastic pellets, textiles, food products, pills/tablets, granules and much more. By adding a small amount of compressed air through the directed nozzles on the Line Vac, you will create a vacuum on one end and a high flow of air on the other to lift and or push your material up and over to a new location.

Even though I would love to pull a air compressor behind my cart and see what people say at my local course! Both the Line vacs and E-Vacs have great industry uses. If you have anything you need to move or convey give us a call. We have a team of application engineers here M-F 7AM-4PM!

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Line Vac Makes Golf Ball Testing More Efficient

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Recently, we at EXAIR worked with a major player in the golf ball manufacturing world.  As an avid golfer myself, this was an application I could really get a ‘grip’ on and I had the ‘drive’ to propose a solution.

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Golf Ball Pyramids

The customer was involved in Research & Development, performing testing on the golf balls through robotic hitting, collection, and attribute measurement. The current set up involved the ball being hit, gravity collection into a PVC tube, and then an operator unhooking the tube, walking it over to and unloading the balls onto a rack, in the same order of hitting. The customer wanted to eliminate the manual task of the tube handling and have the balls delivered directly to the rack area.  The transfer would need to be 15′ vertically, then 15′ horizontally, before dropping down to table level.  A typical rate is only 5 balls per minute. This is a perfect application for the Line Vac, a compressed air operated conveyor.

EXAIR had previously tested golf ball conveyance, as seen in the Line Vac video below (at the 1:53 mark) where golf balls are conveyed 100′, at only 30 PSIG of supply pressure.

To present the best solution to customer, we had 2 dozen golf balls sent to us, and we set-up and simulated the actual conveyance conditions of 15′ vertical and 15′ horizontal travel. We found that the balls could be conveyed at only 20 PSIG of supply pressure, when presented one at a time. When the inlet was flooded with golf balls, simulating a worst case condition, the Line Vac was able to perform the conveyance at 60 PSIG. Operation at 80-100 PSIG is possible providing a operational safety factor.

The customer was impressed with the results and has implemented the model 6984 – 2″ Aluminum Line Vac Kit into the process, making the process more efficient.

6984
Model 6984 – 2″ Aluminum Line Vac Kit, with Auto Drain Filter Separator, Pressure Regulator, and Mounting/Coupling Kit for the Filter/Regulator

We have a team of Application Engineers that are ready to review your process and application, and help to determine if an EXAIR Line Vac can convey your material at the distance and rate desired.  We may even have you send in small sample of the material, and we can set-up, test, and share the results with you.

If you have questions about Line Vacs, or would like to talk about any of the EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Products, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or any of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Brian Bergmann
Application Engineer

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Golf Ball Pyramids by Beau B used under Creative Commons – CC BY 2.0

Help with Choosing an E-Vac Vacuum Generator

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

This is a pretty common question when it comes to Vacuum Generator use in pick-and-place application, and although we can’t boil it down to a simple table & formula based on mass (like we can with the Vacuum Cups themselves,) we can usually hone right in on it, if we have enough details of the situation. And, if questions remain, we can always test one to find out…we’ve got an Efficiency Lab.

That’s what I did, first thing this morning. I had the pleasure of speaking with a robotics instructor at a vocational school yesterday…his class was building a robot to enter in a competition, and one of the operations it needs to accomplish is picking up a golf ball and carrying it a certain distance.  This sounded like a great application for a small E-Vac Vacuum Generator, and, considering the potential leakage at the Vacuum Cup face from the dimples on the golf ball, my first instinct was to consider our Model 810002M E-Vac Low Vacuum (Porous Duty) Generator w/Muffler, and a Model 900766 Bellow Style Vacuum Cup, with a 0.73″ diameter face…our smallest, and ideally sized for a golf ball.  They, however, have a VERY limited supply of compressed air, so the difference between the Model 810002M’s compressed air consumption (2.3 SCFM @80psig) and the Model 800001M E-Vac High Vacuum (Non-Porous Duty) Generator w/Muffler (1.5 SCFM @80psig) was worth considering.  Also, we figured that they might be able to use a Model 900804 Check Valve, so the only time they’d need to supply air was to pick it up, and, possibly intermittently to maintain the vacuum.  So, golf ball in hand, off to the Efficiency Lab I went.  I also took our trusty video camera:

As you can see, it locked on to the golf ball instantly, and the Check Valve allowed the Vacuum Cup to hold the ball for over 13 seconds with no air flow to the E-Vac, proving that there isn’t much leakage at all past those dimples.  I suspect we’ll be seeing this robotics class team in the winner’s circle at the competition.

In most cases, the difference between 1.5 SCFM and 2.3 SCFM consumption may go unnoticed when picking a short-duration pick-and place vacuum generator.  The higher usage product’s supply pressure can always be regulated down to reduce compressed air consumption and use only what’s necessary to do the task…we, in fact, recommend that on ANY compressed air application.  In this case, though, it was worth finding out.

If you have a pick-and-place application that you’d like help with in selecting the right system, give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
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