Tag: halloween

Don’t BOO Safety

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

This week is one the favorite times of year of my son..… HALLOWEEN! The haul of candy aside, he loves getting to wear his new costume (this year it’s Jack Skellington from A Nightmare before Christmas), walking through the neighborhood to see all of the decorations,  and enjoying the other costumes.

Halloween

We get a lot of traffic in our neighborhood, with 6 streets running parallel and it’s all flat. As a result of the high traffic, some of our neighbors treat this as a time to compete and go all out with the decorations. So not to be outdone, one of them has decided to set up a mini haunted maze in their backyard – complete with smoke machines, strobe lights, bales of hay, cobwebs, spiders, skeletons, headstones and even a working guillotine! The kids are going to enter from the side yard and once they work their way through the maze, they pull on the guillotine’s rope to reveal the (skull) bucket of candy! Pretty ingenious and WAY more work than I would have done, but I am sure it will be a huge hit!

As they were showing me their “invention”, I started to wonder how safe this was going to be and could only imagine that some parents are going to be like me, a little concerned. They assured me that everything was going to be fine, they had our Township office inspect the maze and were able to secure a permit. Since the Township is aware that the neighborhood draws a lot of visitors, they even agreed to have volunteer firefighters assist with the operation and provide a safe(r) attraction.

Safety should also be a primary concern when implementing compressed air applications in your workplace. By using open ended pipe or tubing, you are creating an unsafe work environment, risking serious injury due to high pressure and extended exposure to extreme noise levels. All of EXAIR’s Intelligent Compressed Air Products have been designed and engineered to meet or exceed OSHA Standard 1910.242(b) for 30 psi dead end pressure and OSHA Standard 29 CFR 1910.95(a) for allowable noise exposure.

OSHA Standard 1910.242(b):
Compressed air used for cleaning. Compressed air shall not be used for cleaning purposes except where reduced to less than 30 p.s.i. and then only with effective chip guarding and personal protective equipment.

OSHA Standard 29 CFR 1910.95(a):

OSHA Noise Level

To discuss how EXAIR can help improve your plant’s safety and meet OSHA compliance, please contact an Application Engineer.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

 

Halloween Pumpkins image courtesy lobo235. Creative Commons License

Compressed Air and Halloween Candy

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Tomorrow night is Halloween. I live in a suburban subdivision with a high ratio of young families, which makes for a target-rich environment for Trick or Treaters…my boys included. We’ll allow them to enjoy a sensible portion of their haul tomorrow night, and the rest will go into the cabinet over the stove for rationing out over the next week or so.

First to disappear will be the brand name chocolates, candy bars, peanut butter cups, etc. The occasional bags of pretzels/salty snacks will find their way into school lunch bags quickly. Novelty lollipops – the kind with candy or gum in the middle – go fast in my house, but only after the chocolate has been completely exhausted. Individual hard candies linger at the bottom until they’re forgotten about, and eventually get thrown away the next time we need one of those pans we keep in that cabinet…usually when we’re preparing Thanksgiving dinner.

One of the trade publications I read regularly is “Compressed Air Best Practices” Magazine. Every month, there are featured articles that highlight how someone just saved a TON of compressed air by applying various methods and fixes to their systems. Understandably, the opportunities for the largest savings are the most popular…let’s call these the “brand name chocolates.” Common examples of this are:

  • Fixing leaks – I know of a company that saved a million SCF per year this way. (Spoiler alert: it was us.)
  • Replacing open ended blow offs with engineered products. (Spoiler alert again: we’re the undisputed industry leader for this.)

Of course, you can’t manage what you can’t measure. If you’re serious about efficiency, you’ve already got flow meters in place. If not, it’s time for a look at what’s available, and how much of a benefit you’ll get from knowing what your usage is at any given time. Continuing with my candy surplus analogy, these could be considered the novelty lollipops. Departing from the analogy, though, this should be done first (OK; it’s not a perfect analogy). An EXAIR Digital Flowmeter will give you instant, accurate indication of your air usage, and you can make a “before/after” comparison, once those leaks are fixed and your blow offs are upgraded.

Lastly, don’t forget about regular maintenance. Our USB Data Logger is a great addition to the Digital Flowmeter – it allows you to track your usage over time. Those leaks you just fixed weren’t there when the system was new. If you start to see your usage creeping up, you’ll want to find out why. Our Ultrasonic Leak Detector is a great tool for periodic checks. Use it to find any new leaks that pop up, and you’ll stop throwing away compressed air like it was candy.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: http://www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
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Halloween / Harvest and left over pumpkins.

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Well folks, it’s that time of year again.  I remember last year blogging about a transformer costume that was amazing.   I think this year the best costume I have seen so far has been this Iron Man cosplay.

At my house however the costumes aren’t quite technology advanced.  This year we will have Cinderella with red hair, and a new baby pumpkin.  Along with several jack-o-lanterns that will be carved this weekend.  Then the question is what to do with all the left over pumpkins.

The perfect answer, use compressed air and see how far you can launch them.  This is quite honestly the best recreational use of compressed air I have seen.  That’s right, I’m talking about Pumpkin Chunkin’.  This is exactly what happens when you have people with a certain skill set and some idle time.  While there aren’t any EXAIR products being used currently in this field it is still entertaining.

Since there weren’t any EXAIR products being use to chunk pumkins, I would like to share this video which shows several EXAIR Adjustable Air Amplifiers helping to create air flow and cool the brand new Corvette motor while it is dyno tested.

If you have any questions on how to use compressed air in your applications feel free to contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Angry Pumpkins

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

Pumpkin carving is set to be in full swing as people begin to celebrate Halloween, and I’m eager to do something different this year.  I’ve already begun my PLC ladder logic for the Christmas lights and I’ve decided to continue with this “geeked-out” mannerism when I carve my pumpkin.  Initially, I had no big idea for the carving, but a colleague of mine sent me a link to a site showing how to make a “Deathstar pumpkin”.  I was hooked.  But, the deathstar is a bit elaborate and time consuming so I decided to brainstorm a little.

As I considered the alternatives I found that my ideas were either way too elaborate, or completely non-existent.  I thought a bit more, trying to tie into my son’s costume this year (Captain Hook) – still nothing.  Finally, I had the idea when he asked to play his favorite game on my phone – Angry Birds!

I’ve decided to make a relief sculpture of the infamous red angry bird, with hopes my efforts turn out as well as the picture below.

I wrote last week about seeing things from a different point of view, and how we at EXAIR strive to give effort to this on a daily basis.  Our approach towards many applications often gives rise to the specific solution or sparks a series of ideas which lead to the solution.  Always brainstorming and weighing ideas against a desired outcome is one of the engineering department’s strong suits.  Whether we’re facing space restraints in an extrusion process, static control on a production line, or what to carve on a pumpkin, our minds are always working.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
leeevans@exair.com
@EXAIR_LE