Tag: help

How can you protect people that don’t protect themselves?

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

My sister-in-law and my nephews are traveling from Columbus to Cincinnati for a visit this weekend. My nephews are 18 months and 3 years old, and they will find any sharp, fragile, or flammable object within walking, crawling or climbing distance. Of course they don’t consider these things dangerous. All they see are fun new toys. Yesterday, I battened down the hatches for the nephew hurricane that will be barreling down Interstate 71 this weekend, and there were more dangerous or scary items in the house that the nephews will want to use than I could hide.

At EXAIR, we strive to provide products that intelligently use compressed air, but everyday we have customers who are using compressed air in unsafe manner. We try to educate many of our customers and the industry as whole of the dangers and that can be associated with compressed air. The chief concern is that compressed air may cause an embolism by forcing air into the bloodstream through a break in the skin or body opening. Because of this risk, OSHA has laid down several rules for using compressed air for cleaning purposes inside the work place. To quote the OSHA Instruction STD 1-13.1, “The requirements for dynamic flow are such that in the case when dead ending occurs a static pressure at the main orifice shall not exceed 30 psi. This requirement is necessary in order to prevent a back pressure buildup in case the nozzle is obstructed or dead ended.

An open pipe used for cleaning violates this rule. Yet everyday I speak to a customer who are using open pipes to remove chips, dust or water from parts. If a employees hand is trapped against the open tube, serious injury will result. EXAIR’s Super Air Nozzles are designed with multiple openings and fins to protect those openings, so that air always has a path to escape.

 

Nozzle Lineup

 

The other safety concern with an open pipe is the noise level.  Open pipes can produce noise levels over 100 dBA which violates OSHA’s standard for maximum Allowable Noise Exposure for even 2 hours per day.  EXAIR Super Air Nozzles will reduce noise levels to create a safer more productive work environment.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
Davewoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW

 

Troubleshooting 101: Super Air Knife

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment

Yesterday, I was working with a customer on troubleshooting a Super Air Knife. He had brought the knife into EXAIR’s demo room so I was able to verify a few items very easily.  When trouble shooting air knives there are no moving parts, so it is very small list of items to check.

  1. Check the Air Supply

  2. Check the plumbing

  3. Check the inside of the Air Knife for debris

The customer had a 36″ Super Air Knife ,and he was seeing some weak spots in the air flow as well as a gradient in flow from one side of the knife to the other.  The first thing I did was to install a pipe tee with a pressure gauge in both ports on the bottom of the knife.  This would allow me to monitor the pressure we were supplying to the knife to calculate the air consumption and ensure the our piping was not starving the knife for air.

IMG_3735

Feeding the knife with equal pressure from both sides, is necessary for any air knife 24 inches or longer. The customer immediately noticed that the flow from the knife lost any sort of gradient, once it was fed in (2) locations. Still the air knife exhibited a spot in the flow where air velocity significantly decreased.  Since we were getting correct pressure and supplying enough air, we decided to remove the cap from the Super Air Knife.  Under the cap we found a variety of debris and one dreaded piece of PTFE plumbing tape. The plumbing tape was suppose to prevent air leaks throughout the compressed air system, but a piece had become lodged in the air gap of the Super Air Knife preventing air flow through a small portion of the Super Air Knife.  As you can see, once we followed a few simple steps to ensure proper installation of the Super Air Knife, it was quick and easy to narrow down what caused the lack of performance. This is yet another reason to make sure you have clean and dry compressed air, as well as use a point of use filter separator.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
Davewoerner@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_DW

New Computer = New Problems

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

droll_500x439At home, my wife and I have had the same laptop for quite some time.  The computer is on its third hard drive and has started showing signs that it will be needing a fourth.  So, the hunt began for a new computer. As always, I started my research and tried to find something that would fit our requirements for a new family computer.

Once I was done with the online research, we went to two big box stores and looked at the computers.  The sad thing was the amount of knowledge we were met with from the sales staff.  At one retailer the employee simply read the tag on the computer line for line. ( I had already read the same tag).  The other retailer, we couldn’t even get help.  Granted, I never asked for help  but when someone is walking through looking at every laptop and writing notes down then you might think they could have questions or the potential to purchase.

So, we went on our way and (without a salesperson’s help) narrowed it down to 3 computers with additional research and investigation.  Went and physically looked at them and came up with one winner.  So we bought it.  I got it home, installed some software and the very next day it started showing problems.  It was to the point of calling the manufacturers support line.  The guy there was great, but the problem came back.  So I took the computer back and got another one, same PC just a new machine.  Took it home and found out I couldn’t install a piece of software because the software key was already used on the old PC.  So I started to try and find a contact number or chat for the company. After spending an hour on their website in an endless loop of links that said support, I finally found a way to reach them.

Once I dialed the phone and it rang I was greeted by an automated service, finally reached a real human being and spent the next 2 hours troubleshooting and getting the problem resolved. Once I reached a person the service was pretty decent, and the problem was resolved.

homepage

The point to this story is that you will never have those issues when dealing with EXAIR.  As soon as you go to our home page you see several ways to contact us including the phone number right on the page.  Not only that, we offer you to contact us via live chat, fax, email, or even snail mail if you want.  If you choose to call in, you will be greeted by a real live person, not an automated system or an automated recording of a live person. I know I have mentioned it time and time again, but here at EXAIR we try to make sure we set ourselves apart from other companies with the level of service and products we provide.  After working here for close to four years it is growing harder and harder to see how some businesses can stay alive with the level of service they provide. EXAIR has already done the research and investigating necessary to answer your questions, we are available at your call and we are eager to assist.

Contact us, we’ll get you taken care of.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Always Here to Help

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Today when I leave from work I will be going home to hook up a 20′ enclosed trailer and drive it to Memphis, TN in order to help my brother in-law pack up his family and their belongings to move them back up to Cincinnati.  This was something that just came up last weekend and so I have spent every night working on the trailer getting it clean and in good travel condition.  I’m not doing this because I have to, it’s just the way I am, part of my nature I guess.  I volunteered to help with the process because if I found myself in the same situation he was in I know I would be looking for as much help as possible. A picture of the what is in the trailer for the trip is below.  I’m actually hauling two trailers, one inside the other.  I consider this the Turducken of the hauling industry.

This is essentially the same way we operate here at EXAIR.  If you have a compressed air issue or a problem with a process and we are able to help, we will.  We’re not going to try to draw the process out or make you wait weeks to get the items shipped out to you when you need them tomorrow.  For all stock orders received by 3:30 P.M. EST that are shipping within the United States we will ship the order same day.  This means you’ll get your product quickly and then if you have any questions on implementing the product we’ll even be here to support you over the phone, via live chat, or through e-mail.  We even have all the installation and maintenance instructions and CAD models available on our website if you want them before you order or receive the product.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF