Tag: industrial safety air guns

Better Working Conditions Thanks To Back Blow Safety Air Guns

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Employee appreciation covers a wide range of things that employers do for their employees. From catered lunches to SWAG (stuff we all get) to recognition for milestone anniversaries with the company, I’m sure most of us are familiar with these, and other methods to thank workers for their efforts, time, talent, and loyalty.

I had the pleasure of speaking with the production manager of a company that specialized in parts for commercial vehicles. The assembly workers in a particular department had to periodically clean grease from inside a small opening. The only practical way to do it by hand was to reach their fingers in and wipe it out, a little at a time, until it was clean. They wore gloves to reduce skin exposure to the grease, but they’d tear, meaning they either had to stop and get a new glove, or continue to wipe the grease out with their bare fingers. The latter was less time-consuming, but the environmental, safety, and health manager wasn’t keen on that. They needed a ‘hands off‘ method of removing the grease.

This particular company had a number of EXAIR Safety Air Guns that had proven their worth in reducing compressed air consumption and noise levels, so the production manager called us for a solution. The initial thought, at the plant, was to use one of our Industrial Housekeeping Products, but it sure sounded to me like a textbook application for a Back Blow Safety Air Gun.

EXAIR Back Blow Air Nozzles come in three sizes, for bores from 1/4″ to 16″ in diameter!

And it was. After a brief discussion, the production manager ordered a Model 1306SS-12-CS Heavy Duty Back Blow Safety Air Gun before we got off the phone. It comes with the Model 1006SS Back Blow Air Nozzle installed, which is specified for inside diameters from 7/8″ to 4″. They had it the next day, and reported back that not only did the operators not have to reach their fingers inside the opening anymore, the Back Blow Safety Air Gun did the job in just a couple of seconds. This made everyone happy: the production manager because of the process improvement, the environmental, safety, and health manager because of the elimination of the hazard associated with continuous grease exposure to people’s hands, and the operators because the ‘ick’ factor from one of the less favorite tasks was reduced to an occasional wipe-down of the Back Blow Safety Air Gun’s Chip Shield.

Heavy Duty Back Blow Safety Air Guns come with Chip Shields, and Rigid Extensions from 6″ to 72″ in length.

Employee appreciation can take a number of forms. Not that there’s anything wrong with pizza, anniversary & holiday parties, achievement recognition, etc., but tangible improvements to everyday operations have to be close to the top of that list. I tell people, all the time, that I’m here to help them get the most out of our products, and their compressed air systems. I felt really good about doing just that with this customer. If you’ve got a situation like this that needs improvement, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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6 Steps to get the most out of your Compressed Air System: Engineered Products

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

If you’re reading the EXAIR Blog, you’re probably well aware that compressed air is the most expensive utility in an industrial environment. The average cost to generate 1000 Standard Cubic Feet of compressed air is $0.25. If you’re familiar with how much air you use on a daily basis, you’ll understand just how quickly that adds up.

To make matters worse, many compressed air systems waste significant amounts of compressed air just through leaks. According to the Compressed Air Challenge, a typical plant that has not been well maintained will likely have a leak rate of approximately 20%!! Good luck explaining to your finance department that you’re carelessly wasting 20% of the most expensive utility.

The six steps to optimizing your compressed air system is something we cover a fair amount on this blog. And there is a real reason for that. Yes, we sell compressed air products. But we are also aware compressed air costs money to generate, so using this source responsibly is very important.

This is where the 6 steps come into play, but today we are just covering Step 3. Which is upgrading your blow off, cooling and drying operations using engineered compressed air products. (If you want to read about the other 5 steps, check them out here, Step #1, Step #2, Step #4, Step #5, Step #6)

I compare step three to replacing your house windows. We recently got some prices to replace our windows, but along with that comes the cost savings we expect to get as they are better designed now than in the 1990ies to retain your temperature inside. Thus reducing the cost to cool and heat your home.

Similar to my “upgrade” to new windows, upgrading blow offs, cooling and drying operations using engineered compressed air products is Step 3 in EXAIR’s Six Steps To Optimizing Your Compressed Air System. We’ve assigned an order to these steps in accordance with basic good engineering practice & protocol, but it’s not necessary to follow them in any particular order. In fact, all six steps really don’t apply to every single compressed air system.

Step 3 does apply to most systems, though. I spent a fair amount of time in all sorts of industrial facilities in my previous roles, and almost all the time, regardless of the industry or the size of the facility, the maintenance and production part of the facility used air guns. However, I don’t recall ever seeing an engineered nozzle on one before I came to EXAIR. Since then, I’ve worked with a bunch of users to dramatically reduce compressed air consumption by replacing their cheap and inefficient air guns with EXAIR Safety Air Guns, or by retrofitting EXAIR Super Air Nozzles onto their existing air guns. We actually carry adapters to fit our Super Air Nozzles to a number of readily commercially available air guns for that very purpose.

In addition to air guns & nozzles, our Air Knives have a long history of replacing drilled pipes & pipe manifolds with inefficient nozzles used to make a curtain of air flow. The following chart details the savings you can get from the use of a 24″ Super Air Knife instead of similar devices for a 24″ wide air curtain:

Even though an electric powered blower will use less electricity than the amount of electricity an air compressor uses to supply an engineered product like the Super Air Knife, the maintenance costs make the total cost of ownership eclipse that of the engineered Air Knife.

Our Case Study Library documents many real-world situations where customers worked with us to gather & publish “before/after” documentation, proving the benefits of Step 3. I encourage you to check those out, and if you think you might have an opportunity to do a Case Study with us, we offer discounts or credit for that…give me a call.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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VariBlast Safety Air Guns

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

For most of my life, when I brushed my teeth, I’d squeeze out enough toothpaste from the tube to cover the bristles of my toothbrush from one end to the other. That’s what the picture on the side of the toothpaste tube showed. Then, there I was at the dentist’s office one day, in the fifth decade of my life, when I was old enough to know I didn’t have EVERYTHING figured out, but I certainly had brushing my teeth down pat, and the hygienist casually mentioned something about a pea-sized drop of toothpaste being the correct amount to use. THAT couldn’t be right, I thought, but she was confident…and an industry professional…so I took her advice and started using about 1/4 of the amount of toothpaste I’d been using MY WHOLE LIFE.

Recently, I switched (at the suggestion of that same hygienist) the TYPE of toothpaste I was using (apparently protecting tooth enamel is a thing when you make it to my age), and the end of the tube itself is different from the type of tube I’d been using for decades. So different, in fact, that the same squeeze I’d been applying to get a pea-sized drop of toothpaste out now filled the bristles of my toothbrush…again! So I had to re-develop some new muscle memory before the money and time I was spending on toothpaste got all out of hand.

Developing muscle memory for repetitive tasks like that doesn’t take that long at all – turns out, it’s something most of us are really, really good at. Which brings me to the subject of this blog:

Back in 2017, EXAIR developed a new and innovative style of handheld blowoff device: the VariBlast Compact Safety Air Gun. As the name suggests, the “blast” can be “varied” by the operator’s pull of the trigger. They’re available, from stock, with a variety of our engineered Air Nozzles installed:

Rigid Extensions (in lengths up to 72″) and Chip Shields are available with all of these as well.

The VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns worked out so well, in 2021, we introduced this feature into our VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns.

VariBlast® Precision Safety Air Guns 2022 Professional Tool & Equipment News PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD WINNER

These feature our three smallest Super Air Nozzles, and they’re made for applications that need a tight, focused air flow. The Atto, Pico, and Nano Super Air Nozzles come in hard and durable 316SS or non-marring PEEK thermoplastic. Both offer superior resistance to chemical or corrosive attack. For added reach, we can put 12″ or 20″ extensions between the handle and the Air Nozzle. Like the VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns, Chip Shields are available on all models.

If you have blowoff applications where precise control by the operator is desirable, a VariBlast Precision or Compact Safety Air Gun is just what you’re looking for. If you’d like to discuss it, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Safety Air Guns: Keeping Powder Mixers Clean

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

A manufacturer that produced a blend of powders for consumers contacted EXAIR for a blow-off cleaning application.  The conversation started with the setup that they were using.  They had two large mixers that would mix different powders.  One mixer could fit a total weight between 2,200 lbs. to 4,400 lbs. (1000 kg to 2000 kg) of powder.  The second one was between 220 lbs. to 2,200 lbs. (100 kg to 1000 Kg).    They were looking for a method to clean after each mix without using liquid water.  They did have a vacuum port at one end, but the blades still had some powder remaining.  For batch consolidation and serialization, they needed to manually clean each one before the next process.  They contacted EXAIR to review our Safety Air Guns.

Because of the length of time to clean out the blenders, they needed something ergonomic and safe.  Since EXAIR has a wide range of Safety Air Guns, we were able to provide a safe and effective product.  The safety comes from our engineered nozzles which have low noise levels and cannot be dead-ended.  For this customer, I recommended the model HP1230SS-48 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun for the large mixer and model HP1230SS-12 Soft Grip Safety Air Gun for the smaller mixer.  The nozzle is a model HP1125SS High Power Stainless Steel 2” Flat Super Air Nozzle to give a wide air pattern. The suffixes of “-48” and “-12” are lengths in inches of the extensions to help get to those “hard to reach” spots.  EXAIR has extensions from 6” (152 mm) up to 72” (1,829 mm) in length.   Now they can reach deep inside to get the entire mixing blades. 

EXAIR’s Soft Grip Safety Air Gun has a durable cast aluminum body with a soft handle grip that is best suited for rugged industrial use. The ergonomic design has a larger trigger for easy operation and a convenient hanger hook for easy storage. Chip Shields for worker safety are available. EXAIR offers different Safety Air Nozzles in different materials to best suit your application.  

The operation for cleaning would start once the mixed powder is dumped to go to the next process.  The operator would turn on the vacuum and use the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun to reach inside to remove any excess powder.  What the operator enjoyed was the low noise level and the comfortable grip.  This company liked these Safety Air Guns enough to purchase eight more model HP1230-6 Soft Grip Safety Air Guns to clean around their presses for housekeeping.

Whenever you need to look at the overall process for improvement, EXAIR may have multiple solutions to offer.  We have Safety Air Guns designed for small and large processes.  You can speak to an Application Engineer to see how EXAIR can increase safety, improve efficiency, and save you money.

John Ball                                                                                     

Application Engineer

Email: johnball@exair.com

X: @EXAIR_jb

Photo: Large mixer by Charlemagne.  Pixabay Content license