Tag: industrial safety air guns

Compressed Air Safety Do’s and Don’t’s

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

DO take compressed air safety seriously. We are all familiar with the importance of safety. Almost every company has some form of annual safety training. One of the common themes of these kinds of training is that it is not just some people’s responsibility, but that it is everyone’s responsibility. Here at EXAIR we take safety seriously. All of our products are engineered with safety in mind – we even have a line of products with ‘safety’ in the name – Safety Air Guns. This is very important, as working with compressed air can present some health risks if not used properly.

OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, is an organization here in the United States that enforces governmental directives for safe and healthy working environments. They can also enforce these directives with heavy fines for violations.  With compressed air, the two most common violations are air guns and blowoff devices are described in 29CFR 1910.242(b) for dead-end pressure/chip shielding and 29CFR 1910.95(a) for maximum allowable noise exposure.

The first regulation – 29CFR 1910.242(b) – references the use of hand-held tools. DON’T use a blowoff device at more than 30psig if the compressed air can be dead-ended. If the compressed air has no other path to escape, it can penetrate the skin, causing an air embolism. A common and simple solution is to cross-drill a hole to allow an alternate path. This could create other safety issues, as we will discuss later. EXAIR’s nozzles are designed with fins which allow the air to escape and not be blocked by your skin.  So, you can safely use the EXAIR Super Air Nozzles above 30psig.

The second regulation – 29CFR 1910.95(a) – references the maximum allowable sounds level an individual should be exposed to. DON’T allow an operator to be exposed to excessive sound levels for too long. This is where the cross-drilled nozzle falls short. Although safe from dead-end pressure, the sound produced by the turbulent airflow is very loud. The engineered design of EXAIR’s nozzles entrain the surrounding air into a laminar flow, which is much quieter. Our Model 1210 Safety Air Gun (which uses our Model 1100 Nozzle) only has a sounds level of 74dBA, which is comfortably under the noise exposure limit for 8 hours.

If you want to take compressed air safety seriously, then DO use EXAIR’s line of safe, quiet and efficient Safety Air Guns and Air Nozzles. If you would like to discuss this, or any of your other compressed air application needs, then give me a call!

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Banner image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Dead End image by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay

Utility Rebates – How EXAIR Products Can Save You Money!

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

We love to talk about how our intelligent compressed air products can save you money. This has been the subject of many blogs, emails and phone calls; primarily focusing on how our products will reduce your overall air consumption. This leads to lower energy costs, which over time will save you thousands of dollars. Another way you can save money is through rebate programs.

Many electrical companies offer rebates for efficient products and programs that help reduce energy consumption. The NC Clean Energy Technology Center has created a website that consolidates this information for you on their website: www.dsireusa.org.  “DSIRE is the most comprehensive source of information on incentives and policies that support renewable and energy efficiency in the United States”. Since EXAIR’s products fall into this category, rebates can be applied to the use of our products. If there is a rebate available, you will find it on this site.

It’s easy to find what rebates are available for you by selecting your state from the map on DSIRE, and then filtering down to Technology > Energy Efficiency > Industrial Equipment > Compressed air. As an example, in Michigan there is currently a rebate from Energy Smart for using Engineered Nozzles.

Once you’ve found your rebate, give us a call! We can help you determine which of our products will allow you to take advantage of it, whether it’s one of our engineered nozzles like the above example, or any of our other intelligent compressed air products.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Image by Robert Goerman from Pixabay

What’s So Great About EXAIR Safety Air Guns?

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment
Cheap to buy; expensive to operate. And it’s loud, to boot.
Precision VariBlast Safety Air Gun offers strong blow off while reducing air use & noise levels.

You can go to almost any hardware store and buy a $10-$20 air blow gun. It’s going to be loud when you pull the trigger, it’s not likely to be compliant with OSHA standards. AND, it’s going to cost more to operate than an engineered product like an EXAIR Safety Air Gun. I actually performed an Efficiency Lab test on such a blow gun recently. First thing I did was look for the manufacturer’s published data on air usage – there was none. Testing with our calibrated rotameter showed that it used 13.5 SCFM @80psig. This same customer had purchased a Model 1809SS-CS VariBlast Precision Safety Air Gun with our Pico Super Air Nozzle installed (and a Chip Shield, which made me really respect their safety game), which uses only 4.9 SCFM @80psig.

The VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns cost them $136.00 each (2023 pricing). We used a US Department of Energy thumb rule which states that compressed air costs an average of $0.25 per 1,000 Standard Cubic Feet, and calculated that the blow guns they were using cost $158 annually, each, to operate 5 days a week, 52 weeks a year, with 3 hours of ‘trigger time’ a day:

13.5 SCFM X 60 min/hr X 3 hrs/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $157.95

Using the same math and substituting the 1809SS-CS’ air use, we see they only cost $58 per year to run:

4.9 SCFM X 60 min/hr X 3 hrs/day X 5 days/week X 52 weeks/year X $0.25/1,000 SCF = $57.33

And, again, since there are 14 of them, the customer is realizing an annual operating cost saving of over $800.00 a year!

At EXAIR, we’re in the business of making sure you get the most out of our products, and your compressed air system. If you’d like to find out what that might mean for you, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Utilizing EXAIR Accessories

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Here at EXAIR we are very proud of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products. We can spend a lot of time talking about our favorites (mine is the Vortex Tube). We have written many blogs about the advantages – no moving parts, little to no maintenance, meeting or exceeding OSHA safety standards for noise or dead end pressure. One thing we don’t talk as much about are the accessories that go along with and complement our products.

From left to right; a few value added accessories for your Vortex Tube: Hot Muffler, Cold Muffler, Automatic Drain Filter Separator, Oil Removal Filter, and Solenoid Valve/Thermostat Kit.

Some of the most commonly used accessories are our compressed air Filters and Regulators. We would recommend the use of these with all of our products (or even with products that aren’t even ours).
The Filter Separator will remove water, dirt and rust from your compressed air system. The 5-micron filter element will keep contaminants from plugging or damaging your compressed air product.
An Oil Removal Filter (always placed downstream of our Filter Separator) will provide even finer filtration by removing oil and solid particulate using a 0.03-micron element.
Our Pressure Regulators will enable you to select the operating pressure. At EXAIR we always recommend operating at the minimum pressure required to get the job done. Pressure Regulators allow you to do that, saving on unnecessary air consumption and allowing for dialing in the performance of EXAIR products within an application.

For some of our products, we have accessories made specifically for them. For use with our Line Vacs we have Line Vac Hose. We have Thermostats and Solenoid Valves to pair with our Cabinet Coolers, and for our Vortex Tubes we would recommend our Mufflers.
For our Air Knives we have several great offerings:
If you need an easy and reliable way to mount your Air Knife, then our Universal Air Knife Mounting System is what you are looking for.
If your application requires something longer than our stock Knives, or perhaps you need to control certain sections of the air flow independently, then our Coupling Bracket Kits are the perfect fit.
If you want to make plumbing your Air Knife easy, take a look at our Air Knife Plumbing Kits. They can be used for all Air Knives longer than 24″.

If you need to plumb many of our other Intelligent Compressed Air Products, then we have a selection of compressed air hoses and fittings that will make life easier.
Our Coiled Hoses pair well with our Safety Air Guns, allowing you to move more freely while operating.
Our Compressed Air Hoses are commonly used with our Industrial Housekeeping products to give the drum and dolly the reach needed.

If you need a way to mount or position your Air Nozzles, then we have our Magnetic Bases, Stay Set Hoses, and Swivel Fittings that can be added to make a complete set-up.

Whatever your application’s need is, or the product you’re looking for, we certainly have a range of complimentary accessory products that will make installation and adjustment easier. If you have any questions about these, or any other EXAIR product, feel free to contact us.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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