Tag: lathe

Compressed Air Problems? Ask An Application Engineer If An EXAIR Super Air Nozzle Is Right For You.

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

A few years back, I had the pleasure of working with a machine shop manager who wanted to reduce the compressed air consumption in their facility. They had ten lathes, machining high-tech plastic products, and used crimped copper tubing to blow off chips and shavings as the parts were turned. They ran continuously — as did the air compressor — which occasionally caused header pressure to drop below the level required for operation of the pneumatic chucks & tool changers.

These cheap and easy blow offs were making things expensive and difficult for the company.

After some discussion and an Efficiency Lab test of one of their crimped tubes, I recommended our Model 1100 1/4 NPT Zinc Aluminum Super Air Nozzles. They’re our most popular engineered Air Nozzle for typical industrial blow-off applications. They generate a forceful, focused blast of air that’s ideal for chip removal on machine tools, and they’re ideally suited for a number of other uses as well. They bought ten (one for each machine) and installed them one afternoon, right before close of business, by cutting the crimps off the copper tubes and fitting them with simple compression fittings. The whole operation took about five minutes. When the machine shop manager arrived the next morning, he was at first alarmed because there was so little noise coming from the shop (he thought something was wrong with the machines) and then impressed when he found all the lathes were running, and the Super Air Nozzles were so much quieter than the crimped tubes.

The copper tube used to have a crimped end that was aimed at the part in the chuck. They simply cut it off and used a compression fitting to install the Super Air Nozzle.

While our Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle is our most popular one, EXAIR makes a wide range of engineered Air Nozzles to meet the needs of almost any blow-off application. If you’re replacing something else, we can test your current device(s) in our Efficiency Lab (like we did the crimped copper tubing here) and determine the Air Nozzle that most closely matches the performance required for your application.

If it’s a new application, we have tools at our disposal for proper product selection too:

  • The Catalog: Our Air Nozzles & Jets catalog section lists them all, from smallest to largest, with performance data, dimensions, and airflow patterns. I actually like to start with the airflow pattern: once we know the size & shape of the needed/desired flow, we can narrow down our selection.
  • Application Database: At last count, we had over 200 blow-off applications written up. Now, that includes Air Nozzles as well as Air Knives, Air Amplifiers, and Safety Air Guns (which have Air Nozzles on them), but keep in mind what I said about picking the size & shape of the airflow.
  • Engineering Assistance: If you’re short on time, find yourself completely stumped, or just want a 2nd opinion on the best product for your application, we’re here from 7am to 4pm Eastern Time to help you over the phone, in a Live Chat, or at an Engineering Consultation web meeting. You can also email techelp@exair.com, 24/7, with details about what you’re after.

At EXAIR, we want to help you get the most out of your compressed air use. If you want to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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EXAIR’s Commitment to Sustainability

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

April 22nd is as important as ever at EXAIR

Every year, as the world celebrates Earth Day, we reflect on our environmental impact and commitment to sustainability.  This is significant at EXAIR, because it marks the annual milestone for assessing our progress and environmental goals.  As an industry leader in energy-saving and efficient products, connecting our corporate habits to environmental impact is in our nature. 

This year, we have focused on how to maintain our sustainability efforts and help provide unique solutions for industrial challenges, while also engaging with our community.  Our solutions range from optimizing compressed air applications, to utilizing innovative products to filter and reuse machine sump coolants.  We’ve also become increasingly aware of the need to conserve and properly spray water and other fluids requiring atomization.  In each case, we recognize the benefit provided for the application in terms of throughput, efficiency, and energy/material conservation.

Sustainability:

This year, our machinists collected the remnants and scraps from every CNC and lathe at EXAIR, sorted and stored them by material type, and arranged for their recycling.  We filled dozens of 55-gallon drums with wastewater, aluminum, 303 and 316 stainless steel, and brass, providing them to a local recycling center in the Cincinnati community. 

We also recycled 100% of our cardboard and mixed paper products, 80% of the trash placed in our dumpsters, and 100% of our wastewater, wood, and plastics. 

We continue to reduce the consumption of fossil fuels by focusing on local and regional vendors, preventing long delivery distances.  And, we send over 90% of our invoices electronically, eliminating the need for physical transit via postal trucking.

All the while, we look for ways to do more.

Industrial Challenges:

Our Application Engineers have provided assistance and support for customers in a myriad of industries; everything from ATEX areas in petrochemical facilities, to precision blowoff in food and beverage plants.  In all of these applications, they take the time to understand the applications so that recommended solutions minimize environmental impact and maximize the use of any energy required to solve the problem. 

EXAIR’s patented designs have a proven track record of reducing energy consumption, making them the go-to answer for environmentally conscious companies.

Community Engagement and Corporate Stewardship

Beyond our immediate operational impacts, we remain committed to the benefit of community engagement. This past year saw EXAIR’s first sponsorship of the University of Cincinnati’s Combat Robotics Team.  The young engineers who design, build, and compete in this combat robotics arena are doing so with EXAIR’s support and financial backing. 

This Earth Day, we invite other companies to join us in rethinking their processes to be more sustainable. Every step towards this goal, no matter how small, contributes to a larger change.  At EXAIR, we are proud to lead by example, showing that business success and environmental stewardship can go hand in hand.

We look forward to another year of innovative solutions, community involvement, and environmental stewardship. Together, we can make a significant impact.

Lee Evans, EXAIR

Spot Cooling, Cold Gun Promotion

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Like many companies, here at EXAIR we generally always have a promotional offering.  These rotate throughout the months and this month is no different.  The current offering involves the EXAIR Cold Gun Aircoolant Systems.

These spot cooling systems help to reduce cutting fluid use, increase production speeds, increase tool life, and has helped more customers than I know.  One customer in particular is a maintenance worker from a welded tube manufacturer.  This facility had very little amount of downtime permitted due to the high efficiency and high volume of orders.  When a machine went down the maintenance team went in like a trauma team to determine the cause of failure and get it fixed to get the line back up and running. One of the biggest problems they would have is when they would have to dry machine a quick part to get the machine back up and running, this would either ruin tools or they would have to slow down the machining time to get the surface finish and dimensions they truly needed.  After talking with us the team ordered a Single Point Cold Gun Aircoolant System as these parts were generally small enough to tackle with the single cold outlet (larger parts benefit from the dual point hose kit).

They received the spot cooler system in and sure enough a machine went down.  The crew went to work and once the broken part was located they got to work on their lathe trying to make a new piece.  The Cold Gun held itself straight to the headstock thanks to the integrated magnet and the flexible single point hose kit routed the cold air straight to the cutting insert point.  They didn’t have to fill up the liquid tank or setup the mist system on the lathe, they simply turned on the compressed air and let the lathe do the work.  They were able to take what had recently been around a three hour machine job with heavy wear on tooling to a two hour job, no finish pass was needed on the part, and their tools weren’t completely spent by the end of the job.

They got the part back into the machine, made adjustments, and then went to work getting the machine back into production.

Right now, if you would like to try out a Cold Gun Aircoolant System you can order before 12/31/21 and you will receive a free Dual Point Hose Kit with your qualified purchase.

Dual Point Hose Kit

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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EXAIR Cold Gun Promotion

Promos, Freebies, and Some Amazing Products

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Like many companies, here at EXAIR we generally always have a promotional offering.  These rotate throughout the months and this month is no different.  The current offering involves the EXAIR Cold Gun Aircoolant Systems.

These systems help to reduce cutting fluid use, increase production speeds, increase tool life, and has helped more customers than I know.  One customer in particular is a maintenance worker from a welded tube manufacturer.  This facility had very little amount of downtime permitted due to the high efficiency and high volume of orders.  When a machine went down the maintenance team were in like a trauma team to determine the cause of failure and get it remedied to get the line back up and running. One of the biggest problems they would have is when they would have to dry machine a quick part to get the machine back up and running, this would either ruin tools or they would have to slow down the machining time to get the surface finish and dimensions they truly needed.  After talking with us the team ordered a Single Point Cold Gun Aircoolant System as these parts were generally smaller shafts or machine dogs.

They received the system in and sure enough a machine went down.  The crew went to work and once the part needed was found they got to work on their lathe trying to make a new piece.  The Cold Gun held itself straight to the headstock thanks to the integrated magnet and the flexible single point hose kit routed the cold air straight to the cutting point.  They didn’t have to fill up the liquid tank or setup the mist system on the lathe, they simply turned on the compressed air and let the lathe do the work.  They were able to take what had recently been around a three hour machine job with heavy wear on tooling to a two hour job, no finish pass was needed on the part, and their tools weren’t completely spent by the end of the job.

They got the part back into the machine, made adjustments, and then went to work getting the machine back into production.

Right now, if you would like to try out a Cold Gun Aircoolant System you can order before 12/31/2019 and use the link to order through our promotion in order to receive a free Dual Point Hose Kit with your qualified purchase.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF