Tag: manufacturing

Founder’s Day 2026

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

Today, we paused our operations and took a moment to celebrate a legacy that goes beyond the products we build. February 22nd (or the nearest business day) marks Founder’s Day at EXAIR—a day dedicated to the memory of our founder, Roy Sweeney, on what would have been his 92nd birthday.

Roy founded EXAIR in 1983, leading us with a steady hand and an innovative spirit for 33 years. While he has been gone for nearly ten years, his presence is still felt in our hallways. For those of us who had the privilege of working side-by-side with him, he wasn’t just a leader; he was a mentor who redefined success. To Roy, achievement wasn’t measured by growth charts, but by the depth of one’s service to others.

In honor of Roy and his wife, Jackie, we treat this day as a renewal of our commitment to the world beyond our walls. The Sweeneys were pillars of the Cincinnati community, tirelessly supporting social causes and teaching us that a company’s greatest output should be kindness.

Living the Legacy of Service

We believe that to truly honor the past, we must be active participants in a better future. To turn Roy’s altruistic values into action, we are proud to highlight our Employee Volunteer Program. This initiative empowers every full-time employee to volunteer with an organization of their choice during the work week—with full pay from EXAIR.

Whether it is feeding the hungry, mentoring youth, or supporting local shelters, we want our team to follow their hearts. By providing the time and resources to research these opportunities, we aim to be a catalyst for change in the lives of those who need it most.

A Celebration of Community

Our Founder’s Day tradition includes:

  • Reflecting on our Roots: A company-wide meeting to recognize Roy’s generosity and the spark that started it all.
  • Honoring a Veteran: As a veteran himself, Roy held a deep respect for those who serve. We continue to honor that bond by providing lunch from Mission BBQ, who supports our military and first responders.
  • Investing in Others: We are proud to direct donations to local organizations that provide vital lifelines to our neighbors.

This year we have selected these organizations, who help our local communities, to receive donations as part of our Founder’s Day celebration:

DAV
Supporting disabled American veterans and their families.

Freestore Foodbank
Supplies 33 million meals per year to those in need and living in greater Cincinnati.

Lighthouse Youth and Family Services
Supporting their Safe and Supported program for LGBTQ youth.

Cincinnati Works
Partners with all willing and capable people living in poverty to assist them in advancing to economic self-sufficiency through employment.

Wave Pool
Wave Pool is a contemporary art fulfillment center where experimental art connects the community and creates change.

Bethany House
Helps homeless and at-risk families with solutions to achieve housing stability and long-term self-sufficiency.

Roy, happy birthday and thanks for the influence you continue to have in our lives. We remember everything you and Jackie have done for this company and for countless others. Today, we pledge to keep looking outside ourselves, reaching out our hands, and working collectively to improve the world around us.

Happy Founder’s Day 2026 from the entire EXAIR family.

Kirk Edwards, President
EXAIR LLC

The All-Around (Literally) Best Answer For Static Elimination: EXAIR Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipe

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Static charge is a surface phenomenon, which means it has to be addressed on the entire surface that it’s causing a problem on. For sheets, plates, films — anything that’s flat and stacked or rolled, really — EXAIR Gen4 Super Ion Air Knives are a popular solution. They generate a laminar, even curtain of ionized air that’ll dissipate the static charge on a surface up to 9 feet wide quietly, effectively…and quickly. For smaller pieces & parts, we’ve got Ion Air Jets and Ion Air Cannons that create a more focused stream of ionized air. For portability, the Gen4 Ion Air Gun is essentially a handheld version of the Ion Air Jet.

For pipe, hose, tube, wire, cable, extruded or molded continuous strands…anything that needs static elimination on all sides, really…EXAIR Super Ion Air Wipes are a great fit. They generate a uniform 360° ionized airflow to eliminate static on the surface of those kinds of products. They come in two sizes: one with a 2″ inside diameter, and one with a 4″ inside diameter. The split clamp design means you don’t have to ‘thread’ the material through…you simply undo the latch on one side and fit it back around the material or part. 

360° blow off AND fast, efficient static dissipation: EXAIR Super Ion Air Wipe.
Gen4 Super Ion Air Wipe

Both of the photos above show Super Ion Air Wipes used for plastic hose — and that is indeed a VERY popular application for them. They’re also successfully used for tubing, wire, pipe, extrusions, anything that can pass through the 2″ or 4″ inside diameter & needs to have static charge removed from it.

If you have problems with static charge, EXAIR has solutions. Give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Why Engineered Air Nozzles Outperform Open Pipes (And Cut Air Use by Up to 70%)

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Compressed air is one of the most expensive utilities in any manufacturing facility—yet it’s often treated as “free.” One of the biggest contributors to wasted compressed air is the continued use of open pipes, drilled pipes, or homemade blowoffs for cleaning, drying, and cooling applications.

While these methods may seem simple and inexpensive, they are inefficient, unsafe, noisy, and costly over time. EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles are designed to solve these exact problems. Often reducing compressed air consumption by up to 70% while improving performance.

Open pipes release compressed air directly to atmosphere with no control, no amplification, and no optimization. This creates several major issues:

Excessive Air Consumption

An open 1/4″ pipe at 80 PSIG can consume 25+ SCFM continuously. Multiply that across shifts, days, and multiple stations, and the cost quickly adds up.

Poor Performance

Open pipes create turbulent airflow that dissipates rapidly, requiring higher pressure and more air to achieve acceptable results.

High Noise Levels

Uncontrolled air release produces noise levels that can exceed OSHA limits, creating safety and compliance concerns.

Safety Risks

Open pipes can generate dangerous dead-end pressures and flying debris, posing serious injury risks to operators. Creating real situations where

What Makes EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles Different?

EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles are precision-designed to maximize force while minimizing air consumption. Instead of wasting compressed air, they use advanced airflow geometry to do more with less.

Air Amplification

EXAIR nozzles use the Coandă effect to entrain surrounding ambient air. For every unit of compressed air used, multiple units of free air are pulled into the flow—creating higher output force without increased air usage.

Optimized Flow Patterns

Rather than chaotic turbulence, engineered nozzles produce laminar, focused airflow that delivers better cleaning, drying, and cooling results at lower pressure.

Significant Air Savings

It’s common to see 30–70% reductions in air consumption when replacing open pipes with EXAIR air nozzles—often with improved performance.

Eleminate Safety Risks

Air nozzles and jets are designed to operate well above 30 PSIG while creating dead end pressures well below the OSHA limits. Giving you better performance safley.

EXAIR Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle Replaces Open Copper Pipe Blow Off

Replacing open pipes with EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles is one of the simplest and most cost-effective improvements you can make to a compressed air system.

If you’re serious about:

  • Reducing energy costs
  • Improving safety
  • Lowering noise levels
  • Getting more from your compressed air

…it’s time to stop blowing money into the air.

EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles prove that better design beats brute force—every time.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer / Sales Operations Engineer

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It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year…

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

One could make a good point about “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” being right now because…well, the song just says so, right? I can get on board with that, because I’m the world’s biggest sucker for Christmas music:

Of course, that song was used in one of my favorite ad campaigns of all time to describe a season that started a few months earlier:

But I’m going to have to go with “right now” not only for the Christmas music, but for my personal favorite EXAIR seasonal promotion:

Right now, through the end of the year, EXAIR will give you a Safety Air Gun with any Super Air Knife purchase. Not only do you get THE most efficient and quietest compressed air blowing product on the market today (we have data to back that up from a wide variety of products & devices that customers have sent in for Efficiency Lab testing), we’re going to sweeten the deal with free stuff.

First, let’s talk about the Super Air Knives:

  • They come in lengths from 3″ to 9ft. No matter how small, or big, your blowoff needs are, we’ve got you covered. If you need something longer than 9ft, they can be coupled together for a continuous, laminar airflow curtain as long as you need it to be.
Air Knife Coupling Bracket Kit
  • We make them in low cost, lightweight aluminum, tough & corrosion resistant Type 303 Stainless Steel, even tougher & more corrosion resistant Type 316 Stainless Steel, and PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) thermoplastic with Hastelloy hardware & PTFE shims for the highest level of corrosion resistance available.
PVDF Super Air Knife Kits include the Air Knife itself (PVDF body, Hastelloy C-276 hardware, and PTFE Shims,) a PTFE Shim Set, an Automatic Drain Filter Separator, and Pressure Regulator.
  • They’re efficient and quiet — for the same reason. See, the compressed air supply exits through a precise, narrow slot between the Cap & Body, which is precision finished, generating a 40:1 entrainment ratio. That means that for every SCFM of compressed air that the Super Air Knife uses, it entrains 40 SCFM of air from the surrounding environment…THAT’S efficiency. In doing so, that entrained air forms a low velocity boundary layer around the powerful, high velocity primary air stream. This layer serves to attenuate the sound level of that hard-hitting curtain of air, resulting in a sound level of only 69dBA.

And, if you order before 12/31/2025, we’ll throw in a FREE EXAIR Soft Grip Safety Air Gun, fitted with a Super Air Nozzle. If you’re using a loud, inefficient air gun for handheld blowoff, you really need to try one of these. They use the primary compressed air stream to entrain ‘free’ air from the surrounding environment as well, which generates a low velocity boundary layer for sound reduction too. The Super Air Nozzle is well suited for a wide range of industrial blowoff applications, and the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun is ideal for hours of continuous use without fatigue.

EXAIR Super Air Nozzles entrain an enormous amount of air from the surrounding environment, making them efficient, and quiet.

Need something right away? EXAIR has you covered there too: all of these (and pretty much any of our other Intelligent Compressed Air Products) are on the shelf and ready to ship, same day, with orders received by 2pm EST. If you’ve got a blowoff application that you’d like to find a safe, quiet, and efficient solution for, we can help…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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