Tag: osha air nozzles

Pipe ID Clean out Made Easy With EXAIR’s Back Blow Safety Air Gun

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

In certain applications such as blowing chips or debris forward, out of a pipe or blind hole, may not be possible. The pipe may be long, making it impossible to push the debris all the way down the pipe, the other end of the pipe may not be open or there could be some process or area to which it is attached, that would become contaminated if debris were blown in that direction. In any of these scenarios, a Back Blow Nozzle is the right tool for the job. An array of holes located around the outside diameter of the Back Blow Nozzle head provides a powerful 360° airflow pattern that will pull and clear out any leftover coolant or chips ahead of it within a pipe from a machining or any other process.

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Small 1004SS easily clears debris

EXAIR has three different size Back Blow Nozzles; the 1004SS (M4 x .5), the 1006SS (1/4 NPT), and the 1008SS (1” NPT). The 1004SS is recommended for use on pipes as small as ¼” and up to 1”. The 1006SS can be used for a wide range of pipe sizes, from 7/8” up to 4”. The 1008SS nozzle offers the greatest overall force for stubborn or sticky materials stuck to the inside diameter of the pipe. This nozzle is suitable for use in pipes ranging from 2”-16”. As the Back Blow Nozzle will be blowing chips and debris back out of the pipe towards the operator, it is always recommended that a Chip Shield is used. The strong, polycarbonate Chip Shield will keep an operator safe from flying debris and keep your company in compliance with OSHA directive 1910.242(b). For visual representation of the performance of the Back Blow Nozzle, take a look at this short video clip that demonstrates its use.

All of EXAIR’s Back Blow Nozzles are available with extensions. For the 1004SS we have extensions from 6”-36”, and from 12”-72” for the 1006SS and 1008SS. The Back Blow Nozzle can also be installed on our VariBlast, Soft Grip, Heavy Duty, and Super Blast Safety Air Guns. With such a wide range of available sizes and configurations, we can tackle just about any internal pipe cleaning application. If you have a process in your facility that may benefit from the use of one of these nozzles, give us a call and get one on order today!

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Combining Products For Total Blow Off Of Objects With Complex Geometry

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

EXAIR Super Air Knives are extremely efficient at blowing off flat surfaces. The laminar air flow they generate makes a stripping/sweeping action, as opposed to the turbulent flow from a non-engineered blow off, which really just beats on the surface. If the object being blown off, though, has features such as holes, recesses, grooves, bosses, “nooks & crannies”, etc., it may be challenging to get those features 100% blown off, 100% of the time.

If the object you’re blowing off is flat, the laminar air flow from a Super Air Knife is ideal. They come in lengths from 3 inches to 9 feet long.

Depending on the size & shape of the feature presenting the challenge, the first thing we might recommend is to adjust the angle at which the Air Knife’s flow contacts the surface. For most applications, you can optimize performance by blowing at as low of an angle as practical. You may need to aim the Air Knife at a steeper angle, for example, if you’re blowing off something that’s dense (like shot blast or garnet, as opposed to dust or chips), or if it’s somewhat adherent to surface (like grease or mud, as opposed to water or light oil). This can also work if you’re trying to blow out a hole, recess, or groove in an object.

EXAIR manufactures a wide variety of engineered Air Nozzles, designed for safety, efficiency, and quiet operation.

Other times, a dedicated blow off may be necessary to pick up where the Air Knife leaves off. In situations like that, we can specify an appropriately sized Air Nozzle, Air Jet, Air Amplifier, or maybe even a smaller Air Knife, to provide more complete removal of whatever you need to get off of the object. It’s fairly common to use Air Nozzles for these applications, and our Air Nozzles & Jets catalog section is a great tool that can be used for selection. It lists them all, from smallest to largest, with airflow patterns, performance data, and dimensions.

EXAIR offers solutions for plumbing, installation, and aiming the Air Nozzle too:

  • Swivel Fittings are installed on threaded pipe, and provide 50° of angular movement. Just loosen the lock nut, aim the Nozzle, and re-tighten for rigid & secure placement.
  • Stay Set Hoses are likewise be threaded into 1/4 FNPT connections, with the Air Nozzle secured onto the other end. These come in lengths from 6″ to 36″, with 1/8 FNPT or 1/4 MNPT threads for the Air Nozzle.
EXAIR Stay Set Hoses and Swivel Fittings are ideal for installation and positioning of your Super Air Nozzle.

Metal tubing with compression fittings is another option, that can be used to install & aim an Air Nozzle. Copper tubing is relatively easy to bend by hand. Stainless steel tubing usually requires a tube bender tool, with the advantage that it can’t easily be bent by hand…on purpose or by accident. While metal tubing is certainly an option, it is generally reserved for applications where the ability to readjust is not necessary. The Stay Set hoses and Swivel Fittings tend to work better when flexibility is required.

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.

If you’ve got a blow off application that’s not working the way you want it to, it’s highly likely that EXAIR has a solution. We would love to share our ideas with you. Give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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VariBlast Safety Air Guns For The Ultimate In Operator Control

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

EXAIR’s mission to be “easy to do business with” is downright invasive to our work culture here. Our Order Entry department answer the phone, so whether you’re calling to place an order or just check price and availability, a live person picks up on the call and can begin helping you right away. If you have questions about your application and/or product selection, they’ll transfer you to an Application Engineer like me, who has ALL the answers. OK, sometimes those answers reside in the spaces of our Engineering, Production, Shipping, or Quality departments, but I can reach ANY of those areas in 45 seconds or less (yes, I just timed myself on that). We ship stock product same day with orders received by 2pm Eastern Standard/Daylight Time, and our 30-Day Unconditional Guarantee makes trying something out risk-free to you.

One of the most underrated ways that EXAIR is easy to do business with is this: all of our products are as EXTREMELY user-friendly with regard to installation, operation, and maintenance. You don’t need to contract with millwrights, pipe fitters, engineering firms, or mechanical (or electrical) contractors to install ANY of our engineered compressed air products. In most cases, you just need basic hand tools.

The part about “ease of operation” is especially true about our VariBlast Precision, and Compact Safety Air Guns. They can be adequately supplied with a standard 1/4″ or 3/8″ ID (depending on the hose length, and the Nozzle installed) compressed air hose. Rebuild Kits are on the shelf, which can restore worn trigger assemblies to ‘as new’ operation in minutes. And, the variable flow trigger means the operator has full control of the flow & force, over the entirety of the range of operation.

The VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns are durable & lightweight. They can be fitted with any of our three smallest Super Air Nozzles: the Atto, the Pico, and the Nano, depending on the amount of flow & force, and the size of the airflow pattern you need:

Atto, Pico, and Nano Super Air Nozzles are available in corrosion resistant 316SS, or non-marring PEEK thermoplastic.

The gooseneck extension is available in 6″, 12″, and 20″ lengths. They can all be fitted with Chip Shields as well, for full compliance with OSHA Standard 1910.242(b).

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

Like the VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns, the VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns feature a variable flow trigger, giving the operator precise control over the air flow & force. Also like the Precisions, the Compacts are available with the Atto, Pico, and Nano Super Air Nozzles, and any of our other 1/8 NPT engineered Air Nozzles:

All of these can be fitted with rigid extensions from 6″ to 72″ in length, and Chip Shields.

The VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns can also be fitted with EXAIR’s Model 1004SS Back Blow Air Nozzle, which is ideal for cleaning out small diameter tubes, pipes, channels and holes, from 1/4″ to 1″ inside diameter. These all come with Chip Shields and your choice of a 6″, 12″, 24″, or 36″ rigid extension.

Atto Back Blow Nozzles can blow out recesses or holes as small as 1/4″ in diameter.

Compressed air isn’t cheap, and if you use cheap, non-engineered blow offs, you’re going to pay WAY more to operate them than you have to. If you want to find out how the VariBlast Precision or Compact Safety Air Guns – or any EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products – can help you get the most out of your compressed air system, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Optimizing Your Compressed Air Usage With Engineered Products

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

The first new car I ever bought was a 1995 Ford Escort Wagon. I’ve mentioned this before in posts about preventive maintenance, the importance of proper filtration, and brand loyalty. Those blogs were primarily about my experiences with that little red wagon, but today I wanted to discuss the primary reason I bought the car in the first place.

I had a 50-mile round trip commute to work, and my old Pontiac Grand Prix with the small block V8 engine was a great ride for sure. Some quick math, however, showed that if I went with something with better gas mileage, I could save quite a bit of money on gasoline. My calculation was almost $1,000 a year, just on driving back & forth to work. After figuring in the rest of my driving for the first year, it was more like $1,400 a year.

Similar to my “upgrade” to a more fuel efficient vehicle, upgrading blowoff, 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, servicing industrial & chemical pumps, and almost all the time, regardless of the industry or the size of the facility, the maintenance 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.

The five families of EXAIR handheld blowoff products include VariBlast Precision & Compact, Soft Grip, Heavy Duty, SuperBlast, and TurboBlast Safety Air Guns. They’re available with a range of engineered Super Air Nozzles, Extensions, and Chip Shields.

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 realize 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 (registration required, but it’s free & fast) documents many real-world situations where customers worked with us to gather & publish “before/after” documentation, proving out 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.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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