Tag: pipe

There’s More Than 1 Way To Blow Some Air

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Just today I spoke with a customer who is threading the ends of pipes and needs to blow the coolant and chips out of the threads.   The pipes range from 4″ to 9 – 5/8″ Diameters.  They are all threaded then fed into a trough and pushed down line to the next operation.

PEO ACWA
A machine with an out-feed roller conveyor similar to the pipe threading machine mentioned.

The photo above is not the exact machine but you can see where if this was used to process piping the different diameter pipes would all sit at the same level.  One option could be to use a Super Air Wipe  for this application but then the smaller diameters would not pass through the center of the Air Wipe, instead they would pass through the bottom half of the airflow which may not give optimal performance. Instead, I suggested to use 4 of our 6″ Super Air Knife kits and 2 of our Electronic Flow Control units.

 

2 - 110006 - 6" Aluminum Super Air Knives coupled together w/ a 110900 SAK Connector Kit
2 – 110006 – 6″ Aluminum Super Air Knives coupled together w/ a 110900 SAK Connector Kit

I  suggested that we make two pairs of knives for this blowoff setup by coupling two of the 6″ Super Air Knives together.  Once they are coupled together like is shown above, we could mount the two coupled air knives vertically along the trough and blowing at a 45° angle toward the center of the conveyor.  The plumbing of the two bottom knives will be to one EFC while the top two knives will be plumbed to the other.    The sensors will then be set up at two different heights, lower knives to sense the bottom of the pipe and the upper knife sensor will be set just above the bottom 6″ knife.

The reason for using 4 – 6″ Super Air Knives and 2 EFCs instead of 2 – 12″ Super Air Knives and 1 EFC is to save the most compressed air possible.   By enabling them to turn the top two 6″ Super Air Knives off automatically when they are running below a 6″ diameter pipe.  Then when a larger pipe is processed the top knives will also kick on with the lower knives and provide a uniform blowoff of the product.

So if you have multiple sizes of product being processed on the same line and don’t think any one solution will work, contact us and see if we can’t come up with our own recipe.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Machine image courtesy PEO ACWA Creative Commons

 

Super Air Wipe Blows Electric Resistance Welded Pipe Clean During Manufacture

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment
SAW pipe
Super Air Wipe Blows Off Pipe

A manufacturer of Electric Resistance Welded (ERW) pipes contact us recently. They were trying to make improvements to an existing pipe mill where pipes of diameters 3-1/2” up to 8-5/8” diameter are being processed. They had previously used our Super Air Wipe product on a smaller line that produced pipe in the 2-3/8” to 3-1/2” outside diameter range with great success. So, they wanted to know what we had that could blow off the outside diameter of their large product.

It so happens that EXAIR produces the Super Air Wipe product up to 11 inch inside diameter. With such a size, the Super Air Wipe has capability to blow off and cool pipes up to about 10 inch diameter. This capability was well within the need for our customer.

Previously, the customer had been using a series of open pipes that terminated into a ring around their product to blow off coolant used during the final phases of production. This solution was extremely loud and used a large volume of air which ran continuously while the mill was in operation. Also, the finish produced was not quite as consistent as the customer wanted. The inconsistent velocity between the home made “nozzles” caused lines to form on the pipe’s outer surface finish that were not appealing.

The Super Air Wipe was able to harness the compressed air into a more manageable flow with even velocity all the way round the outside of the pipe. The sound level dropped considerably, the flow rate dropped down to a much more reasonable level for the customer and the visual quality of their final product had no lines as before.

The pipes produced at this particular facility were used in the oil and gas industry. However, any application where pipes, hoses, tubes and any other round forms need to be blown off or cooled with air create good opportunity to take advantage of the features that an EXAIR Super Air Wipe bring to the application.

Neal Raker, International Sales Manager
 nealraker@exair.com

Back At Ya!

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

This may not be big news as it happens almost every month.  EXAIR is continuing to grow our product line and this time it is something we have never done before.  This new EXAIR Engineered Solution doesn’t blow debris away, instead, it all comes back towards you.   Why would you want this you ask?  What does this new-fangled contraption look like?  Both of those questions will be answered below.

To answer the first question, why would you ever want debris to come back at you?  Well, this isn’t for just blowing any part or area out, this nozzle has been designed for a special purpose – to blow out pipes, tubes, extrusions, and even some blind holes or pockets.   This is ideal when working on a piping system that you may need to clean out and don’t want to push debris further into the system.   It is a quick and easy way to clean out chips from a saw cut operation for tubing or extrusion.  The nozzle could even be used to clean out cylinders or crank shaft openings on engine blocks.

So what is the name of this new nozzle and what does it look like?

What does it look like already!
What does it look like already!

 

The EXAIR Model 1006SS - Back Blow Nozzle
The EXAIR Model 1006SS – Back Blow Nozzle

This is it, the EXAIR model 1006SS Back Blow Nozzle.   The nozzle features a 1/4″ FNPT air inlet, a 3/4″ O.D. to fit into piping, extrusion, or holes, and two flats which allow for the use of a 5/8″ wrench to install the nozzle.   The nozzle is constructed of 316 Stainless Steel, utilizes  22 SCFM when operated at 80 psig, gives off 80 dBA and is designed for use with 7/8″ to 4″ I.D. pipe, tube, or holes.

The unit will also be available on our Safety Air Guns with Chip Shields to offer cleaning excellence and protection for the operators.  Like all of the stock EXAIR products, this is available with our 30 day guarantee.   So if you are not sure whether this nozzle will work on your application, give us a call, get one in, and put it through the paces.   If the Back Blow nozzle doesn’t meet your needs, simply let us know within 30 days from the date of purchase and we will take it back and provide you full credit.

If you want to discuss this nozzle or any other compressed air application, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Finger Face – Tsahl Levent-Levl , Creative Commons License, Some Rights Reserved

 

 

 

A (Sample) Lexicon For Compressed Air

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Every industry and different technical subject matter comes with it’s own lexicon of terms or vocabulary words.  More often than not, when speaking to an Application Engineer here at EXAIR you are going to hear words within our lexicon. The list I have compiled below is merely a sampling to help translate some terms that we forget not everyone knows.  Some of these are merely acronyms that get thrown around a good amount.

SCFM – Standard Cubic Feet per Minute – This is the unit we use to represent the volumetric flow rate of compressed gas that has already been corrected to standardized conditions of pressure and temperature.

PSIG – Pounds per square inch gauge – This is the unit which we use to represent the operating inlet pressure of the device.  When requesting this, we generally are looking for a pressure gauge to be installed directly on the inlet to the device with no other form of restrictions between the two.  For the most part, catalog consumption values are given in SCFM at 80 psig.  The main exception to that rule are the Vortex Tube based products.

Compressed Air – This is a utility that most industrial manufacturing facilities have available to them.   It is regular, atmospheric air which has been compressed by an air compressor to a higher pressure than atmospheric.  Generally speaking, compressed air systems will be at a range of 85-120 psig.

OSHA – Occupational Safety and Health Administration – This is the main federal agency that enforces two of the major conformance standards that EXAIR products meet or exceed.

29 CFR- 1910.95 (a) – Maximum allowable noise level exposure.  The great majority of EXAIR products meet or exceed this safety standard, our largest Super Air Nozzles
1910.242 (b) – This is the standard which states compressed air blow off devices cannot exceed 30 psig of dead end pressure.  This means, if the exit point of the air can be blocked the operating pressure must be below 30 psig.  The reason for this standard is to prevent air embolism which can be fatal.  All EXAIR products meet or exceed this standard by having multiple orifice discharge.

Coanda Effect – This is the effect that numerous EXAIR products utilize to amplify and entrain ambient air.   The Coanda effect is when a fluid jet (stream of compressed air) tends to be attracted to a nearby surface.  This principle was found by a Romanian aerodynamics pioneer, Henri Coandᾰ.  The picture below shows a Super Air Amplifier blowing a foam ball into the air and suspending it due to the Coanda effect on the surface of the ball.

A Super Air Amplifier's air stream causes a foam ball to be suspended in mid air thanks to the Coandᾰ effect.
A Super Air Amplifier’s air stream causes a foam ball to be suspended in mid air thanks to the Coandᾰ effect.

Rigid Pipe or Hard Pipe – This is the term we will often use when discussing the compressed air line that can be used to support and supply certain EXAIR products.  Generally we are referring to a Schedule 40 steel pipe, Type L copper line, stainless steel tube, or any form of pressure rated hard pipe that can be used for supplying compressed air.

Plenum – the state or a space in which a gas, usually air, is contained at a pressure greater than atmospheric pressure. Many of our products feature a plenum chamber. 

Again, this list is only a sample of the terminology you will hear us use when discussing compressed air applications.  If there are any other air/compressed air/fluid dynamic terms you may be unsure of, please contact us.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF