Tag: plant

3.2.1…Fight Robots FIGHT!

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

I have mentioned before that my undergrad degree is from the University of Cincinnati. The Combat Robotics Team was not a thing back then; in fact, robot fighting was still high-level and just coming around to the mainstream. Well, this past weekend, I had the chance to attend my first-ever PLANT at UC’s 1819 Innovation Hub.

What is PLANT, you ask? It is a class of combat robots restricted to PLA, ABS, or PETG construction materials. The bots cannot weigh more than 1 pound and have some other guidelines generally set forth by SPARC. The teams generally design these bots as scaled-down versions of the bots they plan to build and take on larger battles. In addition, they must weigh no more than 1 pound. They are mostly 3D printed, and the benefit is that they are a cost savings to manufacture and then test against other similar-sized bots to try and see how a design may work out in a larger form.

Because these bots are all 3D printed, they can test complex geometries without the cost of the machining hours. This also helps them to see the value a complex part may add or helps them to come up with other methods to manufacture the product. The entire point is for them to test on a small scale with lower impact/risk, then scale up.

Super Air Knife installed

When talking with customers here at EXAIR about projects that may require long Super Air Knives to blow off an entire conveyor belt, we will often suggest doing a scaled test. Use a 12″ Super Air Knife to test an edge or a dedicated section of the belt. If a stock EXAIR product is tested, it can be returned within 30 days of the date of the order. This means you can take a small test section, with low risk, put it in place, and test it under production scenarios for nearly a month, and then contact us to let us know whether it works or not. Get a sales return order for the shorter length, and then scale up for the full demand of the application.

EXAIR’s offering a 30-day guarantee on stock products truly reduces the risk of testing out even a full-length Super Air Knife if you want to. This can sometimes give the decision makers the last little bit of confidence that EXAIR is the correct team to work with. If you want to discuss how we can help your production lines, contact an Application Engineer today.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Compressed Air Calculations, Optimization, and Tips

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

EXAIR uses our blog platform to communicate everything from new product announcements to personal interests to safe and efficient use of compressed air. We have recently passed our 5 year anniversary of posting blogs (hard for us to believe) and I thought it appropriate to share a few of the entries which explain some more of the technical aspects of compressed air.

Here is a good blog explaining EXAIR’s 6 steps to optimization, a useful process for improving your compressed air efficiency:


One of the Above 6 steps is to provide secondary storage, a receiver tank, to eliminate pressure drops from high use intermittent applications. This blog entry addresses how to size a receiver tank properly:

Here are 5 things everyone should know about compressed air, including how to calculate the cost of compressed air:

These next few entries address a common issue we regularly assist customers with, compressed air plumbing:

In a recent blog post we discuss how to improve the efficiency of your point of use applications:

Thanks for supporting our blog over the past 5 years, we appreciate it. If you need any support with your sustainability or safety initiatives, or with your compressed air applications please contact us.  

Have a great day,
Kirk Edwards
@EXAIR_KE

Improve Your Compressed Air System: Improve Point of Use Applications

Published on by Kirk EdwardsLeave a comment

While compressor controls and efficiency are an important part of any comprehensive compressed air audit, so too, are your point of use applications. Many times these point of use locations are quickly and inexpensively improved. The first step is to identify which area of your system you would like to improve first. Certainly you will have that “problem area”, the part of the plant you know is using compressed air more than it should. This area of your plant is usually outfitted with open tubes that have the ends crimped down as a homemade nozzle or the operators are using blow-guns with commercial grade nozzles or worse yet, no nozzle at all. It’s the area of the plant that may require hearing protection due to the loud hissing of air or where that pipe with drilled holes was the quickest and cheapest fix for the application (or so you thought).

Document these areas of the plant and address these points of use by measuring the current consumption. Many times, we find, the volume of air provided by open tubes, inefficient nozzles and drilled pipes is much more than is required for the application.  Accurate compressed air measurement will be important to properly calculate the compressed air cost and savings. These points of use can be retrofitted or optimized in a couple of ways. First, you can retrofit open tubes by placing a compression fitting and engineered air nozzle on it. This will both reduce the air consumption and noise levels within the plant. Drilled pipes have holes, or slots, along the length to provide a wide area blow off. These applications can show dramatic improvement by using compressed air knives or air amplifiers which are engineered to reduce air consumption, reduce noise and maintain OSHA Compliance for dead end pressure. The second way to improve these end use applications is to install pressure regulators and lower the end use pressure which will result in lower air use.

Don’t let these end use applications go unchallenged, just because they were this way when you joined the firm does not mean they should not, or cannot be improved upon. If you get the right folks involved and keep them updated about the actions or changes you are making, you will find advocates for the projects. Remember that quantifying the savings is key so don’t start without measuring how much air you are currently using at these problem areas. Flow meters on each leg of your system or at specific high use areas of the plant will prove invaluable to providing data expressed in dollars of savings to those making decisions within your firm. The compressed air supply side personnel will also be helpful in locating or prioritizing where to start saving compressed air. Keep employees and management informed of savings and improvements and the savings ball will have more potential to keep on rolling.

Remember:

  • Measure – baseline the current conditions of compressed air use with flow meters
  • Upgrade – retrofit inefficient open blow offs, commercial grade nozzles, drilled pipes etc. with engineered  and intelligent compressed air products
  • Control air pressure – lower pressure results in lower air consumption

If you would like any assistance or support to improve your compressed air system, we’re here to help.

Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
@exair_ke