Last week, I had a customer using a competitor’s air wipes to remove water from an extrusion. These were air wipes built from UHMW blocks or similar material with a hinge and some air holes drilled in it. He had several extrusion lines, and on each of these lines he used several air wipes. The one positive of these air wipes is they used less air than EXAIR’s Air Wipes, so on paper they seem the better choice. In practice it took 5 of these Air Wipes to do the job of one EXAIR Super Air Wipe. In addition to being more effective, EXAIR Air Wipes were also less expensive and produced a lower noise level.
The customer had two sizes of air wipes. The smaller version was a 1/2″ Air Wipe which used 8.3 SCFM (times 2 = 16.6 SCFM) at 80 PSIG, but it produced a noise level of 85 dBA. EXAIR Super Air Wipe, model number 2400, requires 13.9 SCFM and produces a quiet noise level of 75 dBA at 80 PSIG inlet pressure. EXAIR’s air wipe is able to easily remove water from an extrusion in a single pass. The 360 degree uniform blast of air works to remove water evenly and quickly. We offer the Air Wipes in aluminum and stainless steel with a braided stainless steel air line to join the two halves of a clamshell design. The EXAIR 1/2 Air Wipe produced a much better blow off while reducing noise level by 10 dBA.
The larger version of the air wipe was a 2″ unit that used 15.3 SCFM (times 3 = 45.9 SCFM) of compressed air and created 80 dBA of noise at 80 PSIG of inlet pressure. The EXAIR 2″ Super Air Wipe, model 2402, used 29.5 SCFM and lowered the sound level to 77 dBA at 80 PSIG of inlet pressure. The EXAIR Super Air Wipes also were significantly thinner than the competitive offering which allows them to fit in tighter spaces. The EXAIR 2″ Air Wipe is 1.125″ in depth, the competitor’s product was more than 4″ long. By reducing the amount of the space need on the line and reducing the number of Air Wipes needed EXAIR was able to supply a better Air Wipe for their extrusion process.
Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com