Tag: positive

Round and Round They Go…. Rotary Compressors: How They Work

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Positive-displacement and dynamic displacement compressors are the two high level principles for the generation of compressed air or gas. Positive displacement types are the most common found in industrial facilities. These units draw ambient air into a chamber which it seals off and then works to compress and squeeze it down into a smaller volume. The air is then discharged into the outlet system of the compressor. Out of the many types of positive displacement compressors, today we are going to discuss the rotary style positive displacement air compressors.

1 – Simplified Rotary Vane Compressor



These are available in both lubricant-free as well as lubricant-injected versions. The main function of the compressor is the same, both have two inter-meshing rotors what pull air into the inlet port and then after the rotational processing of the compressor the air is discharged through a discharge port. The in between of the ports is where the important information lies. The air after being sucked into the inlet gets pulled in between two lobes and the stator. As the air is being trapped the space between the lobes becomes increasingly smaller, thus increasing the pressure of the air transferring it to the discharge port.

The lubricated versions will often help to dissipate the heat that is created as the air is being compressed. This lubricant is then possible to transfer into the compressed air stream and must be removed before a point of use product if lubricant-free air is needed for the process. These compressors rank amongst the lower efficiencies in the positive displacement air compressors.

If you are visual learner, feel free to take a few minutes for the video below.

2 – Rotary Compressor Operation


If you would like to discuss the way to get the most out of your compressor, no matter the type, contact an Application Engineer and let us help you determine the most efficient way to use the air effectively.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

1 – Rotary vane.png – R. Castelnuovo, 10/20/2005 – retrieve from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rotary_vane.png

2 – Rotary compressor operation – HVACRinfo.com – 8/1/2016 – retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxDEK3Ymx30

ROI – Worth Looking at the Details

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ROI or Return On Investment is a way to gauge the productivity or profit/loss from money spent on an investment. In business, companies will use this information to determine if a project or investment is worth the risk, ultimately leading to a net profit gain as the end result.

Don’t waste your money

In my own personal experience, my wife and I were considering buying into a timeshare vacation property a few years ago. To enter into the agreement, the company required a $ 22,000 “buy-in” (financed of course) and a recurring cost of approximately $60/month for the next 22 years. This would have afforded us 124 “points” for nightly stays on our planned vacation. Their timeshare rentals are tiered into different room types – Studio, 1 bedroom, 2 bedroom or a 3 bedroom villas – with each room type costing a certain amount of points. For us to maximize the length of our stay, we would have to select the studio room which would have given 6 nights at a total of the 124 points.

We have visited this popular vacation destination several times so we know what the average cost is to spend a week on property and purchase theme park tickets for our stay. When we booked on our own, we spent on average a little less than $ 3,000 for 7 days which included our room each night and 6 day park passes per person.

The timeshare rental cost was just for the nightly stay, it didn’t include any park tickets, food or other recreations. On average, the cost for 6 days worth of park passes per adult is close to $ 450.00 and per child it was around $ 400.00. Considering there are 2 adults and 1 child (at the time) we had to pay an additional cost of $ 1,300.00.

So if we joined the timeshare and stayed for 1 week once a year, it was going to cost us approximately $ 3,020.00 ($ 1,720.00 (timeshare cost) + $ 1,300.00 in tickets). In this case, it was actually going to cost us MORE in the long run than if we booked a yearly vacation on our own (< $3,000), leading to a negative ROI. (not to mention, I really didn’t want to commit to the same vacation for the next 22 years!).

When discussing replacement compressed air blowoff solutions with a customer, many times they look at the purchase price of the device and question if it’s worth it for them to make a change. If you follow along with our blog, you will notice that over the last few months we have submitted several different entries relating to this topic, like replacing drilled pipe with our 12″ Super Air Knife resulting in a 47 day ROI or where a customer replaced 4 open copper tubes with our 1110SS Nano Super Air Nozzle and recurring their expenses in just 38 days. In these instances, we show the calculations in regards to the true cost of ownership and how quickly you can recover capital funds when considering the whole scope of the project.

At EXAIR, we are committed to providing Intelligent Compressed Air® Products that reduce compressed air consumption leading to a more efficient process, as well as increasing operator safety. If you are considering an EXAIR solution for your current process but have questions about price or performance, contact one of our application engineers for assistance.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

 

Little things add up image courtesy of Nic McPhee via creative commons license

EXAIR Static Eliminators Surpass Passive Static Eliminators

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

The question comes up quite a bit around this time of year as to why an EXAIR Static Eliminator is better than using a passive static eliminator to eliminate the static.   To further the explanation of a passive static eliminator, it is typically called static tinsel and is found in a variety of forms. Passive eliminators are grounded wire or strap and must come in contact with the surface of a part in order to dissipate the static charge on only that surface.  This is generally found in the form of a bare wire or some type of conductive material (copper) that is strung across the path of your parts and must come into contact with the surface of your part.   A conductive material bar is shown below.

Passive Static Eliminating Bar
Passive Static Eliminating Bar

In order for this to eliminate the static on the part you must have the fabric actually contact the surface of your part.   There are several points that this can cause an issue, the first being this item drags across the surface of your product which can wear the conductive fibers down leading to the eliminators needing to be replaced.   Second, if you have a delicate, printed, or high gloss surface, you may not want anything to touch the surface and risk a blemish.   Third, these can collect dirt and debris which may become transferred to the product.   Last, complicated shapes cannot easily be met with the passive static eliminators, these are only going to work well with flat surfaces.

Active static eliminators, such as the Static Eliminators Product Line from EXAIR offers a variety of ways to actively eliminate the static on a surface without ever touching the product.   These are ideal for delicate surfaces, painted surfaces, complicated shapes, or even flat sheets.  The EXAIR line is available with or without compressed air assist which will not only utilize your compressed air efficiently while eliminating a static charge but also blow the debris or particulate off the part.   Units without compressed air operation can eliminate static charges up to 2″ away from a surface while a unit with compressed air will eliminate static up to 20′ away.

A Sample of EXAIR Static Eliminators
A Sample of EXAIR Static Eliminators

 

Because the units do not contact the parts there is no need for being concerned about contamination being transferred to the part, the eliminators will not wear down from dragging across a part or surface. EXAIR static eliminators are also low maintenance products.

To top it all off EXAIR will honor a 30 day guarantee to test the products in your facility.  As well as honor a 5 year built to last warranty on compressed air products and a 1 year warranty on any electrical component.

If you would like to eliminate your static problems, contact us. 

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

 

Ion Bars Remove Static, Help Improve Labeling Quality

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

I worked with a customer recently who was experiencing a static issue when trying to apply a bar coded label to their cardboard box. The boxes travel down a conveyor then passes by a labeler that uses a mechanical arm with air vacuum to hold the label in place. As the box passes by a sensor, the arm applies the label to the corner (front and side) and then the box passes by an applicator brush that ensures the label is firmly applied.

box_label

They were starting to see wrinkles in the label as it passed by the brush and were thinking the label was holding a static charge which was making it be rejected by the box during the process. They were experiencing this about every other box. When it would occur, they would need to stop the line and manually check to make sure the label was seated properly. As a result, this was negatively affecting their production time and increasing wasted labels.

Since they thought it was the label holding the static charge, they wanted to use one of our Ionizing Bars to remove the static from the label as it was attached to the arm. The Ionizing Bar produces a high concentration of positive and negative ions able to dissipate 5 kV in 0.30 seconds, 2” from the object’s surface. It is also UL listed for safety and RoHS compliant.

Ionizing Bars Work

The customer is local, so they asked if someone from EXAIR could visit their location and take a look at their process. I was able to make the appointment for the next morning and brought a few of our Static Eliminating products and a Static Meter to take some measurements. By measuring within 1” of the surface of the product, the Static Meter measures the voltage and polarity up to +/- 20 kV.

Upon arrival, I was directed to the labeler and took a measurement – I was only getting a reading of about 0.2 kV. I then decided to take a reading on the box itself as it traveled down the conveyor. Now I was getting a reading of 3 – 5 kV, which meant that it was the box and not the label that was holding the static charge.

Since the customer could get within 2” of the surface of the box, they were able to mount a 6” Ionizing Bar vertically to remove the static prior to the labeling process.  This helped to greatly reduce the downtime of the line.

If you have a similar issue or would like to discuss your particular application, please contact one of our Application Engineers at 1-800-903-9247.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
JustinNicholl@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_JN