Tag: power supply

RoHS, EXAIR, And You

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

The 20th century was an amazing time for technological advances. In just 70 years, the science & engineering communities went from believing that powered flight was impossible, to actually powering a flight that took three astronauts all the way to the Moon…and back. In the 50 years or so since then, the computers with the power required for space travel went from needing a whole room, to being able to fit on our desks, and eventually, our pockets.

All three of these: a state of the art computer from 1962 (left), the desktop computer I’m writing this blog on (middle), and a smart phone being used for its most popular function (right) all have about the same amount of computing power, believe it or not. (full disclosure: I believe it because I used my smart phone to look that up on the internet)

Along with these amazing advances in technology came exponential increases in the materials it takes to make devices like desktop (or laptop) computers and smart phones…and some of those materials don’t get along well at all with the environment, and by extension, those of us who live in said environment. This doesn’t normally matter as long as those materials are housed inside an operating computer or cell phone (or myriad other electronic devices), but it DOES become a concern when they’re disposed of. When stuff like that ends up in landfills, for instance, it has a bad habit of making its way into the water table…and that’s not good for anyone.

In 2002, the European Union (EU) started pursuing legislation to restrict the use of certain hazardous substances, to get out ahead of disposal issues by keeping them out of products from the very beginning. This led to the creation & implementation of the RoHS Directive. It’s been revised, amended, and updated over the years, because it turns out there are no viable substitutes for SOME of those substances in SOME situations. Among these exceptions:

  • Mercury is used extensively in a number of energy efficient CFL light bulbs and fluorescent tubes, so there are exemptions for that, and it works because there’s a whole industry devoted to the proper recycling of these products.
  • My personal favorite is the specific exclusion for lead in the manufacture of pipe organs. Seems that the lead based alloy that’s been used for centuries is critical to the tonal qualities of the sound that the pipes produce. Since disposal rates of these are negligible (the use of this alloy is one of the reasons they LAST for centuries), pipe organ pipes don’t have to be RoHS compliant.

Compliance with the RoHS Directive is so important to EXAIR, it’s part of our Sustainability Plan. All of our products that are subject to the Directive have certificates of compliance (available upon request) that document their compliance. Per the specifics of the Directive, these are comprised of certain products in our Optimization, Static Eliminators, and Cabinet Cooler System product lines:

  • Optimization:
    • EFC Electronic Flow Control Systems
    • Digital Flowmeters
    • Digital Sound Level Meters
    • Ultrasonic Leak Detectors
  • Static Eliminators:
    • Super Ion Air Knives
    • Standard Ion Air Knives
    • Ionizing Bars
    • Super Ion Air Wipes
    • Ion Air Cannons
    • Ion Air Guns
    • Ion Air Jets
    • Power Supplies
    • Intellistat Ion Air Guns
    • Intellistat Ion Air Nozzles
    • Static Meters
  • Cabinet Cooler System products:
    • Electronic Temperature Control Systems
    • Thermostats & Capacitors
    • Solenoid Valves

These are all of our products that are electrical or electronic in nature. Our broad line of engineered compressed air products are not subject to the Directive, as they have no electrical or electronic components. We DO make sure these comply with other regulatory directives, as applicable, such as:

  • Conflict Mineral Free: All compressed air products
  • CE: All products
  • UL: Static Eliminators and Cabinet Cooler Systems are UL Listed, HazLoc Cabinet Cooler Systems are UL Classified
  • ATEX: These are a brand new line (as of this writing) of Cabinet Cooler products

If you’d like to find out more about EXAIR’s commitment to compliance with any of these standards or directives, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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Ionizing Points for Static Elimination Without Airflow

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I almost wore three socks this morning: one on each foot, and one inside the sleeve of my shirt. I don’t know if it got in there through the agitation & spin of the washing machine, or the tumbling action in the dryer, but I know how it stayed there through the removal from the dryer, folding, and placing in my shirt drawer: static charge. This was evident from the ‘snap, crackle, and pop’ it made when I pulled it out.

Static charge is all around us. It’s mildly annoying in the clothes we pull from the dryer or the packing peanuts we can’t shake from our hands when unpacking from that new whatever-I-just-ordered from that website. It’s surprisingly uncomfortable when we touch the light switch after walking across a carpeted floor. And it’s terrifying when a lightning bolt hits so close that there’s no discernible delay for the thunder.

It’s also prevalent in many industrial processes: molding, trimming, wrapping (or unwrapping), bag & bottle filling, printing…just to name a few. Some materials are more prone to it than others, but all it takes is contact, and separation, of non-conductive surfaces to generate a static charge. The faster and/or more frequent the contact & separation, the higher the charge, and oftentimes there’s no better way to build up static electricity than sliding or rubbing those surfaces together.

EXAIR has a wide variety of Static Eliminator solutions: Super Ion Air Knives for webs or sheets up to 9 feet in width, Ion Air Cannons or Jets for more focused, conical ionized air blowing, Ion Air Guns for handheld operations, Super Ion Air Wipes for tube, pipe, extruded shapes, etc., and Intellistat Ion Air Guns & Nozzles for laboratory or clean room situations. Two of our Static Eliminator Products – Ionizing Bars & Ionizing Points – require no compressed air at all for operation, and one of those is the point (‘pun intended’ or ‘spoiler alert’ – you decide) of today’s blog.

The EXAIR Gen4 Ionizing Point is compact, versatile, and easy to install. It’s perfect for applications where even a light breeze worth of air flow would be disruptive or problematic. It’s also great for ionizing an existing air flow, like in a blower duct or air conveyance line. If limited space is a problem, it’s got the smallest footprint of just about any static eliminator on the market.

The EXAIR Model 8199 Gen4 Ionizing Point packs a LOT of static elimination in a small package.

They have impressive static dissipation performance as well, as seen in the table below. The only maintenance that’s required is a periodic cleaning of the emitter point (with the Power Supply OFF, using a soft bristled, dry brush). Should the emitter point become fouled, it can also be easily replaced.

If you’ve got problems with static charge, EXAIR has a comprehensive offering of solutions…give me a call to find out more.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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EXAIR Gen4 Power Supplies

Published on by bdwagesLeave a comment

Static Elimination is a big call for us. We have many amazing products that will eliminate your surface static with ease. Static can cause so many issues, we could (and have) write several blogs on this alone. EXAIR’s Gen 4 static eliminators (also called ionizers) can eliminate static charges. These shockless ionizers are electrically powered and produce a plethora of positive and negative ions. The charged surface then attracts the appropriate number of positive and negative ions from the ionizer to become neutral, or discharged.

The key behind this is the high voltage power supplied to the Ion Points. The power supplies that we offer, are the only power supplies that are compatible with our ionizing products. Each outlet supplies 5kV. This high voltage powers the Ion Points in the products to create the Ions mentioned earlier.

The power supply is sold with either 2 or 4 ports to power that many Gen 4 Products. Each one has a selectable input voltage of 115VAC or 230 VAC, an input current of .2/.1 A max, and a frequency of 50/60Hz. They also have a lighted power switch for easy visualization of power. This light is on a rocker switch, and this can be replaced – here is a blog to do this: How to replace the rocker switch on the Gen 4 Power supply.

Each power supply also has an integral fuse to protect against power spikes, and these can be replaced if necessary. Here is a blog link on how to do this: Video blog to change fuse on Gen 4 Power Supply.

The power supplies each come with a 6′ electromagnetically shielded power cord to plug in the wall, or to hardwire into your machine. The power supply cases are shielded as well.

All of our Gen 4 Power Supplies are UL component recognized to US and Canada safety standards, and are CE and RoHS compliant.

Please feel free to reach out if you have any other questions about our Gen 4 Power Supplies, any of our Static elimination products, or any of EXAIR’s intelligent compressed air products.

Thank you for stopping by,

Brian Wages

Application Engineer

EXAIR Corporation
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EXAIR Catalog34: What’s new inside?

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

EXAIR Corporation has been manufacturing intelligent compressed air® products since 1983.  If your company uses pneumatic systems, you probably heard of us.  EXAIR has solutions to save you money in compressed air usage, improve your safety environment, and increase productivity.  You can review these products and our new products in Catalog34, which has just been released. 

We have great news for those customers that have been patiently waiting for our new catalog.  Catalog 34 is now in house.  You can now request a hard copy from our website at this link: Catalog Request Form.  If you wish to create an account on our website or are already signed in, you can find sections of the catalog in our PDF Library.  Since Catalog33, we have released quite a few new products that are now included in Catalog34.  Here they are:

TurboBlast® Safety Air Guns (page 115 – 116 in catalog) – To upgrade our large safety air guns, EXAIR decided to manufacture the TurboBlast Safety Air Guns.  We have upgraded the features to modernize our highest-forced air guns with comfort and ease-of-use.  Here are the improvements that we made:

1.            A pilot valve for single-finger button operation.

2.            A nozzle guard to protect the fins from damage.

3.            An optional gate valve to help control the outlet flow.

4.            Ergonomic soft grip and a foam sleeve to hold and balance.

As an overview, the TurboBlast Safety Air Gun comes with a 1” NPT or BSP inlet.  We offer seven different nozzle options in three different builds with adapters, extensions, and nozzle guards.  The nozzle guard helps protect the nozzle for a long operational life.  The standard unit comes with a 12” (305mm) length extension with a foam ergonomic grip, and we have optional 3-foot (0.9m) and 6-foot (1.8m) extensions.  They range in force levels from 4.5 lbs. (2Kg) to 23 lbs. (10.4Kg) at 80 PSIG (5.5 bar).  They are a great tool for cleaning large areas quickly and efficiently.  They are also OSHA safe.    

3/8” HollowStream™ Cone Liquid Atomizing Nozzles (page 103 in catalog) – EXAIR expanded our HollowStream Spray Nozzles to include a larger flow size in a 3/8” NPT or BSP liquid port.  They require no compressed air and only spray liquids efficiently and effectively. They produce droplets by spinning the liquid and breaking its surface tension through a precision orifice.  These nozzles spray a higher liquid flow rate and produce a coarser spray pattern than the EXAIR Air Atomizing Spray Nozzles.  With the higher liquid flowrates, they are ideal for quenching, cooling, washing, rinsing, sanitizing, and many other types of applications.

Intellistat® Ion Air Nozzle™ (page 143 – 144 in catalog) – The Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle is a lightweight solution for static elimination operations.  This intelligent product produces balanced-ionized compressed air to neutralize any type of static.  They come standard with a low-voltage 24Vdc power supply, a mounting fixture, 6mm tubing, and red and green LED lights for feedback.  The mounting fixture is designed to hold the nozzle with an adjustment to aim the nozzle at different angles for precise blowing.  One of the unique features is that the ionizing point is replaceable; and can decay static at a rapid rate.  The Intellistat Ion Air Nozzle is a great tool for removing particulates during clean processes, test procedures, and sensitive assemblies in laboratories, electronics, lenses, medical, and pharmaceutical areas.

Please don’t hesitate to get your new catalog.  EXAIR offers numerous ways to receive one.  You can go to our website, contact us by phone toll free at 800-903-9247 in the U.S. and Canada; or by Chat.  We have Application Engineers to help assist you with questions about any of our existing products or the new products that are now in Catalog34. We look forward to hearing from you.

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb