Tag: pressure regulator

Why Engineered Air Nozzles Outperform Open Pipes (And Cut Air Use by Up to 70%)

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Compressed air is one of the most expensive utilities in any manufacturing facility—yet it’s often treated as “free.” One of the biggest contributors to wasted compressed air is the continued use of open pipes, drilled pipes, or homemade blowoffs for cleaning, drying, and cooling applications.

While these methods may seem simple and inexpensive, they are inefficient, unsafe, noisy, and costly over time. EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles are designed to solve these exact problems. Often reducing compressed air consumption by up to 70% while improving performance.

Open pipes release compressed air directly to atmosphere with no control, no amplification, and no optimization. This creates several major issues:

Excessive Air Consumption

An open 1/4″ pipe at 80 PSIG can consume 25+ SCFM continuously. Multiply that across shifts, days, and multiple stations, and the cost quickly adds up.

Poor Performance

Open pipes create turbulent airflow that dissipates rapidly, requiring higher pressure and more air to achieve acceptable results.

High Noise Levels

Uncontrolled air release produces noise levels that can exceed OSHA limits, creating safety and compliance concerns.

Safety Risks

Open pipes can generate dangerous dead-end pressures and flying debris, posing serious injury risks to operators. Creating real situations where

What Makes EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles Different?

EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles are precision-designed to maximize force while minimizing air consumption. Instead of wasting compressed air, they use advanced airflow geometry to do more with less.

Air Amplification

EXAIR nozzles use the Coandă effect to entrain surrounding ambient air. For every unit of compressed air used, multiple units of free air are pulled into the flow—creating higher output force without increased air usage.

Optimized Flow Patterns

Rather than chaotic turbulence, engineered nozzles produce laminar, focused airflow that delivers better cleaning, drying, and cooling results at lower pressure.

Significant Air Savings

It’s common to see 30–70% reductions in air consumption when replacing open pipes with EXAIR air nozzles—often with improved performance.

Eleminate Safety Risks

Air nozzles and jets are designed to operate well above 30 PSIG while creating dead end pressures well below the OSHA limits. Giving you better performance safley.

EXAIR Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle Replaces Open Copper Pipe Blow Off

Replacing open pipes with EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles is one of the simplest and most cost-effective improvements you can make to a compressed air system.

If you’re serious about:

  • Reducing energy costs
  • Improving safety
  • Lowering noise levels
  • Getting more from your compressed air

…it’s time to stop blowing money into the air.

EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles prove that better design beats brute force—every time.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer / Sales Operations Engineer

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Week 6 Back to Basics- Control the Pressure

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

If you’ve been following along with this blog miniseries, you know we’ve reached the final step in the Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System. Each step so far has built toward this moment—and today we add the last piece of the puzzle.

The final step is simple but powerful: control the air pressure at the point of use to minimize consumption.

EXAIR offers a range of Pressure Regulators capable of handling air flow of up to 700 SCFM.

This is done by installing one of our pressure regulators, available in multiple pipe sizes and flow capacities. A small change in pressure makes a big impact. For example, reducing operating pressure from 100 PSIG to 80 PSIG lowers energy use by nearly 20%. In many cases, operations can run at even lower pressures, unlocking even greater savings.

This reduction in energy use is also coupled with the fact that pressure regulators make any compressed air-operated tool infinitely adjustable. Not all applications require the full output force or RPM, or conveying rate that can be achieved at full line pressure with a compressed air-operated product. And so the humble pressure regulator enables this ability for energy savings and control that is on par with any electrical control for voltage or even frequency. Pressure regulators also facilitate our working mantra to use the least amount of pressure and volume necessary to accommodate the application objectives.

All of our regulators are standard stock items, which means they can ship the same day if ordered by 2:00 P.M. Eastern Time. Plus, with 2D and 3D CAD models available through our CAD Library, you can design your entire compressed air system virtually before making a single cut in pipe.

This step, combined with the previous five, gives you a complete roadmap to compressed air optimization. From measuring usage and fixing leaks, to implementing engineered solutions, automating control, using intermediate storage, and now regulating pressure—EXAIR is here to help make the process straightforward and effective.

As always, if you’d like to discuss your application or explore how we can help you optimize your compressed air system, feel free to reach out.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Turn it Down: Save Money by Reducing Compressed Air Pressure

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about compressed air, it’s that pressure is a lot like coffee. A little bit gets the job done, but too much just makes you jittery and costs you more than it should. The last step in our 6 Steps to Optimizing Compressed Air series is all about dialing that pressure back to where it actually needs to be. So why worry about pressure?

Compressed air is one of the most expensive utilities in your facility. For every couple of PSI you crank the system higher than necessary, your energy bill climbs right along with it. In most cases, your application doesn’t even need that extra pressure. It’s like using a fire hose to water a houseplant.

This is where pressure regulators come in. They’re simple devices, a knob, a spring, a diaphragm, but they’re doing some heavy lifting. Twist the knob, and the spring loads or unloads. That changes how much the diaphragm allows through, and suddenly you’ve got a steady, consistent downstream pressure without overfeeding your air tools or EXAIR products.

The real magic happens when you lower that setpoint. If your Super Air Knife is blowing water off parts just fine at 60 PSIG, why run it at 100 PSIG? Less pressure means less flow, and less flow means more savings. You’ll get the same result with a smaller demand on the compressor. That’s a win-win every plant manager can appreciate.

Now, before you start cranking down knobs all over the place, keep sizing in mind. Regulators need to be matched to the volume of air your application requires. If they’re undersized, you’ll experience droop, when the pressure drops off during demand spikes. EXAIR takes the guesswork out by offering properly sized regulators in kits with a lot of our products. We’ve already done the math so you don’t have to.

Turning down the pressure might be the last of the six steps to optimizing compressed air, but it’s one of the easiest changes to make and one of the fastest ways to save. A couple twists of the regulator could be all it takes to lighten the load on your compressor, cut operating costs, and keep your system running lean and efficient.

And if you’re not sure where to start, that’s what our Application Engineers are here for. Call us, chat with us, or shoot us an email. We’ll help you find the right pressure for your setup without the trial and error.

EXAIR is now partnering with EasyCAS by DirektIn software. This tool lets you actually measure and validate the savings you’re getting from steps like lowering pressure and implementing engineered solutions. No more guessing, you’ll have hard data showing how much air and money you’re saving.

Tyler Daniel, CCASS

Application Engineer

E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com

X: @EXAIR_TD

“Under Pressure” Pressure Regulators!

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

I recently recommended to a customer to turn their air pressure down on their system as low as their process would allow. Meaning regulate the pressure so you have enough to complete the operations needed but find that happy medium where your compressor isn’t working as hard to build those high pressures for no reason!

Compressed air is an amazing tool to have, and when used properly it can be more efficient that other non-compressed air tools that run off electricity. However, it’s pretty common to see compressed air systems running at their max just because.

Pressure Regulators “dial in” performance to get the job done without using more air than necessary.

Lowering the air system pressure reduces the compressor power consumption by about 1% for every two psi of lower pressure. Lowering the pressure also makes any unregulated operations reduce consumption by almost 1% for every one psi of pressure reduction. Not to mention the extra savings if your compressor system can turn down the compressor power because of the reduced flow and possibly shut off compressors that are no longer needed!

The best pressure at which to set your system is the level where your production can operate efficiently and effectively without waste: There is no right pressure—it depends on your operations and tools. You may have 90 to 100 psig at the compressor, but at the production machine, where the actual work is being done, you could have only 65 to 70 psig. In some cases, it may be even lower due to pressure drops in undersized piping, filters, regulators. The goal is to lower compressor discharge pressure without affecting the the operations at the end of the line.

Having artificially high plant-pressure can help you deal with surges in compressed air demand that might occasionally cause low-pressure and affect production. The higher pressure acts to store reserve air in the various volumes made up of receivers, pipes and such in your system. However, the higher pressure costs more to produce and makes unregulated end uses consume more air, which is an expensive trade-off. Another option is to make sure you have line pressure regulators at each point of use. This will allow you to regulate the operation to the pressure needed being sure to save compressed air and keep the over all system running more efficient.

You can regulate those point of use lines with a number of EXAIRs Pressure Regulators!

EXAIR offers a range of Pressure Regulators capable of handling air flow of up to 700 SCFM.

If we can help size a regulator, or have any other questions on how EXAIR can help you save compressed air in your system please reach out to me or one of our other Application Engineers!

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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