Tag: PVDF

Product of the Year Award Winner- Long Super Air Knives

Published on by Dave WoernerLeave a comment
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Plant Engineering’s 2014 Product of the Year Award!

 

Last week, Plant Engineering presented EXAIR’s Long Super Air Knives the Bronze award for Product of the Year in the compressed air category.  In 2014, EXAIR introduced one piece, seamless Long Super Air Knives up to 108″ in length. No other company in the world can provide a one piece compressed air operated air knife over 54″ long. This one piece design allows for minimal footprint for long units, and an unparalleled uniform sheet of laminar air flow.  These long Super Air Knives conserve compressed air over drilled pipes or a manifold of air nozzles. Their compact design excels at large web drying and cleaning operations i.e. paper, rolled steel, aluminum foils, or plastic sheets. Air knives also excel at cooling extrusions, molds, heated rollers, or components. The air knives entrain ambient air at 40:1 ratio (40 parts ambient to 1 part compressed air) which means it moves a tremendous volume of air and delivers it to your target. The Super Air Knives provide all of these benefits quietly and efficiently. The air knife creates only 69 dBA of noise at 80 PSIG of pressure and it would be a great addition in areas where anyone is trying to limit harmful noise exposure to personnel.

 

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72″ Long Super Air Knife – One Piece Air Knives available in lengths up to 108″

These air knives continue EXAIR’s history of pushing the envelope in air knife technology. In 2010, EXAIR introduced the first polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) air knife to the market. The PVDF Super Air Knives provide resistance to UV light, inorganic chemicals, solvents, ozone, weather, fungi, chlorinated hydrocarbons, highly corrosive acids, weak bases and salts while maintaining a quiet operation (69 dBA).  This material change opened EXAIR to a variety of environments that cannot be served by blowers, aluminum, or stainless steel air knives.

For any questions about EXAIR’s Air Knives please contact an Application Engineer at 1-800-903-9247.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com

 

How To Choose An Air Knife

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

The EXAIR Super Air Knife has a prominent place near the front of our catalog, and THIRTEEN pages of photos, application details, performance data & specifications. It’s the most efficient and quietest product of its kind on the market, and our most diverse product offering in terms of size range, operational adjustability, materials of construction, and accessories available. For almost any general industrial air blow off application, the EXAIR Super Air Knife is the superior choice in terms of air usage, sound level, and capability.

EXAIR Super Air Knives come in a wide range of lengths, for a wide range of possibilities.
EXAIR Super Air Knives come in a wide range of lengths, for a wide range of possibilities.

As tireless champions of the causes of reducing air consumption and noise, we’re always going to promote these benefits of the Super Air Knife. Still, a caller asked me the other day, “Well, why do you still make the others?”…meaning, of course, our Standard and Full Flow Air Knives. Why, indeed:

*Given the same air supply pressure, the Standard Air Knife generates the highest force of our three styles. The amount of force applied isn’t always a prime consideration…if you think about one of the more “textbook” applications for an Air Knife, it doesn’t take a great amount of force to blow off dust and light debris from a conveyor belt…certainly this is a case where efficiency factors in: the lower air consumption of a Super Air Knife can pay for the cost difference between it and a Standard Air Knife in as little as three months of operation.

The Standard Air Knife has the highest force, for when it's needed.
The Standard Air Knife has the highest force, for when it’s needed.

Of course, if you’re blowing stubborn debris out of tight spaces, like gummy, greasy dirt that’s accumulating in the recesses of a finned tube heat exchanger, that extra force can make all the difference. No; the Standard Air Knife isn’t as efficient or quiet as the Super Air Knife, but it’s still a far cry better than a drilled pipe.

*While the Super Air Knife is pretty compact – you only need a few square inches of profile area to successfully mount it – the Full Flow Air Knife is even smaller, requiring not much more than one square inch of profile for mounting. With ports on the rear face (instead of the ends & bottom for the Super Air Knife,) they can fit in very tight quarters.

Low profile and lightweight, the Full Flow Air Knives are a great fit for tight quarters.
Low profile and lightweight, the Full Flow Air Knives are a great fit for tight quarters.

The Full Flow Air Knife is also the lightest weight for a given length. A 36” Aluminum Super Air Knife, for instance, weighs about 8lbs. The 36” Aluminum Full Flow Air Knife weighs less than 4lbs. Most of the time, 8lbs is a very manageable amount of mass to support, but there are situations where every ounce matters, and if yours is one of them, you’re looking at the Full Flow Air Knife all the way.

*The biggest (in the most literal sense) factor in Air Knife selection is, well…size. We make the Standard Air Knives in lengths to 48”, and the Full Flow Air Knives come as long as 36”. The Super Air Knives, however, are stocked in lengths from 3” to 108”, and can be coupled together for as long of an uninterrupted, steady, laminar air flow as you need.

At the end of the day, a majority of blow off applications can be handled just fine with any of our Air Knives. If you’d like to discuss your application and see which one is best for you, give us a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
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EXAIR Serves OEMs

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

PVDF Super Air Knife

EXAIR has become well known for solving problems in industrial applications. Many times, the end users of our products contact us directly for application assistance, technical specifications, drawings, and installation tips. But, we also spend considerable time meeting the needs of OEM clients as well.

I worked alongside a new OEM customer recently, discussing options for an EXAIR solution in their prototype. In this case, the OEM needed an air knife suitable for use in a chemical wash down environment, so we discussed our PVDF Super Air Knives. They were unsure about the technical specs (compressed air use, suitable operating pressure, output force and air volume) and needed to sort through those issues, but they were completely blown away when I told them we had the products in stock.

And, not only were they in stock, but we could work with their delivery schedule to ensure the products they needed were ready on time. When the discussion moved into a potential need for custom length PVDF Super Air Knives, they were again blown away that we can deliver custom products in a relatively short time frame. (It pays to be the manufacturer of your own products!)

Many OEMs, when sourcing products for their equipment, encounter never ending barriers to completing a project. At EXAIR, we make it a point to have repeatable, dependable products ready to ship on time, and to make the process of doing business as easy as possible for end users and OEMs alike.

Having all cataloged products in stock, matching the needs of the OEM with our internal production schedule, and flexibility in product design are just a few of the benefits EXAIR offers new and existing OEM customers. If you have a project or design that is in need of an EXAIR solution, contact an EXAIR Application Engineer.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Submarines, Shipwrecks, Air Knives, and Corrosion

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

Monday was a notable day in naval warfare history. On February 17th, 1864, the H.L. Hunley sank the USS Housatonic, a Union sloop that was blockading the harbor in Charleston, South Carolina, during the American Civil War. In doing so, the Hunley became the first combat submarine to sink a warship in battle. Unfortunately, they never returned.

Treasure hunters and archaeologists searched for the sunken vessel in the years following the war. Despite grand efforts, one even spurred by a $100,000 reward offer from legendary showman P.T. Barnum, the ship and crew were lost to history until 1995. So many people had mistakenly thought they’d found the wreckage that when underwater archaeologist Harry Pecorelli actually did find it, he radioed to his boat, “I don’t know what it is, but it is definitely not the Hunley.” Because of this, the preservation group, Friends Of The Hunley, have affectionately dubbed him “the first person to have never found the Hunley.”

In 2000, the intact ship was raised and placed in a specially built tank, where the conservation team immediately went to work. Because of her iron construction and age, this turned out to be an engineering (mechanical and chemical) feat like no other. Over the next four years, precision excavation efforts allowed the team to exhume the remains of the crew, and they were buried with full military honors in the spring of 2004. They still haven’t proven conclusively why the Hunley sank, but as restoration work continues, she may give up her final secrets yet, as long as they can keep corrosion at bay.

hunley in tank

The prevalent use of aggressive chemicals in certain manufacturing processes today can likewise take their toll on equipment made from materials that aren’t compatible for use in these environments. As advances have been made in the development of these chemicals, metallurgists and materials engineers have kept pace in the field of corrosion resistance. EXAIR has taken full advantage of these innovations by offering our Super Air Knives in a variety of materials that can stand up to just about whatever you can throw at them:

Two grades of Stainless Steel are available: Type 303 is well suited to mildly corrosive environments. Type 316 offers even better corrosion resistance, and is often specified in the food, pharmaceutical, and surgical product industries. Both are also good to 800°F (427°C).

PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) Super Air Knives are resistant to harsh conditions where UV light, inorganic chemicals, solvents, ozone, weather, fungi, chlorinated hydrocarbons, strong acids, and/or salts are present. They are equipped with PTFE shims, 316SS pipe plugs, and Hastelloy C-276 hardware for superior performance in the most aggressive environments.  These are rated for temperatures up to 275°F (135°C).

Of course, if your application doesn’t concern any of these, our Super Air Knives in aircraft grade aluminum construction are perfect for general purpose applications in standard conditions. Just about wherever you need to install it, though, EXAIR has a Super Air Knife that is up to the task. Try us.

Russ Bowman
RussBowman@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_RB