Tag: reversible drum vac

EXAIR’s Industrial Housekeeping Products are Portable

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

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I had noticed somewhat of a trend in my inquiries regarding our Industrial Housekeeping Products of late. It seems that customers want to use our Chip Vac, Heavy Duty Dry Vac or perhaps the Heavy Duty HEPA Vac with a really long vacuum hose. I’m talking like 50 or 60 feet worth of suction hose. And when I ask the customers why they want such a long hose, they say it is so they can reach all parts of their shop from a central location.

It did not occur to me until now that folks may not realize that, in fact, all of our Industrial Housekeeping Products are made to be moved around the shop, just like you would an electric shop vacuum with casters.

All of our Industrial Housekeeping Products have an industrial drum dolly available for them from the smallest 5 gallon sizes up to the big 110 gallon units. In fact, our Chip Trapper product comes with one included as part of the base system.

If you have a need to vacuum debris from multiple locations, moving the Industrial Housekeeping unit around the shop allows you to keep your vacuum hose as short as possible (we have 10 ft. hoses). With this configuration, you do not suffer the line losses associated with trying to create a vacuum across a 60 ft. long vacuum hose which results in lost performance. Dealing with a 10 ft. hose is also a lot less hassle than a much longer one.  It is a better idea to use a longer compressed air hose to supply your Industrial Housekeeping Vacuum system with compressed air and roll it around to each area where you need to use it. Compressed air travels through hoses much more readily than vacuum flows do.

EXAIR has all the necessary accessory items available including Drum Dollies and compressed air hoses to outfit the Industrial Housekeeping Products.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com

I’m Back! But My A4 Isn’t…Commence Troubleshooting

Published on by Lee EvansLeave a comment

Last week I enjoyed the company of Airtec Servicios, Dansar Industries, and Global Automation (EXAIR’s distributors in Mexico and parts of South America).  We met in San Luis Potosi, Mexico, for an EXAIR training event that covered all topics of EXAIR products.

Following my return to the States, I dug into a project at home that I’ve been working on here-and-there; my 98 Audi A4.  In an earlier blog post I showed the damage done to the cylinder head when a valve-train component failed and a few valves were bent.  After rebuilding the cylinder heads on a bench here at EXAIR, I finally got the engine back together and hit the key for the first time since I bought the car.

Fortunately, the valve timing was perfect and the engine fired right up.  Unfortunately, however, was the terrible knock from the bottom half of the engine – the half I left untouched during the initial repair.  (See image below for my feeling on the issue)

Lie_down_try_not_to_cry_cry_a_lot_cleaned_525Now I’m faced with a dilemma of the best course to take, and after chewing it over, I’ve decided to open up the bottom half of the engine and make the repair.  The most likely cause for the noise is a defective wrist pin or connecting rod.  When I open it up, I’ll be sure to take pics and share for those interested. I had thought repairing the top half of the engine would make the fix because most of the time that is the case. Similarly, we occasionally experience reduced performance in our Reversible Drum Vac. Most of the time (I’d speculate 95%-99%) a simple cleaning is all that is needed (see video demonstration here) because this product has no moving parts there is little to go wrong. Occasionally it is another issue that is causing reduced performance; for these times we have the Reversible Drum Vac troubleshooting guide:

lit6203-Reversible Drum Vac Troubleshooting

So, sometime soon I’ll run through the next troubleshooting steps for the engine in the A4. If you need help troubleshooting an EXAIR product or a compressed air application, please contact EXAIR.

In the meantime, the A4 is relaxing, hanging loose at home – and I am too.  Mexico was wonderful, and the people were more than kind.  But, it feels good to be home.

Lee Evans
Application Engineer
LeeEvans@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_LE

Chip Vac Clears Cast Iron Chips from Fixtures

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment

On a recent trip to India, I had the opportunity to visit a few of our end user clients in the field to see how they were using our products. On one occasion, we visited a tractor assembly plant. One department in the plant was responsible for machining the finished surfaces of the cast iron parts that made up the sub-frame of the tractor. The surfaces that mated together needed to have a finish cut made on them so that the gaskets used could seal properly on a flat surface.

The original problem was that once a part was completed with the machining cycle, the cast iron chips remained in the fixture that holds the part. This material interfered with proper mounting of the next raw part into the machining fixture. The customer then tried the EXAIR Chip Vac System to remove the chips from their fixture between each cycle. The Chip Vac System performed excellently for this task. And so the customer decided to up-fit all of their machining centers with Chip Vac Systems.

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The advantages of the Chip Vac System in this case were:

  1. They could turn their existing 55 gallon, open top drum in to a collection tank by applying the Chip Vac lid and filter assembly. The drums were not being used prior to applying Chip Vac, so it was viewed as a good re-purposing of the drums.
  2. There are no moving parts to wear out with the Chip Vac. Motors, brushes and impellers used on traditional electric vacs simply do not stand up to industrial use as in these cases.
  3. The sound level produced by a Chip Vac is far lower than an electric vacuum. There are presently no such ministry of health rule in India which govern this issue, but the operators were definitely happy about less noise and so was the shop foreman.
  4. The 10 ft. hose easily reached inside the machine center to allow for quick and easy access to the fixture for vacuuming task.

EXAIR is a company who developed our Industrial Housekeeping Products out of need in our machine shop to have reliable products which were convenient to use. It is always good to see when others who have similar needs, use our product for the same kinds of problems we encounter when working in our own production areas.

Our Industrial Housekeeping Products consist of a wide range of products which include: Chip Vac, Heavy Duty Dry Vac, Reversible Drum Vac, Chip Trapper, Heavy Duty HEPA Vac and last but not least, Vac-U-Gun and Deep Hole Vac-U-Gun systems.

We are here to assist you in selecting the right product for your application. Please call us today to discuss your specific application needs.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer / International Sales
nealraker@exair.com

Built To Last, And Then Some

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

I’ve written before about my lifelong dedication as a fan of the Cincinnati Reds. If you follow baseball, you can probably appreciate how excited I am at the very real prospect of some postseason action at Great American Ballpark. It’s kindling memories of the World Series Championship team from 1975-1976 who, coincidentally, reunited for the dedication of Joe Morgan’s statue at the ballpark recently.

The Big Red Machine in 2013
The Big Red Machine in 2013

It also got me thinking about how cool it is when stuff lasts a good, long time. I had the pleasure to talk with a customer about a Reversible Drum Vac the other day…it needed a new gasket in the quick connect assembly that attaches the vacuum hose to the drum. The caller mentioned that it had been in service for quite some time, and wanted to make sure that “today’s” gasket would fit “yesterday’s” Reversible Drum Vac. I assured him it would, because the design hasn’t changed. Out of curiosity, I looked up the original purchase. It was in 1995, which means that this was one of the very first Reversible Drum Vacs that EXAIR made.

When someone asks about our products’ guarantee, and we tell them it’s “Five Years; Built To Last,” they’re usually impressed. I’m going to start telling them they ain’t seen nothing yet.

This year, EXAIR is celebrating 30 years in business. That means there are a LOT of EXAIR products out there, and (hopefully) a good many “oldies but goodies.” If you’ve got one, we’d love to hear from you about it.

Go Reds,
Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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