Here at EXAIR it has been said and said again, a picture is worth 1,000 words. This also doubles up on my favorite saying, you can’t teach experience. While I have been with EXAIR for nearly 14 years and in the metal cutting industry for 5 before that, then a student, before that, our other AE’s have diverse backgrounds as well. I grew up around cars and a family that was ingrained in a steel mill and many aspects of it, so seeing a multitude of processes is something I have done since I was little.
When I was a student in Mechanical Engineering Technology I would always try to get into the courses where I would learn more process and critical thinking focus. This led me to many factory visits and case studies where I got to sample many different aspects of many industries. How else am I supposed to know what I want to do when I grow up? Well, working here in the Application Engineer department, I draw on that knowledge and experience nearly every single day. Just this morning, I asked a customer to do a simple sketch of what their system layout would look like, so I could fully understand everything they were going to have in place for a new setup they wanted to try and were concerned with operating pressures/restrictions on their piping.
Now this sketch is quite elaborate from the amount of information it provides. The best part is, all these parts are critical pieces of information. It is also still missing some key parts of information, such as all the distances between system parts. Those items were all discussed and the longest run of the line was going to be the 3 feet of air piping shown.
The customer and I then began to discuss all the size changes in the supply inlet to the system and how not only were the needle valves undersized, which they noted, but the entire piping seemed undersized and going to be an issue to really be able to operate anywhere near line pressure.
At the end of the conversation with the customer, we settled on using a 3/4″ Schedule 40 piping or equivalent, changing out their PRV-1 for a 3/4″ version as well as their filter. Then running that larger line size all the way to the needle valves. I strongly advised them to increase the needle valve sizes as well. We know the valves won’t feed the knives with enough volume as they noted in the sketch and 10 psig is a significant drop. At the same time, the application of keeping some lightweight debris off a surface as a final blowoff isn’t going to demand a full-line pressure blowoff. We also discussed that they could look into reducing the shim in the Super Air Knives like they did in the Air Amplifiers to reduce consumption and to be able to operate at a higher pressure if needed.
Sketches don’t have to be this detailed, it always helps, and the actual pictures are always great too. The point is that we will probably always ask more questions and the result will always be an answer that we feel confident in. We can often back up our selections with scientific data like flow through piping tables and equations for consumption at varying pressures.
If you have a new or existing setup that you would like to discuss with an Application Engineer to determine if it has a high success chance or not, reach out to us!
Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF