If you’re performing any type of manual transfer of raw material in your processes, it might be time to take a closer look at an EXAIR Line Vac. The Line Vac is designed as an ideal solution for the transfer of bulk materials from one point to another. The best part about the Line Vac is there are absolutely no moving parts to wear out, no maintenance at all, and the flow of material can be fine-tuned by regulating the air pressure just upstream.
The Line Vac is capable of moving large volumes of material over long distances with just a small amount of compressed air. The compressed air is injected through directed nozzles that produce a vacuum on one end and high-volume output flows on the other instantaneously. The Line Vac is offered in several different materials, sizes, and with a few different options for connection style.
The Line Vac works best when replacing what we refer to as a “bucket-and-ladder” operation. When replacing any form of manual transfer, the Line Vac not only increases production throughput but also makes the process safer. Whenever an operator must lift a container of material to dump it, oftentimes climbing up a ladder to do so, there’s a potential injury risk that can be avoided.
We’ll often see customers in the plastics industries manually filling the hoppers for an injection molding process. Rather than doing this manually, the Line Vac presents a simple and easy solution for conveying bulk material from the floor directly into the hopper.
One such industry that has seen some success with the EXAIR Line Vacs is coffee manufacturers. Using the Line Vac to convey raw, green coffee beans into a roaster is one example. Or, as was the case for a client in Colombia, using the Line Vac to transfer whole and ground beans automatically here in this video:
It’s not just about moving bulk materials, but the Line Vac can also be used to remove scrap trim in the converting industry. The application below shows one of our aluminum Line Vacs removing scrap trim and depositing it away from the process in a waste container.
We’ve seen the Line Vac used to strip any remaining wire or yarn off of a remaining spool for reuse. They’ve also been used by electrical contractors to run wire through underground conduit:
Heavy Duty Line Vacs operate in the same manner as our standard or threaded units, but are constructed of a hardened alloy steel engineered for use with abrasive media. The Heavy Duty Line Vacs are offered with both smooth or threaded connection styles and also provide a boost in conveyance when compared with our other Line Vacs. The Heavy Duty Line Vacs are ideal for any media that is abrasive in nature or for applications requiring higher conveyance rates over longer distances.
The Sanitary Flange Line Vac incorporates ISO 2852 compatible flanges on both the intake and outlet of the Line Vac. In the food/pharmaceutical industries, these types of connection styles are common to allow for easy removal of the system for sanitization purposes. An application I worked on recently involved a customer in the Food & Beverage industry that needed a solution for transporting bulk bags of salt. They’d looked at a high capacity conveyor system to serve this need, only to find out that it cost nearly 10x that of the Sanitary Flange Line Vac. The Model 161200-316 was used to convey this salt easily for them without the need to purchase a large and complicated system.
EXAIR’s Line Vacs are all on the shelf and ready to ship same-day from stock. If there’s a process in your facility that could benefit from an automated pneumatic transfer solution, give us a call! We’ll be happy to help you determine the proper size based on the application parameters.
Tyler Daniel, CCASS
Application Engineer/International Trade
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
X: @EXAIR_TD