Tag: sound meter

Accessories for Your Compressed Air Products

Published on by Al WooffittLeave a comment

Here at EXAIR we are very proud of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products. We have spent a lot of time discussing their many benefits, including their efficiency, the fact that many have no moving parts, little to no maintenance, meeting or exceeding OSHA safety standards for noise or dead end pressure. One thing we don’t talk as much about is the accessories that go along with and complement our products. Several of these accessory items are the reason why our compressed air products can boast about having little to no maintenance, or reduced noise levels. In this blog I want to cover some of these unsung heroes.

From left to right, a few value-added accessories for your Vortex Tube: Hot Muffler, Cold Muffler, Automatic Drain Filter Separator, Oil Removal Filter, and Solenoid Valve/Thermostat Kit.

Some of the most popular accessories we offer are our compressed air Filters and Regulators. We suggest using these with all our products (or even with ones that aren’t ours).

The Filter Separator is designed to remove moisture, dirt, and rust from your compressed air system. The 5-micron filter element ensures that contaminants don’t clog or harm your compressed air equipment.

An Oil Removal Filter (which should always be installed after our Filter Separator) provides even more precise filtration by getting rid of oil and solid particles with a 0.03-micron element.

Our Pressure Regulators let you choose the operating pressure. At EXAIR, we always advise running at the lowest pressure necessary to complete the task. Pressure Regulators help you achieve that, reducing unnecessary air usage and fine-tuning the performance of EXAIR products for your specific application.

We have some accessories designed specifically for certain products. For our Line Vacs, there’s the Line Vac Hose. You can also find Thermostats and Solenoid Valves that work great with our Cabinet Coolers, and if you’re using Vortex Tubes, we suggest checking out our Mufflers.

When it comes to our Air Knives, we offer a variety of fantastic options:

If you’re looking for a simple and dependable way to mount your Air Knife, our Universal Air Knife Mounting System is just what you need.

If your project needs something longer than our stock Air Knives, or if you want to manage different sections of the air flow separately, our Coupling Bracket Kits are ideal.

And if you want to simplify the plumbing for your Air Knife, don’t miss our Air Knife Plumbing Kits. They’re suitable for all Air Knives that are longer than 24 inches.

If you’re looking for plumbing options, we’ve got a range of compressed air hoses and fittings that will simplify things for you.

Our Coiled Hoses work great with our Safety Air Guns, giving you more freedom of movement while you work.

Our Compressed Air Hoses are often used alongside our Industrial Housekeeping products to provide the necessary reach for the drum and dolly.

Finally, if you’re looking for a way to mount or position your Air Nozzles, check out our Magnetic Bases, Stay Set Hoses, and Swivel Fittings that can help create a complete setup.

No matter what your application requires or the product you need, we’ve got a variety of complementary accessory products that will simplify installation and adjustments. If you have any questions about these or any other EXAIR products, don’t hesitate to reach out to us.

Al Wooffitt
Application Engineer

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Week 5 Back to Basics — Keep The Flow Steady

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

This week’s installment in the Six Steps to Compressed Air Optimization focuses on making use of intermediate storage.

The purpose of intermediate storage in a compressed air system is to eliminate spikes in demand from your compressor. A common example is a blowoff operation that only needs air for a few seconds at a time, followed by periods of inactivity. By installing a receiver tank at the point of use, you reduce the immediate strain on your compressed air system and smooth out the peaks in consumption.

For readers with an electrical background, you can think of intermediate storage as the compressed air equivalent of a capacitor—absorbing demand spikes and helping the system run more evenly.

When applied correctly, intermediate storage improves system efficiency, reduces strain during intermittent operations, and is relatively simple to install and maintain. A properly sized receiver tank can make a big difference in stabilizing your system’s performance while extending equipment life.

We’re now just one step away from completing the Six Steps to Compressed Air Optimization. In the final installment, we’ll cover how to properly control your system for maximum efficiency.

Until next time, keep optimizing.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Week 4 Back to Basics— Shut It Down When It Isn’t Needed

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Well, trusty blog readers, we are now two-thirds of the way through the Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System.

So far, we’ve:

The next step is simple but powerful: turn off compressed air applications when they’re not needed.

If your process doesn’t require compressed air continuously, the EXAIR Electronic Flow Control (EFC) can help. This device uses a sensor to automatically control how long your compressed air operation runs, turning it on only when needed.

A great example is from a customer who used compressed air to clean computer monitors. When the screen wasn’t in the airstream, the air was simply wasted. With the EFC, air was shut off automatically whenever it wasn’t needed—saving energy, reducing costs, and extending the life of equipment.

The objective in this step is crystal clear: when your compressed air doesn’t need to be on, turn it off and save.

For more information on the EFC—or on any part of our Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System—feel free to contact us.

Until next week, keep optimizing.

Brian Farno, MBA – CCASS Application Engineer

BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Six Steps to Optimizing: Step 1 – Measure the Air Consumption

Published on by John BallLeave a comment

Since air compressors use a lot of electricity to make compressed air, it is important to use the compressed air as efficiently as possible. EXAIR has six simple steps to optimize your compressed air system. Following these steps will help you to cut electrical costs, reduce overhead, and improve your bottom line. In this blog, I will cover the first step – Measure the air consumption to find sources that use a lot of compressed air.

Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System

Information is important to diagnose wasteful and problematic areas within your compressed air system. To measure air consumption, flow meters are used to find the volume or mass of compressed air per unit of time. Flow rates are very useful data points to find problems like leaks, over-use in blow-offs, waste calculations, and comparison analysis.

There are many different types of flow meters. Many of them entail a breakdown of your current compressed air lines by cutting, welding, or dismantling for installation. This will add costs in downtime and maintenance staff. But, not with the EXAIR Digital Flowmeters. In this blog, I will share the features and benefits of the Digital Flowmeters, including options for you to start measuring and optimizing your compressed air system.

Overall, it only takes a few minutes to install and start measuring. The installation kit comes with a drill guide to properly locate the two holes in the pipe. Please de-energize the compressed air in that line to install.  The Digital Flowmeter uses a clamp to mount on the pipe and to seal the area around the probes. Once it is powered, the unit is ready to measure the air flow inside the pipe with a large LED display. The display can be customized to show flow readings in three different units; SCFM, M3/hr or M3/min; and, it can display the Daily Usage and Cumulative Usage. 

To get started, the EXAIR Digital Flowmeter is a thermal dispersion device that can accurately measure compressed air flows. They use two sensing probes for comparative analysis. One probe is a temperature sensing probe, and the other is a flow-sensing probe. By comparing these, the Digital Flowmeter can measure precisely the mass of air flow without needing to be recalibrated. They are a cost-effective, accurate, and simple way to measure compressed air flow.

EXAIR stocks a large volume of Digital Flowmeters to ship on the same day for U.S. customers. We also offer a 30-day unconditional guarantee to try them out. We stock meters for pipe diameters from ½” NPT to 4″ NPT Schedule 40 black pipe.  EXAIR can also offer flow meters for copper pipes with diameters from 3/4″ to 4″, and aluminum pipes with diameters ranging from 40mm to 101mm. If you have another type of piping for your compressed air system, you can give us the material, O.D. or I.D., and wall thickness. We may still be able to get a Digital Flowmeter for you.

For measuring, all the units come standard with a 4 – 20mA analog output. Per your request, we can change this signal to a serial output for RS-485 or Ethernet connections. What more can we offer with the EXAIR Digital Flowmeter? Options. Options upgrade the flow meters to better suit your application. Here is a list below:

EXAIR’s Digital Flowmeter w/ USB Data Logger

USB Data Logger: This option allows for a recording of the flow information. With a software download, you can set up the USB Data Logger to record the flow from once a second (roughly 9 hours of storage) to every 12 hours. After the data points are recorded, you can then download the information into the software to review. Then the information can be uploaded to an Excel program to do further analysis.

Summing Remote: With compressed air pipes running along the ceiling and walls, reading the Digital Flowmeter may be difficult. The Summing Remote has a 50-foot (15 meter) cable to bring the LED display into viewing. The Summing Remote is powered by the Digital Flowmeter, and it can be positioned at eye level, inside managers’ rooms, or around large equipment for monitoring.

Hot Tap DFM

Hot Tap Digital Flowmeter: This option is a great way to install a Digital Flowmeter on the pipe without shutting down the compressed air line. We offer this option for 2″ and larger for steel and copper pipes. It gives a quick and easy way to attach them if you have a 24-hour operation or a critical process that needs to run continuously.

Pressure Sensing Port

Pressure Sensing Digital Flowmeter: If you would like to know the compressed air flow and the air pressure, this option will be able to do this. They are available with the Digital Flowmeters for steel and copper pipes that are 2″ and larger, and for the aluminum piping that is 50mm and larger. This option can display pressure units in either PSI or Bar right on the same LED display that shows the flow readings.

Blocking Rings

Block-Off Rings: If you want to move your Digital Flowmeter, the Block-Off Rings will be able to cover the openings in your compressed air pipe. They seal around the drilled opening when the Digital Flowmeter is removed from the pipe. They are reusable; so, they can be removed if you want to remount the Digital Flowmeter in the same spot. If you want to use one flow meter in different locations, the Block-Off Rings allow you to do this.

When you need to analyze your pneumatic components, flow is an important point in diagnosing the overall “health” of your compressed air system. The EXAIR Digital Flowmeter can give you that important data point. With optimization, you can cut your energy consumption, improve efficiency, and save yourself money. This blog is an overview of Step 1 of six steps. You may have more questions about the other steps, and that is great! You can find them in other EXAIR blogs, or you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.  We will be happy to help you. 

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb