Tag: spray

Engineering Makes The Difference In Spraying Application

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

The Paint Line Engineering Manager for a major agricultural & industrial equipment manufacturer wanted to improve the efficiency of their paint lines. They had “halo” systems through which large parts passed for primer & paint coatings, which were equipped with inexpensive liquid-only spray nozzles:

Liquid-only spray nozzles lack the control and efficiency of engineered solutions like EXAIR's Atomizing Spray Nozzles
Liquid-only nozzles lack the control and efficiency of engineered solutions like EXAIR’s Atomizing Spray Nozzles

You can get a whole handful of these and it’ll still cost you less than one of our Atomizing Spray Nozzles will.  If you don’t have any particular concerns about efficiency, spray pattern adjustment, droplet size or flow control (and a lot of applications don’t require this, and that’s fine,) then these will work GREAT for you.  And again, they’re abundant and cheap.

That wasn’t the case here – turns out, good quality paint is expensive, and every drop wasted adds up.  Getting a fine, even coating on parts of different sizes & shapes, every time, requires precision control of the flow pattern.  And design of an automated system benefits from a wide selection of options to choose from.

Enter the EXAIR line of Atomizing Spray Nozzles.  With (90) models to choose from, we can cover (literally) darn near any spraying application you can come up with.  If you know what flow rate and/or spray pattern you’re looking for (like a Paint Line Engineering Manager would,) then selection is quick & easy.  Paint consumption is down, quality is up…and the reliability of the new system means they’re spending less time and resources on cleaning & maintenance. For the record, the halo system ended up looking like this:

EXAIR Atomizing Spray Nozzles provide efficient, reliable coating.
EXAIR Atomizing Spray Nozzles provide efficient, reliable coating.

If you’d like to find out more about how engineered products, like EXAIR’s Atomizing Spray Nozzles, can make a difference to your operations…and your bottom line…give me a call.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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Will Water Move Through EXAIR Air Knives and Air Wipes? (Images included)

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

Today, I would like to discuss a question that comes up time and time again over the years.  “What happens when I put water through a Super Air Knife?” That raised another question from myself of what about a Super Air Wipe?

The answer is quite simple, it will come out, just not as good as compressed air does.   The engineering and design for Super Air Knives were all based around compressed air use.  With any good product of course comes the question in time, how else can we use this?   A number of applications for the Super Air Knife is blowing moisture off a part that has been applied through a series of wash/rinse nozzles.  What if the knife could apply the liquid and then a second knife could remove the liquid.  Below are some images from testing that was done on a Stainless Steel Super Air Knife at various gap sizes and various pressures.    The “best” performance visually was from operating the air knife with .004″ gap and approximately  a 17 PSIG inlet pressure (this is for a 12″ Super Air Knife).

Water flowing through a 12" Stainless Steel Super Air Knife
Water flowing through a 12″ Stainless Steel Super Air Knife

As you can see in the photos, the water does flow fairly well immediately out of the knife, and becomes more turbulent as it gets further away from the knife.   The stream actually begins to break up and thus the effective distance of the knife may be reduced when using it to flow liquids.   This is not going to perform like a pressure washer, the maximum distance for the stream of liquid before it completely fell off was around 10′ from the discharge point.   If this were to be used to remove loose debris or to cover a part in water to help cool the part the stream would be more than enough to perform.

As noted above the operating pressure was fairly low, and the gap was at a .004″ thickness.  I recently tested a 1″ Stainless Steel Super Air Wipe as well.  The shim gap was once again set to .004″ thick to permit a better flow and a low pressure, approximately 10-12 psig inlet pressure.  As you can see the flow of water is not as smooth as the air flow out of a Super Air Wipe but if a light rinsing process was needed, or a water cooling process, this would work well.

1" Stainless Steel Super Air Wipe w/ Water
1″ Stainless Steel Super Air Wipe w/ Water

 

So the answer to the main question at hand is yes, a Super Air Knife and Super Air Wipe will both operate with a pressurized liquid source under the correct circumstances.   While they do not operate exactly like they do with compressed air, the results still prove useful in certain applications.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

Video Blog: Adjusting Liquid Flow On An Atomizing Spray Nozzle

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

This is a brief video showing the effects of adjusting the needle valve on an EXAIR Atomizing Spray Nozzle.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF

The Bigger, The Better

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

One of my favorite hobbies over the summer months is going camping with my family. I grew up camping with my grandparents, brother and 2 cousins. My grandparents did have a camper but the majority of the time, the 4 of us kids, camped behind the trailer in tents. My wife on the other hand was a “newbie” to the whole camping scene so when we decided to begin this adventure we purchased a low-cost, lightweight hybrid style camper so she could have all the amenities to keep her comfortable – a bed, A/C, toilet and TV.

This year we were planning on going on an early vacation in May so I wanted to get the camper out of storage and prepare it before we left so when we got back we could start our weekend camping trips right away. I headed over to the storage lot only to find a tree branch had fallen through the roof! Needless to say, I was not a “happy camper” (pun intended). Not only that but it appeared it happened some time ago as the ceiling and certain parts of the floor were getting soft from rain. I immediately called my insurance company to file a claim and dropped the unit off at my local RV shop.

Roof 1
View of branch through the roof
Ceiling 1
Uuummmm – I need to speak to the “Branch Manager”

After about a week, I received the call from the RV shop advising of the repair costs which were about $3,000 higher than the actual value of the trailer. The insurance reviewed this information and determined the unit as a total loss and would be issuing us a check for the market value of the unit. We were somewhat bummed because we really liked our little camper and the memories we shared. Our oldest son learned to ride his bike w/o training wheels and he caught his first fish while camping in that trailer. Now that my wife is on board with camping and with the extra $ in our pocket, it’s time to shop for a bigger, new camper – I am thinking 5th wheel! This also means a truck upgrade to something bigger, at least a 3/4 ton, something I am sure will make my wife happy.

Keeping with the bigger theme, here at EXAIR we recently released our NEW 1/2″ Atomizing Nozzles. The larger size allows for higher flow rates and larger coverage areas.

Model EF5010SS
NEW Model # EF5010SS – 1/2″ NPT External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan Pattern Atomizing Nozzle

We offer the following options:

Internal Mix Narrow Angle Round Pattern – Flows up to 231 GPH, require pressurized liquid and air.

Internal Mix Wide Angle Round Pattern – Ideal for covering a large area, adjustable to a fine mist or heavy spray.

Internal Mix Flat Fan Pattern – Perfect for efficient output of costly liquids.

Internal Mix 360° Hollow Circular Pattern – Provides 360° even flow in all directions.

External Mix Narrow Angle Flat Fan Pattern – Able to handle thicker fluids than internal mix and providing independent air and liquid control.

Siphon Fed Round Pattern – For non-pressured liquid applications, up to 24″ of suction lift.

All of the above are also available with our No Drip feature to stop the liquid flow after the air supply has been turned off.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN