Tag: Stainless Steel

Cookie Blowoff Using The Full-Flow Air Knife

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

A machine manufacturer was working with a food company who was looking to design a blowoff station for their cookie making process. During the production cycle, the cookie dough is put into a former that pushes the dough through round dyes that forms several rows of cookies across a conveyor. As the cookies travel down the conveyor, they are topped with ground peanut bits and sent through a flash freezing process. It was after this process, the company was looking to install the blowoff station to remove any excess peanut bits but were concerned if the air velocity was too high, they may remove too much of the ground peanuts or possibly blow the cookies themselves off of the conveyor. Another area of concern was the amount of space available to install the station was limited, so they were needing something “compact” so they could design the machine to take the least amount of real estate as possible.

The machine designer was somewhat familiar with our Air Knives, but was unsure which design would best fit the customer’s needs so they decided to reach out for assistance. After discussing the particulars, I recommended our 36″ Stainless Steel Full-Flow Air Knife Kit. Of the 3 designs of Air Knife we offer, the Super, Standard and Full-Flow, the Full-Flow Air Knife produces the lowest outlet velocities, it is also our smallest profile offering at only 1.25″ x 1″  for stainless steel construction. The Full-Flow Air Knife provides a laminar flow of air the entire length of the knife and uses a 30:1 amplification rate (entrained air to compressed air) for efficient compressed air usage. By incorporating the pressure regulator included in the kit, they would be able to easily control the exiting air velocity to effectively remove the excess peanut bits without ejecting the cookies from the line.

Full-Flow
The Full-Flow Air Knife is the ideal choice where mounting space is limited. Lengths available up to 36″ in aluminum or stainless steel construction.

For assistance in selecting the best Air Knife to fit your needs or for additional support with another application or EXAIR product, give me a call at 800-903-9247, I’d be happy to help.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

Custom, Flanged Air Amplifier Solves a Fume Evacuation Problem

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

We blog about this topic quite a bit, and almost every section of our catalog has a page set aside just for special / custom product configurations that have been created by request from many of our customers.

This is the latest and greatest special that I have seen roll through the production area here at EXAIR.   This is a special 4″ 303 Stainless Steel Adjustable Air Amplifier with a 4″ Tri-Clamp flange on the discharge side and a 6″ Tri-Clamp flange on the suction side of the amplifier.

 

This had been an ongoing project with the customer that started with them testing a stock Adjustable Air Amplifier in the application to ensure that the performance would meet their needs.  The application was to boost a low flowing fume exhaust that was causing slow downs in their production line.  Fans and other traditional methods would require maintenance and would wear out.  The stock Adj. Air Amplifiers exceeded their performance needs but did not easily mount into their duct work because they used all standard size tri-clamp fitting in the ducting, so the next step was to see if we could manufacture a Special Adjustable Air Amplifier just for their needs.  The dimensions of the existing Adjustable Air Amplifier came close enough we were able to easily create a Flanged Adjsutable Air Amplifier that would clamp straight into their existing duct work, exceed their performance expectations, help their process, and be ready to ship within a very reasonable lead time.

Like we have said before, if a stock, cataloged, product doesn’t fit your application exactly, contact us and let us find a way to customize and fit the need.

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

 

Stainless Steel Adjustable Air Amplifiers Replace Blower in Exhaust Hood Application

Published on by Neal RakerLeave a comment
Vent hood
EXAIR Stainless Steel Adjustable Air Amplifiers model 6034

 

I was working with our Indonesian distributor the other day on an interesting application in the sugar refining industry.

The application was in a sugar refining plant. As the sugar cane is cooked down, the resulting gas vapor is pulled up through a vent hood and exhausted outside the building. The customer was using a 16” diameter blower to create the needed draft to draw the vapors. The problem is that the vapors are corrosive and sticky when cold. The effect is that the blower blade becomes caked with deposits which, in turn corrode the blade and it must either be cleaned and/or replaced at frequent and regular intervals.

The customer wanted to get away from having to deal with the blower issue if they can, so they turned to our distributor for ideas on how to solve the problem using EXAIR equipment. Turns out that a cluster of (3) model 6034 4” Adjustable Air Amplifiers operating at 5 BARG input pressure are able to generate the necessary flow to replace the blower in this system.

The keys to success in the application were the fact that the Adjustable Air Amplifiers are constructed of Stainless Steel to resist the corrosive effects of the gas vapor. Also, there isn’t any deposits on the blade that need to be dealt with. While cleaning of the Air Amplifiers is recommended in this application, the maintenance interval was able to be much longer between cleanings.

In many industrial applications, blower driven or electric motor driven equipment is usually preferred in an effort to save energy. This was a good example of a case where the quality of having no moving parts was able to offset other maintenance costs that made use of a blower actually more expensive for the user.

Neal Raker, International Sales Manager
nealraker@exair.com
@EXAIR_NR

 

Full-Flow Air Knife Assists With Flour Recovery

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

I took a call from a customer who was looking for a way to recover residual corn flour on their chain and paddle, drag conveyor. As the paddles moved down the line, they would start accumulating flour which was leading to uneven batch runs and waste. After reviewing the application with the customer, they determined they were only needing to blow off the width of the paddles, so I recommend using our 18” stainless steel Full-Flow Air Knife.

The Full-Flow Air Knife provides a 30:1 amplification rate (entrained air to compressed air), to produce a high velocity curtain of air that travels the entire length of the knife. With a small profile of only 1” H x 1.25” W, the unit is the ideal choice where mounting space is limited. It is available in a 303SS material which was suitable for this wash-down application.

Full-Flow
The Full Flow Air Knife is available in aluminum or stainless steel construction, up to 36″ stocked lengths.

 

Due to the concern regarding dust, I recommended operating the unit at a gentle 20 PSIG, lowering the velocity to 3,000 FPM and reducing the air consumption to only 1.1 SCFM per inch. A simple pressure regulator is capable of adjusting the volume and velocity of output airflow in order to “fine tune” our knives per application. This would allow for the needed blowoff, as well as reduce the potential of the unwanted dust.

If you have a similar application or would like to discuss your process, please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-800-903-9247.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN