Tag: Super Air Nozzles

Coast to Coast and Beyond

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Recently, I was working with  a customer looking for a Premium Reversible Drum Vac and wanted it shipped to the Northwest Territories of Canada –  which we could do!  It got me to thinking, what are the farthest US state and territory locations EXAIR has shipped to in the North, South, West and East directions.  I ‘scoured’ the records and came up with these.

Furthest North- We have shipped to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.  Most recently, believe it or not, we shipped a NEMA 4X Cabinet Cooler to an Oil and Natural Gas Exploration Company.  Goes to show that even the coldest environments still have the need to provide cool, clean, dry air to cool and protect electronics in electrical enclosures.

Furthest South – We have shipped to the US Territory of Puerto Rico, city of Santa Isabel.  An Aerospace company needed a strong, laminar blast of air and utilized a 6″ Stainless Steel Air Knife.  An Air Knife offers a quiet, efficient way to clean, dry or cool parts, webs, or conveyors.

Furthest West- We have shipped to the US Territory of Guam.  The local University ordered a model 1111-4 Super Air Nozzle Cluster, for a good strong blast of air flow for a cleaning operation.  The model 1111-4 delivers 3.2 lbs of force, at just 82 dBA of sound. A safe and efficient nozzle for blowoff operations.

Furthest East- We have shipped to Eastport, Maine.  The customer in Eastport ordered a Line Vac and a section of Conveyance Hose.  The Line Vac is a great tool for conveying large volumes of material over long distances, through a standard hose or tube.  The compact design features large throat diameters for maximum throughput capability.

 

It was interesting to look back and see all the places that EXAIR has shipped.  We have customers from all over the globe. If you are outside the of 50 US States and Canada, we have a dedicated team of International Application Engineers that will work with you to select the best EXAIR product for your process and application, and direct you to your local International Distributor.

If you would like to talk about any of the EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Products, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or one of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Brian Bergmann
Application Engineer

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Engineered Air Nozzles and Jets Outperform – Save Air, Increase Safety, Save Money

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EXAIR’s Engineered Air Nozzles and Air Jets provide a simple solution to lower compressed air usage and reduce noise levels for compressed air blowoff operations.

Why Air Nozzles and Jets – When compared to commonly used open copper tubes or pipes, compressed air savings can be as high as 80%. And with less compressed air, sound levels are greatly reduced.  A 10 dBA noise level reduction is typical.  All EXAIR Air Nozzles and Jets meet the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) maximum dead end pressure and sound level exposure requirements. They also carry the CE mark.

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The largest selection of engineered Air Nozzle sizes and materials are only available form EXAIR 

EXAIR Nozzles are engineered to take advantage of the Coanda effect to amplify the airflow up to 25 times or more. Compressed air is ejected through the small orifices and surrounding air is entrained into the main stream. The resulting air stream is a high volume, high velocity blast of air at minimal consumption.  EXAIR manufactures many styles, from the very small, but powerful Atto Super Air Nozzles, to the largest 1-1/4 NPT Super Air Nozzle.  Also offered are 1″ and 2″ wide Flat Super Air Nozzles, and the Back Blow style for cleaning out tubes, pipes, channels or holes from 1/4″ to 16″ in diameter.
EXAIR Air Jets utilize the Coanda effect (wall attachment of a high velocity fluid) to produce air motion in their surroundings.  A small amount of compressed air (1) is throttled through an internal ring nozzle above sonic velocity.  A vacuum is produced, pulling in large volumes of surrounding, or ‘free’ air, through an around the jet (2).  The exit flow is the combination of the two air sources (3).

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How an Air Jet Works

EXAIR manufactures Air Jets in two types, High Velocity, and Adjustable with materials of construction of brass and Type 303 Stainless Steel.  The High Velocity Air Jet uses a changeable shim to set the gap, controlling the force and flow of the air.  The Adjustable does not use a shim, and has a micrometer gap indicator and locking ring to allow for varying force and flow performance.

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EXAIR Air Jets – High Velocity type on the left, Adjustable type on the Right

If you have questions about Air Nozzles and Jets, or would like to talk about any EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air® Product, feel free to contact EXAIR and myself or one of our Application Engineers can help you determine the best solution.

Brian Bergmann
Application Engineer

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Proper Supply Line Size And Fittings Provide Peak Performance

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Many times when we provide the air consumption of an EXAIR product, we get a response like…. “I’ve got plenty of pressure, we run at around 100 PSIG”. While having the correct pressure available is important, it doesn’t make up for the volume requirement or SCFM (Standard Cubic Feet per Minute) needed to maintain that pressure. We commonly reference trying to supply water to a fire hose with a garden hose, it is the same principle, in regards to compressed air.

When looking to maintain an efficient compressed air system, it’s important that you use properly sized supply lines and fittings to  support the air demand (SCFM) of the point-of-use device. The smaller the ID and the longer the length of run, it becomes more difficult for the air to travel through the system. Undersized supply lines or piping can sometimes be the biggest culprit in a compressed air system as they can lead to severe pressure drops or the loss of pressure from the compressor to the end use product.

Take for example our 18″ Super Air Knife. A 18″ Super Air Knife will consume 52.2 SCFM at 80 PSIG. We recommend using 1/2″ Schedule 40 pipe up to 10′ or 3/4″ pipe up to 50′. The reason you need to increase the pipe size after 10′ of run is that 1/2″ pipe can flow close to 100 SCFM up to 10′ but for a 50′ length it can only flow 42 SCFM. On the other hand, 3/4″ pipe is able to flow 100 SCFM up to 50′ so this will allow you to carry the volume needed to the inlet of the knife, without losing pressure through the line.

Pipe size chart for the Super Air Knife

We also explain how performance can be negatively affected by improper plumbing in the following short video:

 

Another problem area is using restrictive fittings, like quick disconnects. While this may be useful with common everyday pneumatic tools, like an impact wrench or nail gun, they can severely limit the volumetric flow to a device requiring more air , like a longer length air knife.

1/4″ Quick Connect

For example, looking at the above 1/4″ quick disconnect, the ID of the fitting is much smaller than the NPT connection size. In this case, it is measuring close to .192″. If you were using a device like our Super Air Knife that features 1/4″ FNPT inlets, even though you are providing the correct thread size, the small inside diameter of the quick disconnect causes too much of a restriction for the volume (SCFM) required to properly support the knife, resulting in a pressure drop through the line, reducing the overall performance.

If you have any questions about compressed air applications or supply lines, please contact one of our application engineers for assistance.

Justin Nicholl
Application Engineer
justinnicholl@exair.com
@EXAIR_JN

Big TV’s and Big Compressed Air Savings

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

My great big TV bit the dust recently. It was a 65” rear projection, high definition…quite an upgrade over the 32” tube set that it replaced, a decade ago. One thing I remember from the day I bought it: the seller said to me as we were loading it up, “A warning: you’ll never be able to watch anything smaller.” The other thing I remember from that day was getting it back to the house and set up before my wife got home. She walked in, looked at its huge awesomeness in our modestly sized living room and said, “That’s almost embarrassing!” To which I replied, “I KNOW!!!”  Now, it WAS a little big for the room, but we acclimated quickly.

Until last month, when the display started to malfunction. I looked it up, and it was a fatal flaw: the parts would cost almost as much as a new 65” flat screen. Which we’re saving our money for…for now, though, we’re “getting by” with a 42” plasma TV that we “repurposed” from the back room. And the seller’s warning proved mostly true, although I’ve almost adjusted to the smaller screen. First world problems; I know.

One benefit of the smaller screen and advanced technology (plasma vs. those three big light bulbs in the rear projection) was decreased operating cost. Turns out, the 42” plasma uses less than 1/3 the power of the 65” rear projection (91 Watts vs. 283 Watts, respectively.) When my next electric bill comes, I’m wondering if I’m going to be pleased with the reduction, or if it’s going to put into perspective just how much TV I really watch. Stay tuned for more on that…

I recently had the pleasure of helping a customer realize a similar “a-ha” moment, with the amount of compressed air they were using throughout their plant. They were running (40) production machines, turning out custom plastic parts. Each machine had a ¼” crimped-end copper tube, which blows off the part as it’s being machined.

Each of the crimped copper lines uses approximately 30 SCFM when supplied at 80psig. These are being replaced with our Model 1100 Super Air Nozzles. They were able to quickly and easily adapt these by simply cutting off the crimped end, and installing a compression adapter fitting:

EXAIR Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle installs easily on copper lines, with a simple compression adapter.
EXAIR Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle installs easily on copper lines, with a simple compression adapter.

The Super Air Nozzle consumes just 14 SCFM @80psig, so we should be looking at around a 50% reduction in their compressed air usage in the operation, across their (40) machines. While all the data is still not compiled to determine their actual savings, the noise reduction alone has made a noticeable difference in the plant, which they’re getting used to a LOT quicker (and more agreeably) than I am to the smaller TV screen. But enough about that…I’ll be all right; really.

So that’s two of us, waiting for the next electric bill to see just how happy we can be with our energy savings. I don’t know what they’re going to do with their savings, but mine’s going into the 65” (energy efficient) TV fund.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
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