Tag: swivel air nozzle

Compressed Air Problems? Ask An Application Engineer If An EXAIR Super Air Nozzle Is Right For You.

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

A few years back, I had the pleasure of working with a machine shop manager who wanted to reduce the compressed air consumption in their facility. They had ten lathes, machining high-tech plastic products, and used crimped copper tubing to blow off chips and shavings as the parts were turned. They ran continuously — as did the air compressor — which occasionally caused header pressure to drop below the level required for operation of the pneumatic chucks & tool changers.

These cheap and easy blow offs were making things expensive and difficult for the company.

After some discussion and an Efficiency Lab test of one of their crimped tubes, I recommended our Model 1100 1/4 NPT Zinc Aluminum Super Air Nozzles. They’re our most popular engineered Air Nozzle for typical industrial blow-off applications. They generate a forceful, focused blast of air that’s ideal for chip removal on machine tools, and they’re ideally suited for a number of other uses as well. They bought ten (one for each machine) and installed them one afternoon, right before close of business, by cutting the crimps off the copper tubes and fitting them with simple compression fittings. The whole operation took about five minutes. When the machine shop manager arrived the next morning, he was at first alarmed because there was so little noise coming from the shop (he thought something was wrong with the machines) and then impressed when he found all the lathes were running, and the Super Air Nozzles were so much quieter than the crimped tubes.

The copper tube used to have a crimped end that was aimed at the part in the chuck. They simply cut it off and used a compression fitting to install the Super Air Nozzle.

While our Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle is our most popular one, EXAIR makes a wide range of engineered Air Nozzles to meet the needs of almost any blow-off application. If you’re replacing something else, we can test your current device(s) in our Efficiency Lab (like we did the crimped copper tubing here) and determine the Air Nozzle that most closely matches the performance required for your application.

If it’s a new application, we have tools at our disposal for proper product selection too:

  • The Catalog: Our Air Nozzles & Jets catalog section lists them all, from smallest to largest, with performance data, dimensions, and airflow patterns. I actually like to start with the airflow pattern: once we know the size & shape of the needed/desired flow, we can narrow down our selection.
  • Application Database: At last count, we had over 200 blow-off applications written up. Now, that includes Air Nozzles as well as Air Knives, Air Amplifiers, and Safety Air Guns (which have Air Nozzles on them), but keep in mind what I said about picking the size & shape of the airflow.
  • Engineering Assistance: If you’re short on time, find yourself completely stumped, or just want a 2nd opinion on the best product for your application, we’re here from 7am to 4pm Eastern Time to help you over the phone, in a Live Chat, or at an Engineering Consultation web meeting. You can also email techelp@exair.com, 24/7, with details about what you’re after.

At EXAIR, we want to help you get the most out of your compressed air use. If you want to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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It’s The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year…

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

One could make a good point about “The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year” being right now because…well, the song just says so, right? I can get on board with that, because I’m the world’s biggest sucker for Christmas music:

Of course, that song was used in one of my favorite ad campaigns of all time to describe a season that started a few months earlier:

But I’m going to have to go with “right now” not only for the Christmas music, but for my personal favorite EXAIR seasonal promotion:

Right now, through the end of the year, EXAIR will give you a Safety Air Gun with any Super Air Knife purchase. Not only do you get THE most efficient and quietest compressed air blowing product on the market today (we have data to back that up from a wide variety of products & devices that customers have sent in for Efficiency Lab testing), we’re going to sweeten the deal with free stuff.

First, let’s talk about the Super Air Knives:

  • They come in lengths from 3″ to 9ft. No matter how small, or big, your blowoff needs are, we’ve got you covered. If you need something longer than 9ft, they can be coupled together for a continuous, laminar airflow curtain as long as you need it to be.
Air Knife Coupling Bracket Kit
  • We make them in low cost, lightweight aluminum, tough & corrosion resistant Type 303 Stainless Steel, even tougher & more corrosion resistant Type 316 Stainless Steel, and PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) thermoplastic with Hastelloy hardware & PTFE shims for the highest level of corrosion resistance available.
PVDF Super Air Knife Kits include the Air Knife itself (PVDF body, Hastelloy C-276 hardware, and PTFE Shims,) a PTFE Shim Set, an Automatic Drain Filter Separator, and Pressure Regulator.
  • They’re efficient and quiet — for the same reason. See, the compressed air supply exits through a precise, narrow slot between the Cap & Body, which is precision finished, generating a 40:1 entrainment ratio. That means that for every SCFM of compressed air that the Super Air Knife uses, it entrains 40 SCFM of air from the surrounding environment…THAT’S efficiency. In doing so, that entrained air forms a low velocity boundary layer around the powerful, high velocity primary air stream. This layer serves to attenuate the sound level of that hard-hitting curtain of air, resulting in a sound level of only 69dBA.

And, if you order before 12/31/2025, we’ll throw in a FREE EXAIR Soft Grip Safety Air Gun, fitted with a Super Air Nozzle. If you’re using a loud, inefficient air gun for handheld blowoff, you really need to try one of these. They use the primary compressed air stream to entrain ‘free’ air from the surrounding environment as well, which generates a low velocity boundary layer for sound reduction too. The Super Air Nozzle is well suited for a wide range of industrial blowoff applications, and the Soft Grip Safety Air Gun is ideal for hours of continuous use without fatigue.

EXAIR Super Air Nozzles entrain an enormous amount of air from the surrounding environment, making them efficient, and quiet.

Need something right away? EXAIR has you covered there too: all of these (and pretty much any of our other Intelligent Compressed Air Products) are on the shelf and ready to ship, same day, with orders received by 2pm EST. If you’ve got a blowoff application that you’d like to find a safe, quiet, and efficient solution for, we can help…give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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