Tag: top 10

Top Ten Reasons Why EXAIR’s Super Air Knife Is So Super

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

1. Efficiency – With an air entrainment ratio of 40:1 (literally means it pulls in 40 SCFM of “free” air from the surrounding environment for every 1 SCFM of consumption), compressed air consumption is dramatically lower than any other blow off device.

EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products such as (left to right) the Air Wipe, Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, and Air Amplifier are engineered to entrain enormous amounts of air from the surrounding environment.

2. Laminar air flow – My colleague John Ball did a bang-up job in a video blog explaining the fluid mechanics theory behind this. Operationally, laminar flow is is beneficial because it’s particularly conducive to generating a stripping or sweeping action, as opposed to the turbulent flow from an open blow off, a blower, or a fan.

3. Quiet operation – The high entrainment ratio that makes the Super Air Knife so efficient also makes for amazingly low sound levels. The outermost entrained air creates a boundary layer that attenuates the sound level of the higher velocity, hard hitting center flow.

4. Lengths available – Super Air Knives are stocked in lengths from 3″ to 9ft. Custom lengths can be made if you’re space-limited for installation, and custom shims can be installed if you want to shorten the curtain width of a stock Super Air Knife. Super Air Knives can also be coupled together for even longer lengths.

Air Knife Coupling Bracket Kits are available from stock for Aluminum, 303SS, and 316SS Super Air Knives.

5. Material of construction – No matter how aggressive the environment is, odds are, EXAIR has a Super Air Knife that’ll hold up to it. Durable aluminum models are good to 180°F (82°C). There are also two Types of Stainless Steel to choose from: 303SS for high strength, and 316SS for protection from chloride pitting corrosion & higher strength. Both 303SS & 316SS are good to 800°F (427°C). For exceptionally harsh environments, PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) constructed Super Air Knives have Hastelloy C-276 hardware & PTFE shims, which are resistant to UV light, inorganic chemicals, solvents, ozone, weather, fungi, chlorinated hydrocarbons, highly corrosive acids, weak bases, and salts. They’re good to 275°F (135°C).

6. Easy installation – Like all of our products, the Super Air Knives – from the 3″ to the 9ft models – are “user friendly” as far as mounting & installation goes. The Model 9060 Universal Air Knife Mounting System makes for quick installation and easy positioning. 24″ to 42″ Super Air Knives need to be plumbed to both ends…if you hard pipe the air supply, the Super Air Knife itself will essentially be as well supported as the piping. The same holds true for longer Super Air Knives with Plumbing Kits installed. 3″ Super Air Knives can even be fitted with Stay Set Hoses, and Magnetic Bases. And the 1/4″-20 tapped holes on the bottom of the body allow for a wide range of mounting solutions…anything you can put a bolt through, really.

The 9060 Universal Air Knife Mounting Systems are perfect for simple, fast installation and positioning.
Yes, that’s a door hinge. No, it wasn’t my idea ( but I kind of wish it was.)

7. Low maintenance – With no moving parts, they’ll run darn near indefinitely, maintenance free, as long as you supply them with clean, moisture free compressed air. Oh, and keep them clean, externally, if they’re in an area where environmental contaminants can build up on the precision finished surfaces that are essential to their air entrainment.

8. Reliability – Hand in hand with #7, no moving parts also means there’s not much that can stop them from working. They can operate continuously, if needed, or you can cycle them on & off as frequently as necessary to keep from using valuable compressed air, except when needed.

EXAIR’s award winning EFC Electronic Flow Control can be set to operate a Super Air Knife (or any of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products) in cycles as low as 0.1 seconds.

9. Static Eliminator option -The laminar, high velocity air flow is ideal for many blow off applications, but if static charge is a problem, an Ionizing Bar can be installed, turning the Super Air Knife into a Super Ion Air Knife:

10. Free stuff – OK; this last one is “super” for a limited time. Order a Super Air Knife between 11/1/22 and 12/31/2022, and get a FREE Safety Air Gun. Click here for details.

If you’d like to find out how the Super Air Knife – or any of our Intelligent Compressed Air Products can help you get the most out of your compressed air system, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter
Like us on Facebook

Another Top Ten List

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

This is my first ever attempt at a Top Ten List. I’m easily distracted, and, as such, I’d be lucky to come up with a list of three things on any given topic, on any given day without my attention being diverted…

"Squirrel!"

So, without further ado, and before I start writing about something else entirely, here’s my:

Top Ten List Of What’s Great About EXAIR:

1.  We’ve got it. If it’s in the catalog, it’s in stock, and available for immediate shipment. No waiting…and waiting…and waiting…for product, as Brian Farno wrote about recently. With the exception of some of our long Air Knives, which might take a day or two to assemble, if we get an order by 3pm EST, we’ll ship it today.

2. We stand behind our products. EXAIR offers a 30-Day Unconditional Guarantee on all of our products. As hard as we try to specify the right product for your application, sometimes we don’t know until we try. I’m working with a new customer on a Line Vac project right now, where the Stainless Steel unit I recommended is experiencing unexpected abrasive wear. We’re looking at a Heavy Duty Line Vac, and he was hesitant to send the Stainless Steel one back, because he feels he’s taking advantage of us. He’s not.

3. Tech Help. I won’t say I don’t want to brag about the stellar level of technical assistance we offer, because I am indeed compelled to brag about. If you’ve got questions, we’ve got answers to almost all of them. And if we don’t know, we’ve got our Efficiency Lab…we’ll find out.

4. Professor Penurious. Not the person, although he’s a good guy that we all respect and admire (and at times, ridicule mercilessly), but the attitude of efficiency and focus on sustainability that we try to get noticed in those outrageous videos.

5.  Social Media. A lot of companies are embracing it as a way to augment and/or enhance the way they do business. We’re one of them, and, it turns out, people notice that we do it well.

6. Quality Control. Statistically, if you never do anything wrong, you’re probably not doing much. As much as we can brag about our low number of defective product returns, we can brag even more about the way they’re handled. Not only do we have a great reputation for righting the wrongs, we have a strong program for making the wrongs not happen again.

7. Innovation. You know, we probably wouldn’t need a new catalog every year if we’d just stop coming up with new, and better, products. We’d also have a lot more room in our trophy case without all those awards that those products keep winning.  Oh, the cost of winning…

8. People. One the first Thursday of the month, the whole company gathers together for a brief meeting. Our President, Bryan Peters, tells us how we did on sales & shipments over the past month…it’s always good to know from whence your paycheck cometh…but he never misses an opportunity to point out WHY we did so well: At every meeting, he’s got a list of praises from customers, on everything from how well our products are designed, to how great our technical assistance and customer service is, to how impressive our website and literature are, and how fast & flawlessly we ship. It is indeed a group effort, and I really like being part of this group.

9. Cincinnati. I grew up here, and as soon as I graduated high school, I joined the Navy to see the world and swore I’d never come back. I’m glad my plans didn’t work out, because this is a great place to live, work, and raise a family. Mark Twain may or may not have said “When the end of the world comes, I want to be in Cincinnati because it’s always twenty years behind the times,” and yes, our airport is in Kentucky, but I bet somebody, somewhere, makes jokes about where you live too. And you don’t have a Big Red Machine. ‘nuff said.

10. Manufacturing. Specifically, being a part of American manufacturing. Which, we all agree with our friend and co-worker Lee Evans, rocks.

Is that ten? I think that was ten. Until next week,

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: http://www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair