Tag: turboblast

Blowoff Made Easy With the Variblast Safety Air Gun

Published on by jasonkirbyLeave a comment

EXAIR’s VariBlast Safety Air Guns provide a significant advancement in handheld blow off technology by effectively addressing the hazardous “all-or-nothing” airflow characteristic of conventional air blow guns. This innovative series combines precise, adjustable force control with top-tier safety standards, ensuring operator protection while significantly reducing costly compressed air consumption. Top that off with the fact that these units are actually repairable, and you have a win all the way around!

In standard industrial environments, inexpensive handheld air guns are often disregarded, despite being a significant source of hidden expenses stemming from high air consumption, potential hearing risks, and serious safety violations. To address these issues, EXAIR has developed the VariBlast series, which offers an efficient and ergonomic solution that easily adjusts to various tasks.

The VariBlast series is distinguished by its innovative variable-flow trigger mechanism. In contrast to inexpensive blow off guns that release a continuous and uncontrolled stream of compressed air, the specialized valve within the VariBlast adapts responsively to the user’s input.

The ergonomic trigger, when squeezed, progressively opens the internal valve, enabling operators to gently displace fine dust particles with a soft airflow or exert up to a full pound of force to completely blow away heavier debris. This precise control mechanism helps to avoid excessive use of compressed air, thereby significantly reducing utility expenses for the facility.

To tackle everything from heavy manufacturing to delicate electronics assembly, EXAIR offers the VariBlast blow gun in two distinct variations:

Meets or Exceeds OSHA Requirements
  • VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns are constructed from robust cast aluminum, ensuring their resilience in demanding industrial environments. These air guns are equipped with dual 1/4 NPT inlets, making them suitable for connection with overhead tool retractors or counter balancers, and they can be paired with any of EXAIR’s 1/8 NPT Super Air Nozzles for enhanced functionality.
  • The VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns are specifically designed for meticulous and detailed tasks, featuring a lightweight construction made from high-impact thermoplastic. This model is equipped with EXAIR’s three smallest engineered nozzle profiles, which include the ultra-compact Atto, the mid-range Pico, and the fine-point Nano, allowing for versatile applications in precision work.

Safety is not an afterthought with EXAIR; it is baked right into the engineering. Every VariBlast blow gun model completely bypasses standard factory penalties by natively fulfilling two essential OSHA mandates:

OSHA StandardSafety RequirementHow VariBlast Complies
29 CFR 1910.242(b)Restricts dead-end static pressure greater than 30 PSI if a nozzle is blocked.Engineered Super Air Nozzles maximize air entrainment and cannot be accidentally blocked or dead-ended by an operator’s hand.
29 CFR 1910.95(a)Protects operators against continuous industrial noise exposure over 90 dBA.Advanced nozzle geometry drops operation sound levels between 58 and 82 dBA—well within safe, permissible daily, 8-hour exposure thresholds.

If you have questions about our Variblast Safety Air Guns, or anything regarding EXAIR and our products, please do not hesitate to reach out.

Jason Kirby
Application Engineer
Email: jasonkirby@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jk

EXAIR’s Family of Safety Air Guns

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

If you’re tired of noisy, inefficient air guns that guzzle compressed air and risk operator safety, it’s time to level up. In today’s fast-paced manufacturing world, blowoff tools need to be smart – not just strong. Enter EXAIR’s lineup of Safety Air Guns, designed to meet OSHA standards while slashing noise, energy use, and fatigue. And the best part? We’ve got a quick video that breaks it all down in under 3 minutes. Watch the Video Below!

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer

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Advantages of EXAIR’s TurboBlast Safety Air Guns

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

It’s been almost three years since EXAIR introduced our latest innovation in handheld blowoff products: the TurboBlast Safety Air Gun. It came hot on the heels of the VariBlast Precision and Compact Safety Air Gun product lines, which both feature a variable pull trigger that affords the operator precise control over the flow & force produced. That proved to be a real game-changer for a lot of customers, letting them even more fully optimize their blowoff applications.

For that same kind of control, in a larger, more powerful Safety Air Gun, we incorporated a gate valve into the design of the TurboBlast. It’s operated by a rotating collar, directly downstream of the trigger:

A quarter turn of the gate valve collar changes the TurboBlast Safety Air Gun’s discharge from a breeze to a blast.

We make them without the gate valve too – if you’re buying a Safety Air Gun that’s capable of 23lbs of force, there’s a decent chance that you don’t need, or want, the ability to turn that down. With or without the gate valve, though, we’ve heard some great success stories from satisfied customers:

  • A company that refurbishes machinery for the pulp & paper industry uses Model 1925-3 TurboBlast Adjustable Safety Air Guns (with our Model 1114 1 NPT High Force Super Air Nozzle, 3ft Extension, and Gate Valve) for the initial cleaning of the machines, and at certain other steps in the breakdown & disassembly. The Extension gives them extra reach, and the ability to clean larger areas in a single blast, and the Gate Valve lets them reduce the output force for more delicate areas of the machine.
  • Workers in a foundry use a Model 1917 TurboBlast Safety Air Gun (with our Model 1118 1-1/4 NPT High Force Super Air Nozzle, no Extension or Gate Valve) to remove scales from metal products right out of the forge. This is a classic “don’t need, or want, the ability to turn that down” case.
  • A firefighting sprinkler system manufacturer quickly & easily removes debris from the inside of welded pipes with a Model 1915 TurboBlast Safety Air Gun (with our Model 1114 1 NPT High Force Super Air Nozzle, no Gate Valve or Extension.) Operators appreciate its ergonomic design for this repetitive work of blowing quick blasts of air through a bank of pipes.

Whether you need something that’ll deliver a pinpoint flow of air in a tight space, or one that’ll blow a wide pattern of air with high force, EXAIR has a Safety Air Gun for you. If you’d like to find out more, give me a call.

Russ Bowman, CCASS

Application Engineer
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VariBlast Safety Air Gun Overview

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

After mowing the lawn, I always blow the driveway & sidewalk off with a leaf blower. Then, before pulling the riding lawn mower back into the garage, I blow off the deck with the leaf blower too, and it always looks like it does a great job. The other day, though, I had to replace the drive belts, so I removed the deck and found an awful lot of grass trimmings had accumulated in the inner recesses. No matter how much air my leaf blower moves (and it moves a LOT), I would have needed a much more focused flow to get into some of those tight spaces.

Situations like this are EXACTLY what EXAIR Safety Air Guns – especially the VariBlast Precision and Compact models – are made for. Consider:

  • Tight, focused flow – the VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns can be fitted with our three smallest, most focused Super Air Nozzles – Atto, Pico, and Nano:
Not only do they create the most focused airflow patterns, these Super Air Nozzles are also small enough to fit in pretty tight quarters themselves.
  • Hard-hitting force – VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns can also be fitted with the Atto, Pico, or Nano Super Air Nozzles for the tightest airflow patterns, as well as several others if higher flow & force are required.
For more aggressive applications, VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns with 1″ High Power Flat Super Air Nozzles can apply up to 1 pound of force.
  • Extended reach – the VariBlast Precision Safety Air Guns are available with 12″ and 20″ 316SS extensions, and the VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns can come with straight rigid aluminum extensions up to 72″ long.
  • Chip Shields – regardless of whether you need extensions for extra reach, these can all be supplied with Chip Shields. These are especially useful (and are included as standard) on the VariBlast Compact Safety Air Guns with Back Blow Air Nozzles.
Atto Back Blow Air Nozzles can blow out recesses or holes as small as 1/4″ in diameter.
  • Operator control – this is the key feature of the VariBlast models. Most handheld airguns have spool valve-type triggers that are really just on/off operation. They can offer some crude amount of throttling, but the variable pull trigger of the VariBlast Safety Air Gun provides precise control, and they’re ergonomic to boot. Here’s a short video that shows just how precise the control is with a VariBlast Precision Safety Air Gun.

Compressed air isn’t cheap, and if you use cheap, non-engineered blow-offs, you’re going to pay WAY more to operate them than you have to. If you want to find out how the VariBlast Precision or Compact Safety Air Guns – or any EXAIR 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
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