Tag: ultrasonic leak

Why Engineered Air Nozzles Outperform Open Pipes (And Cut Air Use by Up to 70%)

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Compressed air is one of the most expensive utilities in any manufacturing facility—yet it’s often treated as “free.” One of the biggest contributors to wasted compressed air is the continued use of open pipes, drilled pipes, or homemade blowoffs for cleaning, drying, and cooling applications.

While these methods may seem simple and inexpensive, they are inefficient, unsafe, noisy, and costly over time. EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles are designed to solve these exact problems. Often reducing compressed air consumption by up to 70% while improving performance.

Open pipes release compressed air directly to atmosphere with no control, no amplification, and no optimization. This creates several major issues:

Excessive Air Consumption

An open 1/4″ pipe at 80 PSIG can consume 25+ SCFM continuously. Multiply that across shifts, days, and multiple stations, and the cost quickly adds up.

Poor Performance

Open pipes create turbulent airflow that dissipates rapidly, requiring higher pressure and more air to achieve acceptable results.

High Noise Levels

Uncontrolled air release produces noise levels that can exceed OSHA limits, creating safety and compliance concerns.

Safety Risks

Open pipes can generate dangerous dead-end pressures and flying debris, posing serious injury risks to operators. Creating real situations where

What Makes EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles Different?

EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles are precision-designed to maximize force while minimizing air consumption. Instead of wasting compressed air, they use advanced airflow geometry to do more with less.

Air Amplification

EXAIR nozzles use the Coandă effect to entrain surrounding ambient air. For every unit of compressed air used, multiple units of free air are pulled into the flow—creating higher output force without increased air usage.

Optimized Flow Patterns

Rather than chaotic turbulence, engineered nozzles produce laminar, focused airflow that delivers better cleaning, drying, and cooling results at lower pressure.

Significant Air Savings

It’s common to see 30–70% reductions in air consumption when replacing open pipes with EXAIR air nozzles—often with improved performance.

Eleminate Safety Risks

Air nozzles and jets are designed to operate well above 30 PSIG while creating dead end pressures well below the OSHA limits. Giving you better performance safley.

EXAIR Model 1100 Super Air Nozzle Replaces Open Copper Pipe Blow Off

Replacing open pipes with EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles is one of the simplest and most cost-effective improvements you can make to a compressed air system.

If you’re serious about:

  • Reducing energy costs
  • Improving safety
  • Lowering noise levels
  • Getting more from your compressed air

…it’s time to stop blowing money into the air.

EXAIR Engineered Air Nozzles prove that better design beats brute force—every time.

Jordan Shouse, CCASS

Application Engineer / Sales Operations Engineer

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Starting a Leak Prevention Program: Maximize Efficiency and Savings

Published on by Jordan T ShouseLeave a comment

Compressed air systems are the unsung heroes powering countless processes across all industries. However, they come with a hidden cost: leaks. Even the most well-maintained systems experience some level of leakage, often wasting 20-30% of a compressor’s output, according to the Compressed Air Challenge. This inefficiency translates directly into higher energy bills, increased compressor wear, and unnecessary maintenance expenses. The good news? You can take control of these losses by implementing a Leak Prevention Program. Let’s dive into how to establish such a program and why it’s a game-changer for your bottom line.

Compressed air isn’t cheap—it’s often one of the most significant energy expenses in a facility. When leaks go unchecked, you’re not just losing air; you’re losing money. A single leak can cost thousands of dollars annually, depending on its size and your energy rates. For example, at $0.07 per kWh, a leak as small as 1/8 inch can waste over $2,933 worth of compressed air per year. Multiply that by dozens of leaks across a system, and the financial impact becomes staggering. Beyond the dollars, leaks force compressors to run longer and harder, shortening their lifespan and driving up maintenance costs. A Leak Prevention Program isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a strategic necessity for operational efficiency and sustainability.

EXAIR provides resources and tools to help you design and execute an effective Leak Prevention Program. Here’s a step-by-step approach to getting started:

  1. Establish a Baseline – Before you can measure improvement, you need to know where you stand. Document your current compressed air usage by tracking compressor run times, energy consumption, and system pressure. This baseline serves as your reference point to quantify savings once leaks are addressed. To measure the total volume of air, you can implement the EXAIR Digital flow meter.
  2. Identify Leaks – Here’s where EXAIR’s Ultrasonic Leak Detector (Model 9207) shines. Leaks produce high-frequency turbulence—ultrasonic “white noise” that’s inaudible to the human ear but easily detectable with the right technology. This handheld, high-quality detector converts these ultrasonic signatures into audible sounds through headphones and displays intensity on an LED screen, allowing you to pinpoint leaks up to 20 feet away. Whether it’s a faulty fitting, a worn valve, or a cracked pipe, the detector’s precision ensures you won’t miss a thing—even in noisy industrial environments.
  3. Document and Prioritize – Once leaks are identified, record their location, size, and estimated cost. There are two main approaches: the Seek-and-Repair method, where leaks are fixed immediately, or the Leak Tag method, where leaks are tagged and logged for scheduled repairs. For larger facilities, a master leak list can streamline tracking and ensure accountability. Prioritize repairs based on leak size and accessibility—tackling the biggest offenders first maximizes early savings.
  4. Repair and Verify Fix the leaks using appropriate methods—tightening connections, replacing seals, or upgrading components. After repairs, use the Ultrasonic Leak Detector again to confirm the fixes hold. This verification step ensures your efforts translate into real results.
  5. Track Savings and Optimize Compare your post-repair compressed air usage to your baseline. The reduction in energy costs, compressor runtime, and maintenance needs will reveal the program’s ROI, then you can turn your leak prevention program into a continuous improvement process.

The EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector is an important building block for this program. Its ability to detect leaks quickly and accurately sets it apart from rudimentary methods like listening for hisses (which only catches the worst offenders) or using soapy water (impractical for large systems). The detector’s portability and ease of use mean your team can cover an entire facility efficiently, even during normal operations. Its directional sensitivity zeros in on leak sources, minimizing guesswork and downtime. With minimal training, your staff can become proficient, making it a practical investment for any operation.

Compressed air leaks will rob your system of its capacity, compressor life, and electrical cost.  It is important to have a leak preventative program to check for leaks periodically as they can happen at any time.  The EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector and the Digital Flowmeters will help you accomplish this and optimize your compressed air system.  Once you find and fix all your leaks, you can then focus on improving the efficiency of your blow-off devices with EXAIR products like Super Air Knives, Super Air Nozzles, and Super Air Amplifiers, and save yourself even more money.  This blog is an overview of Step 2 of the Six Steps to Optimization. You may have more questions; and, that is great! You can find them in other EXAIR blogs, or you can contact an Application Engineer at EXAIR.

Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer

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Air Leak Photo Courtesy of the Compressed air Challenge

Ultrasonic Leak Detectors

Published on by exaircorpLeave a comment

With energy bills skyrocketing, it becomes critical to stop the waste. Air leaks are a constant part of any compressed air system. If you do not own an Ultrasonic Leak Detector, you are throwing money away. As air lines age, leaks happen. Rust erodes the pipes. Curves, twists and turns lead to weak joints. Fittings (especially push-in fittings) and other pipe connections will degrade and begin to leak. Day-to-day wear and tear, bumps and bruises will all cause small air leaks over time. Having an air leak in your system is similar to having a running toilet in your home. You won’t see any visible damage, but when you get that utility bill!

EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector

It can be difficult to find the leaks in a large facility. The air lines could run a long way, with multiple twists and turns within your system. The area can be loud, and leaks can be very quiet… Of course the large leaks are easy to identify, see, hear and feel. But many leaks are very small, hard to locate and the noise form these leaks can be “Ultrasonic sound”, meaning that they are at a frequency between 20kHz and 100kHz, and cannot be heard by the human ear. To find these small leaks and to hear Ultrasonic sounds, you will need an Ultrasonic Leak Detector.

With this precision tool, you will be able to both hear and see where the leaks are. As you pass the Detector across the pipes the alarm lights will glow and grow, and if you have the noise canceling headphones on, you will also be able to hear the leak.

Here is an example of how costly 1 small 1/16th” leak can be:

Reach out today to discuss or order one of these money savings jewels, or any of our other intelligent compressed air products.

Thank you for stopping by,

Brian Wages

Application Engineer

EXAIR Corporation
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How to Save Money on Compressed Air

Published on by codybiehleLeave a comment

Compressed air can be one of the more expensive utilities to use in a facility, but a compressed air system is full of simple opportunities to increase efficiency and minimize the cost. Much like how you can take multiple steps to save electricity at your house there a few simple steps you can take to save your compressed air. These steps include finding and repairing leaks, compressor maintenance, minimizing pressure at the point of use, and turning the compressed air off when not in use. Implementing these steps and using the right tools to achieve them can lead to significant dollar savings – in fact our website case studies, other blog articles and catalog are filled with example after example of air (and dollar) savings success! And let’s be honest here, who doesn’t like saving money.

First off is finding your leaks. Leaks are one of the major wastes of compressed air in a system that could happen. Leaks in a compressed air system can account for wasting 20-30% of a compressors output. These leaks can commonly be found in pipe joints, devices that use the compressed air, quick connect fittings, and storage tanks. All of this compounds to wasting air much like a leaky faucet wastes water – little by little it grows until it simply needs to be addressed. One of the ways to help find leaks in your system is EXAIR’s affordable Ultrasonic Leak Detector. This leak detector uses ultrasonic waves to detect where costly leaks can be found so that they can be patched or fixed.

EXAIR Ultrasonic Leak Detector

Choose efficient end-use products. Engineered air knives, air amplifiers, air nozzles and safety air guns can dramatically outperform (use less air) than commercial air nozzles and in-house solutions such as drilled pipes, open air lines and other creative “fixes”. We have seen some very nice in-house solutions from customers who have put in some significant time and effort, but they all have one thing in common – they use more air than any of EXAIR’s engineered solutions.

Minimizing your pressure can also save you money by limiting the amount of compressed air that is being used. Pressure and volume go hand and hand, the higher the pressure the higher the volume of air and vice versa. By minimizing the pressure that you are using you are also minimizing the amount of air that is being used which means savings. Each CFM used can be associated with a certain price value so the less you use the more you save. You also cut down on the amount of work the compressor has to do and how often the compressor has to cycle. Pressure can be minimized using one of EXAIR’s Pressure Regulators to cut down on the amount of air being used.

EXAIR’s Pressure Regulators come in 4 different sizes

Turn off the compressed air when it is not in use. Just like how you wouldn’t leave the faucet running or lights on in a room that is not being used, don’t leave your compressed air running (insert bad dad joke). Constantly using compressed air even when not in use will cause the compressor to cycle more often wasting money. Each CFM has a price to it so don’t waste CFM’s blowing it back into the air and doing nothing. This can simply be done by adding one of EXAIR’s ball valve or solenoid valves to turn off when you are done using it. Also, if you want to take it another step farther you can look at using one of EXAIR’s Electronic Flow Controllers (EFC). The EFC uses a photo eye attached to a timer that will open a solenoid valve for a set amount of time when it detects an object within 3’ of the photo eye. This will turn the air on only when your product is in the air path and turn it off during any spaces in between.

EXAIR’s EFC in use

Compressor maintenance is another important step to minimizing the cost of compressed air. Neglected air compressors can cause a lot of issues ranging from expensive repairs to a decreases in efficiency. Wear and tear placed on the motor of an air compressor can cause the compressor to produce less compressed air (SCFM) at the same power consumption. This means you are paying the same amount of money and getting less out of it. Making sure that your compressor or any machine is always running at its optimal performance and should always be a priority for any facility.

There are many different ways to save on compressed air, these are just a few of them. Reducing air use will save money and reduce the demand on your compressor which in turn can prolong the life of your air compressor. If you have questions about how to save on compressed air or any of our engineered Intelligent Compressed Air® Products, feel free to contact EXAIR or any Application Engineer.

Cody Biehle
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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