Tag: vacuum suction cups

Porous and Non-Porous E-vac Generators

Published on by EricKuhnash@EXAIR.comLeave a comment

Having an injection molding background I saw many uses for parts pickers using many different sizes from 90 – to 3000 ton injection molding machines and a vast amount of part sizes and shapes that varied from items as small as dinner plates to as big as municipal refuse containers. I dealt mainly with non-porous applications but EXAIR offers both porous and non-porous E-vacs to accommodate wide range of part sizes and weights.

EXAIR has High Vacuum Generators for Non-Porous Applications with high vacuum units up to 27″ Hg (91 kPa) with vacuum flows up to 15.8 SCFM (447 SLPM). The plastic products I was moving were all non-porous, meaning air or liquids would not permeate into the surface of my product. Other examples of non-porous material including plastic sub-straights include glass, steel sheet, ceramics, vinyl, sealed tiles and varnished wood.

Porous applications use a low vacuum generator. Low vacuum units up to 21″Hg (71kPa) with flows up to 18.5 SCFM (524 SLPM) are typically used for porous materials such as corrugate, wood, fabrics, cinder block, etc… The relatively lower level vacuum for porous materials prevents warping, marring, dimpling or disfiguring of the surface due to excessive vacuum. This style generates more vacuum flow to overcome porosity and leakage while maintaining control over the object being handled.

Referencing the previously mentioned refuse container application, I performed the weight and movement analysis and determined that four of our model 900754 vacuum cups and two of our model 810006M Non-porous E-vacs would have been more than adequate to unload and lift my 95 gallon refuse container lids from the injection molding machine and move them to the hot stamp center. I recall the vacuum cup system we had in place back then, would frequently drop out and lose control over the product. This was not only a real process headache, but also made for a legitimate safety issue as well.

EXAIR E-vacs actually have other interesting uses. They have been used in applications for bag and package opening, label placement, vacuum forming, leak testing and many other applications.

EXAIR also has accessories to round out vacuum cup systems including vacuum cups themselves, mufflers, check valves, vacuum tubing and fittings. We would have interest to discuss your application. If you have questions regarding which E-vac style and size is proper for your project please contact any of our Application Engineers to help you with selection and design of your system.

Eric Kuhnash
Application Engineer
E-mail: EricKuhnash@exair.com
Twitter: Twitter: @EXAIR_EK

The Blog of all Blogs: A Quick Resource of Blogs that we Blogged

Published on by bdwagesLeave a comment

EXAIR started writing Blogs in 2008. Since then, we have written well over 2000 Blogs. There is a ton of information in our Blog section on the website. There is most likely a Blog or 10 written about nearly each one of our products. These are primarily written by application engineers that know a thing or two about our products. There are also many application Blogs, that may be very relatable to what you are doing. When you journey to our Blog page (or simply click Blog form EXAIR.com), simply type in a key word or two in our search bar. This search bar is located just below the first row of published Blogs on the right hand of the screen, here is a screenshot of that section (right). You can also choose to follow our blog here as well.

As application engineers, we get asked questions every day. Many of these questions are best answered in one (or more) of these 2000+ Blogs. Many times a picture or video can answer your questions much more precisely than a quick conversation or an email. Many times we will send you a blog link to help. Drawing from my own experience, and asking the other Application Engineers for their lists, I wanted to put our most referenced blogs in one helpful location. I’ve categorized these the best that I can, and hopefully this will be a useful resource for you today, and in the future.

OPTIMIZING YOUR COMPRESSED AIR SYSTEM

Six Steps to Optimizing Your Compressed Air System

This is one of the key sections to our blogs. One of our main goals is to help you optimize your system. Here are 6 blogs that go into detail on each of these key points:

  1. Six Steps to Optimization: Step 1 – Measure the Air Consumption
  2. Six Steps to Compressed Air Optimization: Step 2 – Find and Fix Leaks.
  3. Six Steps to Compressed Air Optimization: Step 3 – Use Efficient and Quiet Engineered Products
  4. Six Steps to Optimizing Compressed Air: Step 4, Turn it Off When Not in Use
  5. Installing Secondary Receiver Tanks: Step 5 in Optimizing Your Compressed Air System
  6. Six Steps to Optimization: Step 6 – Control the Air Pressure at the Point of Use to Minimize Air Consumption

INDUSTRIAL HOUSEKEEPING

This is a product line that has a lot of maintenance questions, probably because these products are used to clean up dirt, and where there is dirt, there can be problems, clogs and leaks:

One of the most common questions we have concerns the Reversible Drum Vacuum (RDV) refurbishment Blog. The RDV is used on the Reversible Drum Vac, and the Chip Trapper products. We offer a refurb service for a fee, but most of the time you can do this on your own by watching and following this blog: Cleaning the Reversible Drum Vac

The Chip Trapper has two very popular blogs as well: Finding and Fixing Chip Trapper Vacuum Leaks as well as Cleaning the Chip Trapper’s Directional Valve

CABINET COOLERS

  1. Calculating Heat loads for Cabinet Coolers
  2. Finding the correct internal temperature of your Electrical Cabinet – don’t use a temp gun
  3. Thermostat & Solenoid Valve
  4. How To Install An EXAIR NEMA 4 or 4X Cabinet Cooler® System
  5. EXAIR Side Mount Kits for NEMA Type 4-4X Cabinet Cooler® Systems
  6. Cold Air Distribution Kit Installation
  7. Installing A Dual Cabinet Cooler Hardware Kit
  8. How to identify your Cabinet Cooler

VORTEX TUBES

  1. Vortex Tubes for Dummies
  2. Adjusting the Vortex Tube
  3. Vortex Tube Cold Fraction – effects on flow and temperature
  4. Application: Creating Freeze Seals for water lines

SUPER AIR KNIVES

  1. Application: Bottle Drying with Super Air Knife (instead of blower)
  2. Application: Super Air Knives drying automotive parts
  3. How to position and mount your Air Knife
  4. Which Air Knife should you choose?
  5. Super Air Knife Plumbing Kits
  6. Maximizing Super Air Knives with Shims

LINE VACS / CONVEYOR SYSTEMS

  1. Why Line Vacs need ambient air
  2. How to drill out Line Vac Generator Holes for increased performance
  3. Application: Conveying Coffee Beans

AIR AMPLIFIERS

  1. Super Air Amplifier Ratios explained
  2. Air Amplifier vs Fan – for cooling
  3. Application: Super Air Amplifier evacuating smoke or fumes

AIR ATOMIZING SPRAY NOZZLES

  1. Choosing the right Atomizing nozzle
  2. No-Drip Nozzle repair video
  3. Atomizing Nozzle identification
  4. Application: Atomizing Spray nozzles and Gummy Bears

SAFETY AIR GUNS

  1. Putting the Safe in Safety Air Guns
  2. Safety Air Gun Accessories, Extensions, Chip Shields and more
  3. Chip Shield sizes and selections

GEN 4 STATIC ELIMINATORS

  1. Changing the Gen 4 Power Supply Fuse
  2. Replacing the rocker switch on a Gen 4 Power Supply
  3. Changing the high power cord on the Gen 4 Ion Air Cannon
  4. Application: Solving Static and Print quality in food packaging

E-VAC VACUUM GENERATORS

  1. How to build a custom E-Vac System
  2. Choosing the right size Vacuum Cups

ACCESSORIES – FILTERS AND REGULATORS

  1. Filter Separator and Pressure Regulator with coupling kit installation 
  2. Rebuilding an Automatic Drain Filter Separator 
  3. Overview of EXAIR accessories

CALCULATIONS AND MORE

  1. Calculating SCFM at any pressure
  2. ROI Calculations with EXAIR products
  3. Do you need a receiver tank?
  4. EXAIR’s Calculator Library
  5. EXAIR’s OSHA compliance

OPTIMZATION – EFC, FLOWMETERS, AND ULTRASONIK LEAK DETECTORS

  1. EFC – Application: Candy Company saves big money with EFC
  2. Flowmeter – How to install a Hot Tap Flowmeter
  3. Flowmeter – Moving and or using Block-Off rings

There are many more blogs and videos at your disposal. This is just a recap of many of our most used, most viewed and most helpful for the day-to-day conversations that happen here at EXAIR. If you have ideas for new blogs – we would love to hear that as well. Please feel free to reach out at any time for more information on any of our intelligent compressed air products.

Thank you for stopping by,

Brian Wages

Application Engineer

EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter

Cover photo by clker-free-vector-image licensed by Pixabay

Pick-and-Place for All Materials! EXAIR Offers Both Porous and Non-Porous Vacuum Generators

Published on by Tyler DanielLeave a comment

EXAIR’s E-Vac Vacuum Generators are a simple solution for creating vacuum for a variety of different applications from: pick and place, clamping, chucking, lifting, surface mounting, and vacuum forming. Our In-Line E-Vacs are available in two different styles: porous or non-porous.

The material that you’ll be picking up will dictate which model is most suitable for your application. For porous materials such as paper or cardboard, we offer the low vacuum level, high vacuum flow vacuum generators. With vacuum levels up to 21” Hg and vacuum flows up to 18.5 SCSFM, this style generates more vacuum flow to overcome porosity and leakage. They can also be used to lift or hold delicate materials and prevent any warping, marring, dimpling, or disfiguring of the surface due to excessive vacuum.

Non-porous materials such as glass, steel sheet, and plastic are much more rigid and do not allow any of the vacuum flow to pass through the material. For these materials, EXAIR offers high vacuum units with vacuum levels of up to 27” Hg with vacuum flows up to 15.8 SCFM. These vacuum generators offer maximum holding capacity for heavy materials. Sizes are available with compressed air requirements as little as 2.3 SCFM at 80 PSIG and up to 30.8 SCFM for the largest and heaviest materials.

In addition to the vacuum generators themselves, EXAIR offers a variety of different accessories to help you build a complete system. To minimize the sound level and ensure you’re adhering to OSHA 1910.95, we have Standard Mufflers as well a Straight Through Mufflers. The Straight Through Mufflers offer the best level of sound reduction, up to 26 dBA!!

With no moving parts to wear out, EXAIR’s E-Vacs are virtually maintenance free when supplied with clean, dry compressed air. To maintain proper operation of your E-Vac, installation of an Automatic Drain Filter will remove any particulate and moisture from the air supply. In addition, oil removal filters are also available if your compressed air supply contains any oil as is common in many compressed air systems.

For pick and place or lifting applications, vacuum cups will be necessary. With a wide variety of different vacuum cups available: Small Round, Large Round, Oval, and Bellows, we can accommodate nearly any size or shape material. For heavier materials, round cups with cleats provide rigidity and ensure that the load remains stable. For applications on textured or uneven surfaces, Bellows style cups have convolutions that allow for the cup to quickly decompress when it touches the surface of an uneven part or material.

With all of the different options making a selection can seem like a daunting task. If you’re struggling to determine the most suitable E-Vac and Accessories for your application, give an Application Engineer a call today!

Tyler Daniel
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@Exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD

Vacuum Cups — Choosing the Right Size, Shape and Quantity

Published on by bdwagesLeave a comment

There is a lot to be said about EXAIR’s E-Vac systems. We have over 10 pages dedicated to this in our catalogue, and many blogs. Click here to see a great blog about selecting the correct E-Vac. Once you have selected the correct E-Vac Generator, we now need to set you up with the right accessories. The connectors and hoses are the easy part – this circles and squares. The magic comes when selecting the proper cup size, shape and quantity. Let’s start by looking at the 3 shapes available; Round, Oval and Bellow.

Round Cups are great for smooth, flat surfaces. They will grip and release quickly, and hold their shape well over extended use. These grip very well on vertical surfaces. For light lifting, use the non-cleated cups, and the cleated cups for heavy lifting. AS you see here we offer a small round and a large round cup.

Oval Cups have the largest surface and therefore provide the most vacuum. You will want to use these on the very heavy items. These are designed to handle flat rigid sheet materials like wood, glass, cardboard boxes and the bulkier items with a flat surface.

Bellow Cups are where we turn when your surface is uneven or textured. The “convolutions” or folds, provide a collapsible area that allows the cup to quickly compress when it reaches uneven surfaces. This cup will take longer to attach and to release due to the larger volume of the cup.

It’s important to note that all EXAIR vacuum cups are vinyl and are ideal for general purpose applications and will wear well. The Durometer rating is A50 and the Temp range is 32°F to 125°F.

From the information above, you should be narrowing down the shape of the cup you need based upon your product. But each of these shapes come in different sizes. Here is a table that shows you all the sizing options of each cup. You will want to keep in mind the size of your product, and the size of these cups. You will most likely need multiple cups to lift your item, so be thinking about how the actual size of the cups will fit evenly spaced on your product. The next step will get us home…

Our last step is to determine exactly how many cups we need to make this a viable and safe application. The first step is to calculate the amount of weight we need to lift. This is determined using a safety factor of 2 for cups positioned horizontally, and a factor of 4 for cups positioned vertically. So if you are moving a 10 lb box, and the cups are on top, you need to account for 20 lbs, and if the cups are on the sides, you need to account for 40lbs. Using the table below, you can see how many pounds that a single vacuum cup can hold, according to the “Hg applied. *** “Hg is based upon the E-Vac you chose earlier ***

As we put all this together it would look something like this. Using the example above, with a box size of 12″x12″x12″ weighing 10 lbs. We will be picking this up with the cups on top of the box, so our total safety weight is 20 pounds, You can see that there are many options that can get this job done. You can use 1,2,3, or even 4 vacuum cups. 1, 2, or 3 E-Vac’s. The key here is to think about safety first, and then consider what issues may arise if something goes wrong. In this scenario, I would consider what is in the box. But if it falls, will it break? If it breaks how much will that cost you?. Also, what happens to production if something tweaks the cups and boxes start piling up. If the penalties are low, I would use 1 cup like a large round (900756) and 1 E-Vac that pulls 10 Hg”. This gives me 34.8 pounds of lift. More than enough. If the box falls and will cost a lot of money, break, slow the process, the 1 cup option is still ok, but I would make this 3 small round cups (900755) and 1 E-Vac that will pull 10 Hg”. This gives me 12.1 pounds of lift on each cup, so if one doesn’t seat correctly, the other 2 (or even one) will still protect me. There are multiple other options as well.

At EXAIR, we have a lot of experience walking through these scenarios and helping make recommendations. Please feel free to call and ask for any of the application engineers for questions or assistance.

Application Engineer

Brian Wages

EXAIR Corporation
Visit us on the Web
Follow me on Twitter