Tag: wing

Application Database: Aerospace.

Published on by johnball2014Leave a comment

EXAIR uses many different methods to connect with our customers.  We have our website, social media, blogs, publications, etc.  We like to share solutions for some of the most common pneumatic problems in the industry.  EXAIR generated a large collection of application information where EXAIR products have solved problems and improved processes, and we placed them in a database.  We organized them by Application and by Industry.  In this blog, I will share an application within the Aerospace industry and how you can find it as well.

The aerospace industry needed help cleaning the wings on an airplane after washing.  The use of rags and squeegees was time-consuming and could scratch the surface of the wing.  They were looking for a non-contact way to clean the surface quickly and efficiently.  They contacted EXAIR, as we are the leaders in this industry.  To reach across the surface, I recommended the model 110272PKI 72” Aluminum Super Air Knife Kit with a Plumbing Kit installed.  The plumbing kit makes it easy to properly install compressed air to this long air knife.  The kit adds a filter, regulator, and a shim set to help control the force of the Super Air Knife to optimize blow-off.  This company was able to mount this to a rodless cylinder to move the Super Air Knife along the entire length of the wing.  Drying and cleaning the surface without touching the exterior, making it a great way to get the wings to the next step in the process.   

EXAIR offers many solutions for many types of industries by reducing costs and improving processes.  EXAIR has these solutions in a library on our website.  If you are part of the Aerospace industry, it can be beneficial for you.  It is a “been there, done that” solution that you can take advantage of. 

Here is how you can find this library.  First, you will have to sign in to the EXAIR website.  Click HERE to log in.  Once you fill in the proper information, you can then retrieve a great number of resources about the EXAIR products that we manufacture.   The Application database is located under the Resources drop-down tab (reference photo below) and at Applications.  

At the Application Search Library, we have over one thousand applications that we reference.  In the left selection pane, we organized them under two categories: Application and Industry.  

Scroll down in the Industry selection pane until you come to the sub-category: Aerospace.  If you do not find it, you can select the Expand button to open up more categories.  We have other applications as well that may relate to your specific process if you scroll up and down the list, like Automotive and Aviation, as examples.   

Why is this important?  If you are a plant manager or owner, the value of the Application Database can help your current processes with pre-qualified results.  Within the Aerospace industry, simple solutions can be found to address those “nagging” issues that you see every day.  For crisis situations and shutdowns, EXAIR categorized these applications in a way to reference them quickly and easily.  And since EXAIR carries a high volume of stocked items, we can get the parts to you very quickly.  

In today’s market, companies are always looking for ways to cut costs, increase productivity, and improve safety.  EXAIR can offer engineered products to do exactly that.  With the “been there and done that” solutions already described in the Application Database, you can have confidence in finding a way to solve pneumatic issues.  I created another blog about Agriculture to show the variations that we can offer. If you do not sign up at http://www.EXAIR.com and take advantage of these offerings, you will be missing out on a great tool to optimize your compressed air system.  And for the customer above, they were able to meet their requirements as well as the deadline that they had.  If you cannot find a solution, an Application Engineer at EXAIR is available to help you. 

John Ball
Application Engineer
Email: johnball@exair.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_jb

The Bernoulli Principle

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

What do baseball, airplanes, and your favorite singer have in common? If you guessed that it has something to do with the title of this blog, dear reader, you are correct.  We’ll unpack all that, but first, let’s talk about this Bernoulli guy:

Jacob Bernoulli was a prominent mathematician in the late 17th century.  We can blame calculus on him to some degree; he worked closely with Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz who (despite vicious accusations of plagiarism from Isaac Newton) appears to have developed the same mathematical methods independently from the more famous Newton.  He also developed the mathematical constant e (base of the natural logarithm) and a law of large numbers which was foundational to the field of statistics, especially probability theory.  But he’s not the Bernoulli we’re talking about.

Johann Bernoulli was Jacob’s younger brother.  He shared his brother’s passion for the advancement of calculus, and was among the first to demonstrate practical applications in various fields.  So for engineers especially, he can share the blame for calculus with his brother.  But he’s not the Bernoulli we’re talking about either.

Johann’s son, Daniel, clearly got his father’s math smarts as well as his enthusiasm for practical applications, especially in the field of fluid mechanics.  His kinetic theory of gases is widely known as the textbook (literally) explanation of Boyle’s law.  And the principle that bears his name (yes, THIS is the Bernoulli we’re talking about) is central to our understanding of curveballs, airplane wings, and vocal range.

Bernoulli’s Principle states that an increase in the speed of a fluid occurs simultaneously with a decrease in pressure (e.g., the fluid’s potential energy.)

  • In baseball, pitchers love it, and batters hate it.  When the ball is thrown, friction (mainly from the particular stitched pattern of a baseball) causes a thin layer of air to surround the ball, and the spin that a skilled pitcher puts on it creates higher air pressure on one side and lower air pressure on the other.  According to Bernoulli, that increases the air speed on the lower pressure side, and the baseball moves in that direction.  Since a well-thrown curveball’s axis of rotation is parallel to the ground, that means the ball drops as it approaches the plate, leaving the batter swinging above it, or awkwardly trying to “dig it out” of the plate.
  • The particular shape of an airplane wing (flat on the bottom, curved on the top) means that when the wing (along with the rest of the plane) is in motion, the air travelling over the curved top has to move faster than the air moving under the flat bottom.  This means the air pressure is lower on top, allowing the wing (again, along with the rest of the plane) to rise.
  • The anatomy inside your neck that facilitates speech is often called a voice box or vocal chords.  It’s actually a set of folds of tissue that vibrate and make sound when air (being expelled by the lungs when your diaphragm contracts) passes through.  When you sing different notes, you’re actually manipulating the area of air passage.  If you narrow that area, the air speed increases, making the pressure drop, skewing the shape of those folds so that they vibrate at a higher frequency, creating the high notes.  Opening up that area lowers the air speed, and the resultant increase in pressure lowers the vocal folds’ vibration frequency, making the low notes.
  • Bonus (because I work for EXAIR) Bernoulli’s Principle application: many EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products are engineered to take advantage of this phenomenon to optimize efficiency:

The high speed of the air exiting the (left to right) the Air Wipe, Super Air Knife, Super Air Nozzle, and Air Amplifier creates a low pressure (just like Daniel Bernoulli said) that causes entrainment of an enormous amount of air from the surrounding environment.  This maximizes flow while minimizing consumption of your compressed air.

If you’d like to discuss Bernoulli, baseball, singing, or a potential compressed air application, give me a call.  If you want to talk airplane stuff, perhaps one of the other Application Engineers can help…I don’t really like to fly, but that’s a subject for another blog.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
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