In any industrial environment there’s an application we can assist with from our line of Intelligent Compressed Air Products®. Specific to the automotive industry are a variety of processes that might necessitate the need for cleaning, static elmination, cooling, or any general blowoff.
One common application that we help with often involves the blowoff of automotive bodies. Recently, I worked with a customer that was hoping to replicate an existing blowoff from a sister facility in Europe. In their process, they needed to dry the entire body of the car just after it exited a washing operation. They had been using a blower-type system previously, but got sick of the constant maintenance required to keep them running properly. One of their engineers reached out to the company in the EU where they discovered they’d switched over to compressed air knives years ago with great success!
EXAIR’s Super Air Knives are the ideal maintenance-free solution to a wide range of industrial blowoff processes. The industry-leading Super Air Knife dramatically reduces compressed air usage and noise when compared to other blowoff methods. The Super Air Knife is available in lengths ranging from 3”-108” and in Aluminum, 303 Stainless Steel, 316 Stainless Steel, and PVDF for corrosive applications. Even at high pressures of 80 psig, the Super Air Knife is able to maintain a sound level of just 69 dBA for most applications! Air is entrained from the ambient environment at a rate of 40:1, maximizing the force and flow from the Super Air Knife. In addition, these knives meet or exceed OSHA maximum dead-end pressure and noise requirements.
Adjustability of both the force and flow from the Super Air Knife is infinitely adjustable. Right out of the box from the factory the Super Air Knife comes stock with a .002” thick shim installed. This sets the gap between the body and cap of the knife and determines how much compressed air can flow through the precise, slotted orifice. An accessory that EXAIR has available for the Super Air Knife is a shim set. For the aluminum knives, a .001”, .003”, and .004” plastic shims come in the shim set. To reduce the flow and force, a .001” thick shim can be used. If more force is required, a thicker shim can be installed. For the stainless steel and PVDF knives, (3) .002” shims are included in the set. Stainless steel shims for the stainless knives and a PTFE shim for the PVDF. These, as well as the plastic shims, can be stacked on top of one another to create an even larger gap. One thing that is important to keep in mind however, the larger the air gap the greater the air consumption. Installing a .004” shim in a Super Air Knife will double the force, flow, and consumption of the knife when compared to the stock .002” thick shim.
If you have a new application (or need to replicate an existing one) for the Super Air Knife, don’t hesitate to reach out to an EXAIR Application Engineer for assistance. With a highly-trained team coming from multiple different industry backgrounds, we’re ready to help.
Tyler Daniel, CCASS
Application Engineer
E-mail: TylerDaniel@EXAIR.com
Twitter: @EXAIR_TD
