Cooling Parts with Compressed Air. In many manufacturing processes, workers must cool the produced product for further handling or processing.
The environment can cool the product using carrousel systems that simply move it around.This allows for the current atmosphere (and temperature) of the factory to cool the product. This method demands a significant amount of space and requires maintaining the carrousel assembly at a high cost. The process is quite slow.
Fans may be used to cool. This a relatively slow cooling process as well and the fan motors actually can add heat back onto the product while blowing atmospheric temperature air onto the product. Again, such systems require maintenance of the fans.
Compressed air can cool but is sometimes neglected due to the perceived energy cost. However, in spaces with limited footprints, using it correctly can minimize and even offset the increased energy cost with higher output and maintenance savings.
Using compressed air via a pipe with holes, or with open tube or pipe, is not efficient.
Air will exit the opening and become turbulent quickly, creating a great deal of noise and energy loss. Because of the turbulence, the opening must also be close to the target being cooling to be effective.
There are two choices for cooling when utilizing compressed air for cooling:
Air Flow Amplification works by using aerodynamic surfaces so that the compressed air exists the opening in such a way that it converts the line pressure into flow with minimal energy loss. This setup reduces noise, lowers energy consumption, and creates a laminar flow, allowing placement of the target several inches away from the opening.
It operates by entraining the surrounding air to mix with the compressed air. This limits the temperature drop to the value of the ambient temperature entrained.
Vortex Tubes are devices that take compressed air and divide it into a hot and cold stream. The cold stream targets the product surface for cooling. Vortex tubes can produce sub-zero temperatures so if the desired result needs to be less than ambient, this offers a potential alternative.
Air Flow Amplification is especially useful for larger parts while vortex tubes in an open area can only cool a couple square inches. One option with vortex tubes is to create a tunnel and cool the tunnel with several units and have the parts go through this tunnel.
Using Air Amplification and/or Vortex Tube technologies can often speed up the production process which helps to offset energy cost. Using the compressed air option benefits more when cooling more costly parts.
Every situation has its unique characteristics. The important outcomes required will determine which option, or even if the compressed air option, is the most economical.
Compressed used properly for cooling can, and does in many cases improve output while minimizing maintenance and space requirements.
