REPLACE PIPE WITH DRILLED HOLES FOR BETTER PERFORMANCE AND SAVINGS
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
Air Knives to replace pipe with drilled holes. In any process line, compressed air if often applied thru a pipe with holes drilled at some distance part to blow on to a moving conveyor to dry items on that conveyor.
Compressed air from drilled holes suffer a high degree of pressure loss. The air is also turbulent which means the energy to dry is severely reduced, especially if you are more than a couple inches from the holes.
This leads to high noise level and wasteful energy loss.
In addition, if the spacing between the holes is too large you have gaps in the drying process. If the holes are too close you have flow interference which increases turbulence and reduces the drying effect, wasting more energy.
Air Knives have continuous flow along its entire length (no gaps), with laminar flow so effective at a much longer distance to the target, and are very quiet as they convert energy normally lost as noise on pressure drop into flow.
Energy saved can be from 10% to 90% depending on the size of the replaced holes and their spacing. The X-Stream® Air Blade Air Knife is more efficient than many older designs and competitive products. BUY AIR KNIVES NOW
PART EJECTION TO SAVE ENERGY
Air Jets are ideal for non-contact part ejection on production lines. The air flow from an Air Jet covers a large flow area and can often do the work of two air nozzles to guide the ejected part properly off a moving line.
Due to their larger size compared to air nozzles, they are more efficient in air amplification, and one air jet not only replaces two nozzles, it uses less energy than a nozzle, with lower noise level and a greater effective distance.
The unique coanda angles used in Nex Flow® Air Jets make them up to 25% more energy efficient than competitive single profile designs and with lower noise levels. Available in aluminum, brass and 316L stainless steel. BUY AIR JETS NOW
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
PORTABLE VENTING
Air Amplifiers move a large volume of air or gas and often called Air Movers, a much larger volume than can be moved by venture systems. One common use is for fume removal at welding stations.
The fumes can be drawing into the Air Amplifier. A hose clamped onto the exit of the Air Amplifier will convey the fumes as far as ten feet (3 meters) away from the weld area.
The units are intrinsically safe as no electricity is used, and very portable because they are compact and lightweight. The small amount of compressed air used makes them economical to use.
In some instances they have even been used to boost the suction of fume collection at local stations of a central system, as they can overcome excess pressure drop which can inhibit the collection of the weld fumes.
The cast FX series is normally used as they are more rugged and easy to mount and superior in performance and design to most competitive units. BUY AIR AMPLIFIERS NOW
REDUCE NOISE AND ENERGY WITH NOZZLES ON MACHINES
Air Nozzles, or more specifically Engineered Air Nozzles are used instead of open tubes or pipe.
The Nex Flow® Air Mag Nozzles are a patented design that gives one of the highest force/SCFM output while reducing noise levels and being safe to use. They work much further away from the target to clean or dry and have a wide range of sizes from 4 mm to ½”.
One application was the addition of several 6 mm Air mag® nozzles to the end of copper tubing used to remove waste cutting oil after machining. The copper tubing alone worked well but with several stations in operation, the air consumption cost was significant as well as noise levels.
The addition of the small Air Nozzles reduced both noise and energy use and did had the same of better level of cleaning. The Air Mag® nozzles designs are especially popular with their patented design making them equal to more efficient than competitive nozzles,
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
FLAT NOZZLES REDUCE MAINTENANCE COST IN MINE
Air Edger® flat jet nozzles are a specially designed flat, 2” wide air nozzle. This design is more powerful than an Air Knife and used when extra force is required for cleaning a part. The exit air “gap” can be varied with this design by adding or removing shims that set the gap.
One excellent example is the use of twenty-four Air Edger flat jet nozzles on a specially made manifold for conveyor cleaning at a mine. The gap setting was quite high to have the force to clean the heavy debris on the conveyor.
Its advantage was to reduce the cleaning load of a scraper which had extremely high maintenance costs (and downtime cost) and the system cut that downtime and maintenance cost significantly. BUY AIR EDGERS® NOW
DRY EXTRUSIONS BETTER WITH NEX FLOW® AIR WIPES
Nex Flow® Ring Blade® Air Wipes are very efficient for drying and cleaning extruded parts.
One special application was used to remove cutting oil from a length of a relatively circular part after it was machined. The part was passed thru the Air Wipe to remove residue after machining. This method saved a great deal of time as it replaced a hand held air gun that have to be used previously.
The air flow from the Ring Blade® Air Wipe cleaned the part as it passed because if the angled flow shearing off the residue in one pass.
These units are so effective often a series of other style air wipes can be replaced with a lower number of Ring Blade® units, saving energy and space. BUY RING BLADES® NOW
SAFETY AIR GUNS MAKE MANUAL BLOW OFF EASIER AND MORE SAFE
Nex Flow® Safety Air Guns are available in seSwitch to block editorveral sizes. The most common is the ¼” Easy Grip Air Gun with an extension to be able to access hard to reach areas. Extensions can range from 6” to 36”.
At the end of the extension is typically a ¼” Air Mag® air nozzle which is where the savings in energy, high force output yet low noise level is achieved.
In one application, a Nex Flow® “swivel” was added to the end of the extension and before the air nozzle to be able to reach into a difficult are on a machine to remove coolant so the operator did not have to twist his hand making the operation much more comfortable and ergonometric.
The flexibility if air gun assembly is a significant advantage with the Nex Flow® designs.
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
NEX FLOW® SPOT COOLER IDEAL FOR LAB TESTS
The Nex Flow® Adjustable Spot Cooler has an adjustable hot end knob to manually adjust the air flow at the cold air outlet of a vortex tube assembly to maintain the cold end temperature desired. This type of unit is normally used in desktop testing where the temperature may be important.
One application for testing small temperature sensors to make sure they operate at a certain range makes this unit ideal. It comes complete with a magnetic stand to secure the unit on a metal top testing desk and swivels for easy orientation in testing.
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BOX COOLER IMPROVES PRODUCTION TIME
The Box Cooler is a package of accessories along with a Vortex Tube to easily mount the Vortex Tube onto a (normally non-electrical) enclosure for cooling.
One application has been to cool solvent material in an explosion proof location. The hot end of the vortex tube was acceptable for the material being cooling. Previously the material had to be carried from one room to another which had excessive time cost. In this way, the task was performed easier and faster. BUY BOX COOLER NOW
PANEL COOLERS REDUCE DOWNTIME AND REPAIRS
Frigid-X Cabinet Enclosure Coolers (Panel Coolers) are ideal for cooling electrical and electronic control panels, especially in very dirty and hot environments.
One application at a factory producing insulation required cooling on several control panels. The insulation “dust” in the factory consistently made control panel cleaning an un-ending and costly issue. They had to be cleaned literally daily. And even with this cleaning, the dust that built up on the internal controls caused premature breakdowns and costly electrical repairs.
When the Panel Coolers were installed, this eliminated the panel filters as the openings were blocked, and the slight positive pressure inside the enclosure kept out the insulation debris.
Regular cleaning was no longer necessary. The increased cost of energy use was insignificant when compared to the savings in replacement filters, labor saved, and extended life of the controls. BUY PANEL COOLERS NOW
SILENCED PANEL COOLER IMPROVES WORK ENVIRONMENT
In some areas of a production operation noise levels may be very important. In fact high noise levels are increasingly becoming a major workplace concern.
Nex Flow® Frigid-X® Panel Coolers are already muffled to be well under the 80 dBA maximum normally tolerated in a factory environment but additional muffling is provided on the Silenced Frigid-X® Panel Coolers to bring the noise level down to well, under 70 dBA in all versions.
This is especially important in those areas where high noise level can negatively affect the quality of work accomplished such as in critical assembly and/or test areas. There are some competitive “quiet models” of vortex tube operated coolers but they tend to be quite costly.
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MINI COOLERS MAKE JEANS BETTER
Mini Coolers are small size vortex tube assemblies used for point spot cooling where only a small, concentrated flow of cooling effect is required.
In sewing of “hard” material such as mattresses, jeans, thick and heavy bags, where the needles that do the sewing can get overheated and deform and/or break the thread.
The small amount of cold air produced by the vortex tube operated mini cooler removed the heat buildup in the needle to prevent overheating eliminating these issues.
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
MIST COOLER IMPROVES DEEP HOLE DRILLING AND SAVES ON MATERIAL
The Mist Tool Cooler is a patented Nex Flow® system that uses the cold air from a vortex tube to both cool any water based coolant or lubricant and deliver it in mist form to a target.
This is very important if the application requires some lubrication along with cooling. One important example is deep hole drilling.
Dry machining a deep hole may cause chattering or cause the tool to bind in the hole. Lubrication is needed to prevent this from occurring.
However, it is also important to minimize the amount of lubrication needed both to minimize cost and for environmental and even quality reasons.
The Mist Cooler can reduce the amount of lubricant needed by as much as 20% with resulting savings in material along with work and environment improvements.
TOOL COOLER INCREASES OUTPUT IN DRY MACHINING TITANIUM
Tool Coolers from Nex Flow® are used in dry machining applications to extend tool life, machine faster, and improve quality when coolant or lubrication is not allowed such as for plastics, ceramics and materials like titanium.
One titanium product manufacturer for example was performing a milling operation on titanium material. When they applied the tool cooler to the tool, operation was able to increase output by ten percent, dramatically reducing product costs from additional output in less time.
COOL ENVIRONMENTAL CHAMBERS WITH VORTEX TUBES
Vortex Tubes create freezing air from a regular supply of plant compressed air. They are ideal for applications where a compact, electricity free and portable “refrigerator” is required.
One application is to cool environmental chambers such as those for gas analyzers. The chambers are quite small so only a low air volume unit is normally required. Sub-zero temperatures can be produced from a vortex tube to cool the chamber quickly to a low temperature. BUY VORTEX TUBES NOW
NEX FLOW® BLIND HOLE CLEANER OUT PERFORMS OTHER DESIGNS
The Nex Flow® Blind Hole Cleaner is a unique design to clean even very deep blind holes safely.
When deep holes are drilled the dust and debris need to be removed. Nozzles may not go deep enough to dislodge waste material and even when blown out, the debris can fly all over and can cause harm to personnel and make a mess around the work area which means extra work, and possible negative effect on production.
Old poorly designed versions from others try to use both vacuum and suction to remove the debris but are difficult to align and use to make them work properly.
The Nex Flow® Blind Hole Cleaner is easy to align and use and extremely effective.
A special version has even been made for a very large diameter and very deep hole and worked extremely well. BUY BLIND HOLE CLEANERS NOW
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
NOW BLIND HOLE CLEANING CAN BE AUTOMATED AND MESS FREE
The Nex Flow® Blind Hole Cleaner – Automated Version is the standard Blind Hole Cleaning system without the manual air gun and is adapted for use in automated systems where the blind holes must be cleaned automatically without personnel involvement.
Such systems need to have the high reliability that the holes are cleaned. The system allows for continual machine operation because it does not create the problems of access dirt and debris around the machine after the scrap removal operation.
NEX FLOW® FUME AND DUST EXTRACTOR IS COMPACT AND PORTABLE
The Fume and Dust Extractor is a compact, low cost portable, non-electric unit ideal for soldering stations and other small fume removal applications.
It incorporates an adjustable air amplifier to draw away fumes and dust from the target location. I strong magnetic base secures the unit to any magnet accepting table or platform.
A 2” size hose up to 3 meters long may be clamped the amplifier to carry the dust, fumes and debris away from the collection area. BUY FUME AND DUST EXTRACTOR NOW
RING VAC® AIR OPERATED CONVEYORS LOAD HOPPERS QUICKLY AND EFFICIENTLY
Ring Vac’s are compressed air operated venturi systems. The units are used primarily for moving solid materials over large distances using only compressed air.
Volumes range up to 4 kg/minute depending on the size and nature of the material as well as vertical and horizontal distance.
A major application is for hopper loading of plastic resin. As the units are instant on and off, it eliminates the startup time of electric motor operated vacuum units. They are virtually maintenance free and easily turned on and off with a manual shutoff valve.
Some operations have them operate automatically utilizing a pressure sensor in the hopper – when the supply is low, it starts the air supply to feed the hopper and when full, the compressed air supply is stopped. BUY RING VACS® NOW
NEX FLOW® RING VAC® VENTS GASSES IN SYSTEMS
Ring Vac’s, while used mainly for solids, are also used extensively for the venting of gasses. Air Amplifiers are also used but the gasses need to be clean, otherwise a deposit may buildup on the Coanda profile on the air amplifiers and negatively affecting performance.
The design of the Ring Vac prevents this buildup and extends product life indefinitely. Many gasses may also be corrosive, or have excessive high exhaust temperatures.
The Ring Vac therefore can be supplied in many alternate materials. Not only aluminum or stainless steel but even PPTF units have been made.
Connecting Ring Vacs by clamping or threading may also not be appropriate for some applications so flanged units are made to whatever standard is necessary.
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
X-STREAM® HAND VAC IMPROVES PERSONAL SAFETY
The Nex Flow® X-Stream® Hand Vac is an alternative device for cleaning equipment and personnel of debris verses an often unacceptable and even in many jurisdictions, an illegal method of blowing off dirt using compressed air.
The X-Stream® Hand vac can act both as a blow gun but also as a vacuum gun simply by manually turning around a generator piece inside the unit. Used as a vacuum, waste can be cleaned and removed from a workbench and clothing.
A hose is attached to the outlet end to deliver this debris into a collection bin. This same vacuum cleaning can be done inside electrical and electronic control panels to draw off debris buildup on controls inside of a control panel. BUY X-STREAM® HAND VAC NOW
ION AIR BLADE® AIR KNIVES EFFECTIVELY REMOVE STATIC AND CLEANS HIGH SPEED WEB
Ion Air Knives incorporate either the X-Stream® Air Blade® air knife or the Standard Air Blade® air knife along with a static bar. The air knife attachment allows for the efficient cleaning of dust and dirt from statically charged surfaces.
The static bar (also called an ion bar or ionizer) removes the static charge from the surfaces of both the material and the dust and dirt, allowing for easy removal with even a low level of pressure from the compressed air. The laminar flow from the air knife carries the “ions” further so the device does not have to be close to the charged surface.
But recognize that the further away, the weaker the “ion field” becomes so the longer the exposure to the ions must be to remove the static.
One application where it worked very well was on a fast moving plastic web. The speed was quite fast at 1000 feet/minute. Also, the static charge was quite high. Various other methods to remove the charge and to clean the web was not successful.
The X-Stream® Air Blade® ionizer used the stronger Triple X static bar to assure the static charge buildup can be removed at the high speed, and the device was mounted 12 inches from the surface.
It was angled to the air flow would hit the surface and sheer off any dust and dirt. The angled flow also made the laminar flow of air “hug” the surface, exposing the charged surface longer to the “ions” guaranteeing the static elimination and the sheering effect removed the dust and dirt.
The unit was angled against the flow so a definite clean side was created after the cleaning.
Applications from Nex Flow Air Products
ION BLASTER BEAM® CLEANS BLOW MOLDED TANKS
The Nex Flow® Ion Blaster Beam® incorporates the Nex Flow® Model FX40 Air Amplifier and an Ion “Pin” which creates the ions to remove static charge. The air flow created is laminar and it carries these ions a long distance to the target.
The farther the target, the weaker the ions and the longer it would need exposure to remove the static.
One use for the Ion Blaster Beam has been to remove static inside of blow molded gas tanks and window washer tanks for the automotive industry. These molded parts have a large opening which is placed over the air exit of the Ion Blaster Beam. The ionized air is blown into the container.
There is also a small hole opposite in the container to let the air out. The ionized air neutralizes the static inside the container, and the debris falls to the bottom and can be drained thru the large opening as the cleaned container is removed from the device. The result is a gas tank or window washing tank free of dirt and debris. BUY ION BLASTER BEAM® NOW