Using Compressed Air Operated Conveyors for Conveying
In utilizing compressed air operated venturi systems such as Nex Flow’s® Ring-Vac®Air Operated Conveyors, you size the unit based on the size of the parts being conveyed.
The general rule is to have the inside diameter of the unit to be double the maximum size or dimension of the parts being conveyed. In this way there is little chance of the parts clogging the unit.
However there are exceptions. One customer for example, had to move a metal rod from one part of the factory to another. This enterprising company utilized the Nex Flow® 2″ Model 30004 Ring-Vac®. The company fed a 1” diameter but 4″ long metal rod into the unit and used the venturi to convey the rod from one end of the factory to another reducing handling time dramatically.
The rod was made to fall onto a gravity feed slot which feeds the rod into the Ring-Vac®. Air is conserved by turning it on only when there is a rod to feed and this is controlled by a sensor. The rod is then literally shot 15 feet up to the ceiling area in a plastic tube connected to the Ring-Vac®. At the ceiling, the feeder tube is then angled about 2 degrees downward where the part is then gravity fed in the tube, across the ceiling, to the other end of the factory which of course, requires no energy.
The part drops out into a bin at the exit of the tube where it is manually picked up for further processing at another machine station. Intermittent applications such as this are ideal for such technology since the unit is low cost, compact, with no maintenance and operates instant on and off only as needed. The use of gravity to feed the part from one end of the factory to the other was brilliant.
Can you think of other applications like this??
Nex Flow Air Products Corp. manufacturers compressed air technology for blow off, drying, cleaning, cooling, and moving and constantly strives to improve their products’ performance and quality. Creative ideas are encouraged and embraced!
