Posts Tagged ‘air consumption’

Reducing Air Consumption Lowers Operating Costs

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009
Many mills use pipes with drilled holes or slits for drying or blow-off. This approach is extremely inefficient and consumes high volumes of costly compressed air.

Should you use compressed air and air control nozzles or blower air and airknives?

Here are a few guidelines:

Use compressed air and air control nozzles if:

  • Your application needs maximum impact
  • The nozzles need to be more than 4″ (10.2 cm) from the target surface

Use blower air and air knives if:

  • Your application needs velocity instead of impact
  • The air knives can be placed less than 4″ (10.2 cm) from the target surface
  • The oil in compressed air causes quality control problems

Two ways to reduce air consumption

1. Compressed air nozzles

Air control nozzles that sue compressed air convert low-pressure volumes of air into a targeted, high-velocity stream or flat fan air pattern and provide many benefits:

  • Significant improvements in drying or blow-off by increasing impact on the target
  • A significant decrease in air consumption compared to open holes or slits in pipes
  • Reduced noise level

Air Control Nozzles

UniJet Blow-Off Nozzles and WindJet Air Control Nozzles

WindJet Air Knife Packages

WindJet Air Knife Packages

2. Air knife packages with blower air

Using an air knife in conjunction with blower air produces a uniform, high-volume, consistent air stream along the entire knife length. The result is high-quality, consistent drying or blow-off. Plus the operating costs associated with an air knife package are quite low – even lower than the cost of using air control nozzles with compressed air.

There are several types of blowers available. Regenerative blowers offer several performance advantages:

  • Lower noise
  • Lower maintenance
  • Longer life
  • Lower operating costs
  • Operates at lower speeds and achieves lower flows
  • Fully customized solutions