Air Knife - Air-Blade™ Blow-Off System:

Air Knife - Air-Blade™ Blow-Off System from Nex Flow™ is easy to mount and maintain and reduces both compressed air consumption and noise levels.

Air Knife - Air-Blade™ Blow-Off System produces a “laminar” flow of air along its length using the ”Coanda” effect which “entrains” a large volume of air from the surrounding area along with the small amount of compressed air from the Air-Blade™ to produce an output flow up to 30 times.

System payback on compressed air savings can be as soon as a few weeks in some applications.

Air Knife - Air-Blade™ Features:

Unlike some competitive products that advertise a full flow air knife type system, our low cost air knives are rugged with a multiple port design for flexibility in mounting and coated for longer life.

• Made of an coated aluminum body and a hard-coated “cap”. Stainless steel models are available for high temperature and corrosive applications.
• Multiple air inlet ports on either the back or ends in a compact design with additional mounting holes on the back.
• Airflow amplification of approximately 30:1 compared to 3:1 for drilled pipe or open jets and tubes.
• Instant on-off with no moving parts, no electricity or explosion hazard

Air Knife - Air-Blade™ Benefits:

• Built and designed for significantly longer life in difficult environments than many competing products.
• Flexible mounting options and easy to fit in small spaces.
• Energy reduction in compressed air use up to 90% and noise reductions of 10 dbA.
• Maintenance free with output easily controlled, safe to use.

 

How It Works:

Air Knife - Air-Blade™ Blow-Off System produces a curtain of air along the length of the application using the same "Coanda" effect utilized in our Air Amplifiers. There are no moving parts, with compressed air from a local production line source being used to amplify end entrain surrounding air. Output volumes almost twenty times higher than those at the input can be achieved.

Offered in aluminum or stainless steel and can be manufactured in any length from a combination of our standard sizes.

 

Applications:

Typical applications replace drilled pipe, or rows of nozzles used for blow-off, cleaning, drying or cooling.

Automotive:

• Remove water, coolant, dust, and scrap in parts manufacturing and in assembly operations. Can be used to cool parts.

Bottling:

• Blow off of water prior to labeling, palletizing or packaging. Moving light materials.
• Open and close packaging lids or tops.

Chemicals:

• Blow off of chemicals or water prior to labeling or packaging as with bottling operations.

Food:

• Remove water from product or packaging.
• Control application of some materials to the food product such as sugar, icing etc.
• Open pouches in bagging operations. Dry food.

General Manufacturing:

• Part ejection, air curtain barrier, dust and liquid blow off from all types of parts.
• Ideal for replacing fans in some cooling operations.

Metals:

• Coolant and other liquid removal on process lines from Aluminum, Steel, Brass or other materials.
• Dry metals prior to other operations such as plating or polishing.
• Cool metal parts prior to coating or painting.

Paper & Lumber:

• Paper dust removal and control.
• Dust removal from plywood and panel board.

Plastic:

• Dust and scrap blow off.
• Cool off molten plastic in dip molding.

Printing:

• Cooling to set some inks, scrap blow off, hold down labels prior to printing, cool adhesives to allow faster speeds in label applications and binding operations.

Pharmaceutical:

• Remove liquid prior to labeling or packaging waste removal from solid materials.

Textile:

• Cleaning and drying of cloth or other materials.

Air-Blade™ Air Knife - Compressed Air Consumption Chart:

Inlet Pressure	Air Consumption SCFM per in. (SLPM per 25 mm) with std. .002" (.05 mm) gap	Air Consumption SCFM per in. (SLPM per 25 mm) with .004" (.10 mm) gap (shim added)
20 PSIG 1.4 BAR	1.3 SCFM/inch 36.8	2.5 SCFM/inch 70.8
40 PSIG 2.8 BAR	2.0 SCFM/inch 56.6	4.0 SCFM/inch 113.3
60 PSIG 4.1 BAR	2.7 SCFM/inch 75.8	5.5 SCFM/inch 155.7
80 PSIG 5.5 BAR	3.4 SCFM/inch 96.3	6.7 SCFM/inch 189.7
100 PSIG 6.9 BAR	4.1 SCFM/inch 116.3	8.1 SCFM/inch 229.4
120 PSIG 8.4 BAR	4.8 SCFM/inch 135.9	9.5 SCFM/inch 269.0

Based on an Amplification Ratio of 30:1 the air flow out would be 30 times the above.
Compressed Air Flow Through A Hole In Standard Cubic Feet Per Minute
(14.7 Psia/70ºF/0% Relative Humidity)

 

Air-Blade™ Air Knife is Cost Effective:

Example Of An Air Saving Calculation

1. From the chart showing air flow through a hole, assume we have a pipe 30 inches long with 1/16" holes spaced ½” apart with a total number of 59 holes. The air pressure in the system is 60 PSIG.

2. From the chart each 1/16" hole consumes 4.23 SCFM at 60 PSIG. Total air consumed is 59 X 4.23 = 249.57 SCFM.

3. From the Compressed Air Consumption Chart a 30" Air-Blade™ Air Knife consumes 2.7 SCFM per inch or 30 X 2.7 = 81 SCFM at 60 PSIG.

4. Assuming a compressed air cost of 30 cents/1000 standard cubic feet and an 8 hour day operation for 200 days per year, the Drilled Pipe Will Cost:

249.57 cu. ft./min. X 60 min./hr. X $.30/1000 cu. ft. X 200 days X 8 hrs/day equaling $7,187.62 a year.

5. The Air-Blade™ Air Knife Will Cost: 81 cu. ft./min. X 60 min./hr. X $ .30/1000 cu. ft. X 200 days X 8 hrs/day equaling $2,332.80 a year.

6. The Savings Per Year using the Air-Blade™ Air Knife will be:

$7,187.62 - $2,332.80 = $4,854.82 per year!