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Air Knife - Aluminium Extrusion
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- Available in Lengths from 100mm to 2400mm
- 3 Inch Inlet OD
- Adjustable Outlet
- Laser Cut End Tanks. Extrusion design allows the end tanks to be screwed into the Air Knife.
- Material: Aluminium
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Air Knife - Aluminium Extrusion - Premium
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- Available in Lengths from 100mm to 1500mm
- 3 Inch Inlet OD
- Adjustable Outlet
- Cast and Machined Aluminium End Tanks. Left, Right and Blank Off Plates Available.
- Single Entry and Dual Entry Configurations Available
- Material: Aluminium
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Air Knife - Aluminium Fabricated
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- Available in Lengths from 100mm to 2400mm
- 3 Inch Inlet OD
- Adjustable Outlet
- Single Entry and Dual Entry Configurations Available
- Material: Aluminium
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Air Knife - Stainless Steel Fabricated
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- Available in Lenths from 100mm to 2400mm
- 3 Inch Inlet OD
- Adjustable Outlet
- Single Entry and Dual Entry Configurations Available
- Material: Stainless Steel
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Engineered for Maximum Performance of your AirPower System.
- Superior Air-Flow Capacity with efficiencies exceeding 95%
- Optimum Aerodynamic Design with extende edge (Coanda effect) to achieve high velocity and laminar flow.
- Exit velocities from 10,000 to 45,000 ft/min
- Reduces energy consumption by improving overall system efficiency.
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What is an Air Knife?
An air knife is a slotted air manifold used to discharge a high-velocity curtain of air for drying or cleaning conveyorized product. |
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What is a Blower Air Knife System?
An air knife system consists of a blower, air knives, and accessories to connect the blower to the air knives (flex hose, clamps, dividers, etc.) |
Why Use a Blower Air Knife System?
#1 - Energy Savings - through replacement of compressed air usage.
#2 - Higher Productivity - through more effective drying and cleaning.
Common Air Knife System Applications:
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Metal Finishing Lines
Powder coating pretreatment drying and other applications. |
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Food and Beverage Packaging
Bottles, cans, pouches, and other packages must be dried prior to packaging. |
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Parts Washing / Drying
Removal of cleaning solutions and/or water after washing stations. |
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Continuous Strip /
Web Material
Removal of water from materials such as plastics or wire mesh. |
Save on Compressed Air Energy Costs by Switching to a Blower Air Knife System
Blower Air Knife Systems are becoming the industry standard tool for applications such as blow-off, drying, and cleaning in industrial facilities. The primary reason is energy cost. The cost of running a compressed air blow-off system on a single conveyor line can easily reach $100,000 per year in electricity alone, depending on factors such as the quantity and size of nozzles used, hours of operation, and local energy cost. In a typical application, a well designed blower air knife system can replace a compressed air blow-off system using only 10-20% of the energy. This means that a plant using $100,000 worth of compressed air to dry parts on a conveyor line has the opportunity to save $90,000 per year by switching to a blower air knife system. This is not an exaggeration but a typical scenario that is seen on a daily basis by those in involved in the business of plant air audits and related fields.
Sounds too good to be true? You are probably asking the question: How can it be possible for a blower air knife system to replace my compressed air equipment at only 10% of the energy cost? One of the reasons is that a large portion of the energy used by your compressed air system is actually being wasted. You may think that your air knives or drilled pipe are putting out 100 psi of compressed air, but this is not true; due to the pressure losses that occur throughout your piping system, your pressure is much lower than 100 psi by the time the air travels from your compressor to your blow-off station. You are paying for 100 psi but you are not getting 100 psi - hence the wasted money. A blower air knife system clearly has the advantage here because the blower can be installed at the point of use - the air does not have to be piped across the plant to to get to the air knives, thus the pressure drop is much lower than what you see with compressed air.
Another reason is the difference in pressure and volume: Compressed air provides high pressure, low volume air, while a blower provides low-pressure, high volume air. Since volume is much cheaper than pressure, a blower air knife system has the advantage. You do not need any more than 3-4 psi from an air knife system to dry or clean parts. In fact, most air knife system applications require only 2.5 psi or less for effective performance. It should be common sense that, if you are using any more pressure than you need, you are wasting money. Low-pressure, high-volume air is a much more effective and much more efficient way to perform drying and cleaning. Vortron's blowers and air knives have been designed specifically for drying and cleaning, and have been sized to provide the optimum amount of pressure and volume for these applications. A 100 psi air compressor was never seriously intended to blow through wide open copper pipe onto a conveyor line; this is only done because it is assumed to be cheap, although a plant air audit will clearly show that this is incorrect.
We are the national master distributor and exclusive source for all Vortron Air Power centrifugal blowers and air knife systems. We have extensive experience in providing complete plant air audits to end users in many different areas of manufacturing. We can perform a complete analysis of your plant air system and provide a report informing you of any and all inefficiencies that exist and how to fix them. We will analyze the performance of any compressed air blow-off and/or air knife systems that you may be using, and show you where you have the opportunity to save energy and exactly how much you can save. You will receive reliable and unbiased information from a distributor who has had extensive experience with both compressed air and blower air knife systems.
CAPA Industrial will provide you with a quote and help answer any questions that you may have, including:
- Will this work for my application?
- What size air knives do I need?
- What kind of blower should I use?
- What accessories do I need?
- How much energy will I save?
- How soon can I get one?
How Does a Blower Air Knife System Work?
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A Blower Air-Knife System is still a relatively new type of machinery to most individuals in plant engineering and maintenance today. Air Knives have become commonplace only within the last 15 years as an alternative to the costly process of using compressed air for applications such as drying, blow-off, debris removal and others. In addition to energy savings, the effectiveness of an optimized air knife system is the second reason why air knives are now becoming more widely used. How is a blower air knife system able to perform effectively in applications where compressed air and other solutions have failed?
The key to effective drying and debris removal is to have enough velocity and airflow (volume). In order for air knives to function properly, they must be sized, along with a blower, with these two important parameters in mind. A compressed air blow-off system will usually provide insufficient volume for adequate drying. A plant air compressor is capable of producing high-velocity air, but due to the extraordinarily small gap size (often less than 0.005") of most air knives that are designed for use with compressed air, there is not sufficient volume to sustain the velocity all the way to the surface of the product being dried. At the other extreme, fan-type blowers that produce less than 20"H20 pressure are often mistakenly used in air knife applications, often with "home-made" air knives or slotted PVC pipe. This type of blower is capable of producing a high volume of airflow, but insufficient pressure and velocity, thus the air curtain from the air knives is not powerful enough to force water or other debris away from the surface of a product.
Air velocity for a Vortron blower air knife system can range from 25,000 to 40,000 ft/min, which equates to approximately 1.5 to 4 psi and 40 to 110" H20. Our experice has shown that the optimum range of velocity and pressure for the majority of air knife applications (mostly water removal) lies in the range of 30,000 to 35,000 ft/min. Higher velocity is required for more difficult material, such as metal shavings and oil, while lower velocity is required for removal of lighter material such as dust. Each Vortron air knife system is designed with great care to ensure that not only is the proper amount of velocity produced, but also that there is sufficient volume to sustain the velocity from the air knives to the surface of your product.
Vortron does this by selecting the following: (1) an air knife gap size that will allow for sufficient airflow, typically 0.045", or greater if the air knives will be placed at a considerable distance from the surface of your product; (2) an air knife length (and quantity of air knives) that will cover the necessary surfaces and force debris away from the product; (3) an Air Power centrifugal blower configured at the appropriate speed (RPM) to produce the desired pressure when used in conjunction with the particular air knife system.
Example Air Knife Configurations
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Right Hand
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Vertical Middle
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90° Option
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Left Hand
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Dual, Vertical Middle
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45° Option
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Dual
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Dual, Vertical Middle
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Dual, Dual Vertical
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