The homemade solution is not always the best one (unless we’re talking about food….). When it comes to homemade blowoff devices, this is certainly always the case. The benefit of using an engineered product vs a homemade one comes down to performance, plain and simple.
When it comes to the Super Air Wipe, when compared to block-style or homemade wipes, the engineered product is always going to be the best solution. They’re designed specifically to operate more efficiently (and safely) than what your maintenance guy has rigged up to use with common components from the facility.
While it may be cheaper up front, it’s certainly not the most efficient in terms of operating costs and could also pose safety issues for your operators nearby. Take the example of an LED lightbulb vs an incandescent one. The LED bulb is going to cost more upfront, but will use less energy to operate AND have a longer overall lifespan than the incandescent bulb. Over time, the LED bulb will save you more than the initial purchase price in electrical costs. Many are often brighter too!
The same can be said when comparing EXAIR’s Super Air Wipe to homemade or what we often refer to as “block-style” wipes. This was the case with a recent company that produces a variety of different sizes of cable and wire. After an internal evaluation of their compressed air usage, they identified several of these throughout many processes in the facility that were consuming too much compressed air and leading to pressure drops in other areas of the plant. Not to mention, they were extremely loud! This required everyone in that part of the facility to constantly wear hearing protection when production was running.
With the sizes they were running most of the time (7-12mm), it made sense to offer our Model 2401 1” Super Air Wipe. After implementation, low pressure alarms in their other processes had stopped and they were able to operate without any further issues. The sound level throughout the facility was also significantly reduced, allowing operators to work without the need for additional hearing protection if they wished. We had reduced the sound level to 80 dBA, well within the safe standard for maximum allowable noise exposure as outlined by OSHA 1910.95(a). With the Super Air Wipe in place, they were able to save on compressed air, increase productivity due to the elimination of low-pressure alarms, and were able to improve the safety of the process for their operators. Not bad for a day’s work!
The Super Air Wipe provides a uniform 360° laminar airflow for blowing off, drying, cleaning, and cooling a wide variety of pipe, cable, extruded shapes, hose, and wire. Its split design allows it to be easily clamped around the surface of the material without having to “feed” the material through. If you’re processing any type of hose, wire, or extruded shapes that could benefit from installing a Super Air Wipe give us a call. With all sizes shipping from stock on an order received by 2:00 pm ET we can have one to you as early as tomorrow!
