Due to space limitation and the need to eliminate water cooling the camera, a Model 50025H Vortex Tube, was used to cool a camera housing.
Today the main focus in manufacturer’s minds is energy saving. While it is reasonable and ambitious to move to lower energy cost equipment, maintenance costs should also be considered. There are costs to maintenance that are sometimes overlooked or that are not always so obvious.
With the ever increasing trend of requiring outside service personnel to come to the manufacturing facility, the cost of maintenance has other implications. This trend is as much a part of technological development as is the difficulty of finding qualified personnel for some jobs.
The cost of an outside contractor’s time not only includes the contractor. There is the cost of the “time” taken by an employee to bring in and often accompany or supervise (or at least be responsible for) the contactor. Then there is the cost of safety training and the time to obtain approval to go into the factory site.
Downtime costs whether proactive, predictive, breakdown, or preventative are usually more visible and should always be considered, when measured against energy costs. Same with spare part costs.
ADVERTISEMENT
Another cost not always considered is the opportunity cost that is lost when funds have to go toward maintenance costs..
 |
| A model 57025FS Frigid-X Tool Cooler is used on a grinding application to reduce the heat and extend wheel life. |
Energy costs can be easily calculated for various pieces of equipment. When considering estimated maintenance costs, these “other” associated expenditures should also be taken into account.
Nex Flow compressed air operated products for blow off and cooling are essentially maintenance free which in effect “recovers” costs that would otherwise go toward maintenance, spare parts, and downtime.
Air amplification products used for blow-off, cooling, and venting offer “both” energy saving and essentially zero maintenance, with no moving parts. They come in the form of air nozzles, air jets, air knives (linear versions), air wipes, and as annular air amplifiers.
They convert pressure normally lost as pressure drop into flow – producing a high velocity air stream to clean, dry or cool surfaces with low noise levels at a safe pressure (under 30 psi). Annular versions can vent as well as blow off or cool surfaces.
There are no blower motors to rely on - no worry of breakdown, no motors to maintain, no outside service personnel to have to worry about. All that with no need for spare parts and at a much lower capital cost as well.
In some applications the shear force from a blower will not be as high as from a compressed air operated blow-off slowing or otherwise negatively effecting production. This cost can be significant if not noticed.
 |
| Coolant is blown off an engine block using three model 10012X-12" Silent X-Stream Air Blade Air Knives. |
Nex Flow also produces “venture” vacuum generators utilizing a zero maintenance air flow system to generate high vacuum for moving small material such as resin for hopper loading in the plastic industry. Especially ideal for intermittent use applications, these devices are compact, effective with no maintenance.
A similar idea is incorporated in their air operated drum pump which sues only compressed to either pressurize or crate a vacuum in a sealed drum to fill or empty the drum of liquids.
With no motors to clean or repair the item again is maintenance free.
One popular product is their vortex tubes used to spot cooling and for enclosure cooling.
A vortex tube takes compressed air and literally divides it up into a hot and cold stream. The unit has no moving parts.
All types of applications exist for vortex tubes for spot cooling: cooling machine tools in dry machining to increase production rates, setting hot melt adhesive; to cool gas and heat seals.
Most often these units are sold in packaged form for easier and fast installation such as the Tool Cooler and the Panel Cooler which also comes with UL and ULC approvals.
 |
| Leaving a control panel open to let a fan blow dirty, hot air on to the control is hazardous and even illegal in many jurisdictions. |
Panel Coolers, despite their increased energy use are virtually maintenance free, extremely reliable, produce no condensate to remove, purge the electrical panels and keep out dirt and moisture.
With virtually no maintenance these units are ideal in especially dirty and wet environments and hot and humid areas since there are no electrical motors to break down and filters to maintain, costly maintenance activities especially in harsh environments.
Any downtime to service air conditioning systems can significantly affect production output and add to costs.
Energy costs are very important but that must be compared to the costs of maintenance and production effects.
For more information visit www.nexflowair.com