Problem with OSHA Compliance and Air Nozzles?

While we are usually focused on helping customers solve their application problems by implementing use of EXAIR products, these are not the only kinds of problems we see in a given day.

Another type of situation that can occur is a review of compliance to OSHA regulations. This can either be conducted by an OSHA inspector or perhaps by the company’s safety team. Reviews of everything from lock-out tag-out procedures, to MSDS sheets, to compliance with dead end pressure requirements set forth in CFR1910.242(b) are covered.

Once the safety review has been conducted and violations have been discovered, we end up receiving the call from the person in charge of bringing the company back into compliance with the “dead end pressure” directive as we call it here.
Basically, the directive states that when compressed air is used for blowing or cleaning, the pressure measured cannot exceed 30 PSIG. It also states that effective chip guarding and personal protective equipment must be used.
 The concern is that if the nozzle tip were to ever come into contact with human skin, an embolism can occur. An embolism is a blockage in an artery that either slows or completely stops blood flow to a part of the body. Air bubbles present within a person’s blood stream, in this case, caused by the direct contact with the compressed air source can cause this condition. An embolism can make a person very sick or even cause death. This is why it is taken so seriously by the OSHA inspectors and industry in general.

When an OSHA inspector comes to visit your site and wants to check a nozzle, he will have a special pressure gauge that he will place up against the tip of the nozzle. If the nozzle outputs more than 30 PSIG, then it fails, if not, then it passes the inspection.

All EXAIR Nozzles and other air blowing equipment will pass such an OSHA inspection as we perform this same test in our design lab when we are producing any new design to make sure our equipment will do what we say it will.

If you find yourself in the position of needing help locating OSHA compliant nozzles, air knives or air amplifiers, please feel free to contact with one of our technical staff for some helpful recommendations.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer

nealraker@exair.com

Vortex Tube Cools Gel and Seals Vial

Gel is dispensed into a 5 mL vial at 40C, a temperature which keeps the gel in a liquid state. The temperature at which this gel will thicken and set up is 38C.

A large agricultural company who manufactures weed control chemicals was dispensing this gel into the vials. They needed a solution to cool at least the top of the gel to form a seal in the vial and keep the gel from spilling out after the vials are tossed into a bulk hopper.

A Vortex Tube provided a quick blast of cold air at -1C to remove the heat necessary to set the gel and create the plug to hold the gel within the vial.

This application was a new one for me, typically we are setting hot melt glue, cooling ultrasonic weld horns, heat seals, or gas sample through analyzers. It is always good to speak with someone about an application I have not experienced before and be able to provide a solution.

This application was successful because we had a couple of seconds exposed to the vials while the fill machine indexed and we could blow directly in to the vial and on the gel to quickly set it up.

Kirk Edwards, Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

Separating Cookie Cutouts

Last week I shared with you an application involving bread. This week I have another food application, making and baking of cookies.

My customer makes cookies. They run a flat sheet of cookie dough under a roll cookie cutter. The roll has a vacuum on it to hold the cookie cutout to the roll while the dough sheet continues on. The problem they were having is that sometimes the cookie wants to stay with the dough. Installing model 1100 super air nozzles over the cookie cut outs to pin them against the roll they were able to achieve a clean separation. This reduced  lost product by 10%.

Joe Panfalone, Application Engineer
joepanfalone@exair.com

Clean Up Application and Increase Productivity With a Cold Gun

I had an application today where the solution made so much sense, I felt it was a perfect candidate to discuss here today.
The customer works in an aluminum foundry. Specifically, he worked in the area where all the secondary work is performed to remove the molds, cores and any extraneous parts of the casting such as risers. This application involved sawing off 6 risers of 3″ diameter from the casting.

Previously, the customer was using an abrasive cut-off blade and a lot of coolant to cut the risers. The process was messy and consumed a lot of saw blades.
Customer then moved to a carbide tipped circular saw blade of 16″ diameter. They also added Cold Gun Model 5330 to the guard on the saw blade to replace the previous liquid coolant system. The dual point hose kit of the Cold Gun was aimed at each side of the blade right at the point where the blade enters the kerf or cut in the material. In this way, the Cold Gun was able to cool the blade and the work piece.
With the cold air from the Cold Gun, the customer was able to completely eliminate use of liquid coolant and was thus able to save 1 hour of processing time per casting between saw cutting speed as well as no longer having to put the casting through subsequent cleaning process. A simple blow-down with compressed air is all that was needed to “clean” the casting.

Neal Raker, Application Engineer
nealraker@exair.com