I recently received an inquiry from a customer to test their current air guns through our Efficiency Lab service. According to the operators, the handheld blow gun they were purchasing from a commercial retailer was too loud and complaints were rolling in. They were also hoping to save some compressed air in the process as they were performing an energy audit at the same time.
Commercial Air Gun w/ Cross Cut Hole
Cross Cut Hole Nozzle
The gun they sent in looked fairly similar to our Precision Safety Air Gun but it did not have an engineered nozzle on the tip of it. Instead, it was simply a cross cut hole in a piece of material. The air inlet to the gun was a 1/4″ NPT just like our Precision Safety Air Gun, the extension on the gun was slightly longer, the only significant variance I saw was the tip.
EXAIR Model 1410SS-CS
The Model 1110SS Nao Super Air Nozzle and Chip Shield
To try and get as much information as possible I measured the O.D. and I.D. of the extension, the hole size was approximately .140″. I measured the extension on our Precision Safety Air Gun just to see what is different, it came in at the same size. So, I flow tested the competitive blow gun with their tip on it and came up with air consumption of 12.69 SCFM, noise level of 92 dBA at 3′ away, and a blowing force of 11.5 oz at 80 psig. I then measured the same attributes of EXAIR’s model 1410SS-CS Precision Safety Air Gun at 80 psig inlet pressure. The model 1410SS-CS measured 8.3 SCFM, gave 8.1 ozs of working force, and only produced a 75 dBA sound level from 3′ away.
The sound level reduction was a total of 17 dBA which is below the OSHA standard for allowable noise level exposure, as well as reduced their air consumption by 4.39 SCFM. That is almost a 35% reduction in their compressed air usage per gun replaced. After seeing these levels of reduction the customer had more than enough information to provide management with in order to replace the blow guns not just for noise level reduction but also because it will reduce air use and save money. A clear supportive role in their energy audit.
If you would like to discuss how EXAIR can provide some free force, flow, and noise level testing for your facility, please contact an Application Engineer or check out the Efficiency Lab page on our site.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF
Filed under: Safety Air Gun Tagged: @EXAIR_BF, audit, bdfarno, blow gun, blowgun, cheap, commercial, compressed air audit, cross drilled, Efficiency Lab, Energy Audit, energy savings, exair, exposure, free test, heavy duty safety air gun, industrial cleaning, industrial safety air guns, loud, noise leve, noise level, OSHA, precision safety air gun, quiet, replace, return on investment, ROI, safety, safety air guns, safety audit, save air, save money, save the world, shhh, soft grip safety air gun, sound level, sound level audit, Super Blast Safety Air Gun
