Air wands and blow guns are widely used in industrial plant for cleaning, product movement, drying and sometimes cooling. These components often work very effectively for the said purpose but you should be forewarned that they do come with some very definite drawbacks:
- Safety – Compressed air can pick up and propel small objects, dust, and cuttings. These can enter the eyes of nearby workers. Compressed air pressure at the end of a wand or gun can be high enough to enter cuts in the skin with the risk of causing internal problems. Air wands with simple ball valve control can go out of control if dropped with the valve still open, causing risk to workers.
- Sound – Standard open air wands are loud and raise the noise level of the surrounding workplace, presenting long term risk to workers’ hearing.
- Energy efficiency – Compressed air is a costly energy source, often costing 10 times more energy that a direct drive motor source. Using compressed air power to blow off tiny lightweight dust particles is not unlike bringing a cannon to a rabbit hunt; overkill. One 20-cfm blow wand is the equivalent of 5-hp of power.
Some alternatives include:
- If compressed air must be used, then you should consider purchasing specially designed engineered nozzles. These are often less energy intensive, quieter and safer.
- Consider lower pressure sources of air like blowers and fans. Use of leaf blower-like devices or low pressure cleaners to generate cleaning force is much less energy intensive.
- Cooling can often be done with other medium like air conditioners, heat pipes or water cooling.
- Often times, the operation using blowing can be redesigned so that no compressed air blowing needs to be used — or the blowing only need be operating a small fraction of the time.
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