Special Air Amplifier? Not A Problem!

This week I worked with two customers that wanted to boost their air flow with an Air Amplifier. One customer ended up going with a Special Air Amplifier. The second customer I ended up pointing to a different product line entirely. Keep reading to find out why.

The first customer needed to boost the exhaust flow through six inch duct.  The six inch duct was an open vent that allowed fumes to slowly escape from a vessel. During normal operation the vessel, was unmanned, so the fumes only need a path to escape, but could linger. The company wanted to do some maintenance work in the area while the machine was in operation. The vent met the necessary requirements for the air flow of the machinery, but left maintenance workers exposed to a variety of fumes while working in the vessel, if the unit was in operation.

The customer was interested in the model 6034 Stainless Steel Air Amplifier. With 0.002″ air gap and 80 PSIG of inlet pressure, the unit will flow 1,200 SCFM of compressed air at the outlet of the Air Amplifier, but the 6034 can be adjusted to much higher flows from there.  The Air Amplifier would easily be able to exhaust the fumes from the area to maintain a safe and comfortable working environment. The problem was mounting the 6034 Adjustable Air Amplifier. The 6034 is designed to be used in free air with the discharge side of the air amplifier connecting to a duct. The suction side of the Air Amplifier is as open as possible to entrain air, but my customer needed to connect the Air Amplifier to the outlet of the vent. We worked with the customer on designing an Air Amplifier to fit the 6″ Flange that they used to connect sections of their duct similar to the Air Amplifier pictured below.

This special stainless steel flange-mount Air Amplifier was designed for exhausting hot flue gases from a furnace.

My other customer called to move the air inside a heated drying tunnel. The customer uses a process air heater to heat a large drying tunnel. Unfortunately, the air heater created hot air at the entrance of the drying tunnel. By the time the air reached the end of the drying tunnel the temperature was significantly higher at the top of the tunnel as opposed to the bottom from natural convection. To counter this effect the customer wanted to move air from the process heater half way down the tunnel and release the air. In this application, the customer wanted to duct both the inlet and the outlet of an Air Amplifier. The Air Amplifier is not well suited for ducting and you limit the amount of air that the Air Amplifier can entrain by connecting it to a duct.

For this customer, I recommended he use a Line Vac. The Line Vac typically conveys materials, but it will also move a good amount of air.  The customer was going to use heated compressed air and wanted to convey the air from the process heater to the other side of the drying tunnel. Another key benefit to the Line Vac is the discharge and suction side of the units are both the same size.  This makes it extremely easy to install for the customer and is off the shelf, ready to ship.

Two similar applications on the surface that result in different product recommendation. Not every application for an air mover is this complicated, but if you want to talk through your application EXAIR’s application engineer’s will be happy to help.

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com