Air Knives – What Are They Good For?

It is rare that a week goes by without a unique application of an EXAIR product…

This week I was speaking with a DJ who wished to use an air knife to create a blast of air that would add emphasis to the musical experience had by his fans. He wanted a small burst of air that would last less than a second, but would add an additional element to an already very complicated setup. My initial reaction was that no DJ I have ever seen would possibly be able to supply an air compressor big enough to feed the air knives, but over the course of our conversation, I found out that the DJ travels with 2 semi trucks of equipment, so he had some space.

An Aluminum EXAIR Super Air Knife

Another topic that came up in our conversation was how air knives were generally used. I have been asked this in a number of ways: What are they designed to do? Where do they work best? or What are they for?

I never have a succinct answer… The air knives create a flat laminar sheet of air in various sizes from 3″ up to 108″. This laminar sheet of air can be used to move, open, float, or separate. It can be used to clean, dry, or cool. I try to categorize these applications as best I can when speaking to customers, but then you talk to a DJ, and he wants an air knife to make a crowd cheer. I never thought that would be an application for an air knife. Knowing this, how do you convey all the air knife can do in a succinct answer?

Well, I can’t, so please be patient when you ask me the same question and I run through applications from cleaning surfaces to entertaining DJ crowds.

Here is a rundown of air knife applications. In case you don’t believe me.

Move: Air Knives are used around to world to move product from a conveyor to another location.

Open: Air Knives uniform air flow is perfect for opening bags or other packaging on a packaging machine.

Float: If you need to bridge a gap between two conveyors, the air knife has done this for products from pizza dough to sheets of veneer.

Clean: Blowing products off after removing them from a CNC machine is an easy air knife application.

Dry: One of my tastiest applications was to use an air knife to blow water from a potato chip after washing, but before frying.

Cool: Extrusion, molds, and baked goods have all been cooled with an air knife.

Just because it isn’t on this list though, doesn’t mean it is not possible.  This is why we will stand behind our stock product with our 30 day guarantee.   So if you want to try an EXAIR Air Knife in your application, give us a call.

30 Day Guarantee

Dave Woerner
Application Engineer
@EXAIR_DW
DaveWoerner@EXAIR.com