ACI Air Movement Products are used in a vast array of industries and applications.
Featured here are a number of examples of how our equipment has been employed.
Corus
The new blower-powered Airknife moisture removal system installed on the five-stand mill at the Corus Trostre Works, Llanelli must be considered a genuine success because it both saves money and helps to ensure quality.
Prior to the installation of the AirKnive system, compressed air delivered through 66 nozzles was used to remove surface moisture from steel strip as it exited the mill. This was an expensive process and one of variable performance.
The 66 nozzles delivered a total of 1748 scfm at 5Bar. This equates to more than 7HP/5kW per nozzle making a total in excess of 345kW with an annual running cost for a 48 week/year of approximately £75,000.
By comparison, the Airknife system, supplied by ACI, uses just 60kW yet achieves more efficient moisture removal. The result, payback was achieved in just 21 weeks.
“Whilst the compressed air supply was subject to other demands, the blower-powered Airknives deliver the correct air output – constantly” said Paul Millet, Senior Development Engineer. “Air delivered by the Airknives also has the benefit of being heated by the blowers, as a result of air compression, making it a more effective drying agent.”
Airbus
When machining aluminium billets down to 5% of their original mass, it creates a lot of swarf. Apply the same scenario to Airbus components, with some items being reduced from 3.2 tonnes down to 250kg, then the amount of swarf is truly significant!
Options considered to remove the swarf included a vacuum process and a combination vacuum/blower technique. Both proved to be highly expensive and difficult engineering challenges.
The solution, in engineering terms, turned out to be much simpler: Airknives powered by a single inverter controlled 110kW radial blower (4000 CFM) housed in an acoustic chamber supplied by ACI.
Mounted in the throat of the moving gantry that houses the machining heads are 30 Airknives ranging in length from 150 to 1520mm which blow the debris towards the edges of the work bed into collecting gullies.
“To achieve efficient and accurate machining, a lot of fine adjustment was required during set up”, commented Peter Jarvis, Project Manger, Airbus UK. “ACI has been flexible and accommodating to help us accomplish our operating objectives with regard to finding the correct air delivery patterns, volumes and velocities – all to good effect”.
Greenvale
Greenvale is one of the UK's largest suppliers of fresh potatoes. At its Floods Ferry Road site Greenvale handles mainly small punnet potatoes, but also imports potatoes and expedites the logistical process that sees pre-packaged product supplied to all the major food outlets.
“We are suppliers to Tesco's, Aldi and Simply Fresh, outputting between 1400 to 2000 tonnes per week for the UK market,” explained Greenvale's Chief Engineer, Howard Burton. “The plant has seen a £2.5M modernisation, plus the installation of a £1M line to control the freight side of our business. We are continually looking to improve any aspect of our productivity and, as an example, replaced a traditional 'sponge roller table' drier on one of our lines with air knives from ACI. As a result we have saved a great deal of money in downtime and maintenance costs.”
“Ten years ago, the noise would have made air knives untenable but with ACI’s EP10 blower (11kW) in an acoustic enclosure we are well within tolerance levels. We will completely replace one of our packaging lines later this year and will specify ACI air knives as standard.
Marley Floors
Marley Floors at Lenham has achieved a major reduction in noise, a significant cost saving and eliminated oil/particulate deposits by replacing compressed air drying systems with blower-powered Airknives from ACI on its PVC flooring production lines. Industrial Engineer Les Tindall explained that the switch was part of a major programme of sound reduction.
The Airknives are necessary on the continuous PVC flooring lines to remove water on the PVC web whilst also cooling it before it is punched to make tiles. The PVC flooring has to be punched at a precisely 38ºC so that the tiles subsequently shrink to exactly 300mm square.
“We use two Airknives so that we can vary the temperature reduction between the press and the punch,” said Industrial Engineer Barry Whitford. “The temperature of the web as it leaves the press varies because of several factors, including the ambient temperature in the factory. By altering the angles of the Airknives we can increase or decrease the cooling. We are very happy with the ACI Aiknives and would use them again.”
Independently confirmed noise reductions achieved are down from between 91-99 dBA to 84-85 dBA.
Jaguar Cars
A fan driven Airknife Drying System from ACI has been adopted by Jaguar Cars in its drive to reduce noise levels in the Paint Area Plant at Castle Bromwich where an existing compressed air drying system was proving too noisy and costly.
Effective drying of the car bodies during Jaguar’s special four coat wet flat paint process is critical to ensure good paint adhesion. So Jaguar approached ACI to see if the company could offer a solution based upon its extensive experience in component drying within the automotive industry.
ACI proposed a system comprising three belt driven compact blowers housed in compact acoustic enclosures that could be mounted alongside the production line.
Two free standing support frames straddle the line to support ACI’s highly efficient Airknives and high penetration flexible plus the air feed ducting. All of the Airknives, nozzles and support frame are constructed from stainless steel and can be adjusted to ensure maximum efficiency.
“The ACI Airknife system has exceeded expectations by reducing noise levels by 50% whilst cutting running costs by approximately 90%,” according to John Naughton, Jaguar Car’s Paint Area Manager.
Mitras
Time savings in excess of 15% are being achieved by Mitras Automotive (UK) Ltd since installing an ACI blower-powered nozzle cleaning system in an SMC machining chamber at its Winsford factory.
As a Tier 1 and 2 supplier of plastic composite components (SMC and GMT*) to major motor manufacturers, including Class A body panels and unseen structural body parts, Mitras employs a continuous improvement programme of quality and performance.
The company recently implemented a new cleaning process in its fully-automated component routing chamber which permits machined components to move immediately onto the next stage of manufacture totally free of dust and debris.
In addition to providing effective cleaning of the machined panels, the reciprocating nozzle system, supplied by ACI has eliminated problems related to false triggering of process control sensors inside the chamber.
“The ACI systems clean the machining debris from the panels before progressing via an index table, an operation of which previously disturbed dust to activate laser safety sensors and stop operations. That problem has now been eliminated, improving efficiency by around 15% as a result,” said Dave Talbot, Works Engineering Manager.
Superglass Insulation
Superglass Insulation manufactures mineral wool insulation products for domestic, commercial and industrial use. It has achieved recognition from the Scottish Energy Efficiency Office for its energy saving measures in line with Government environmental best practice, resulting in return of 80% of its Climate Charge Levy (£250,000) – thanks largely to the switch to ACI’s Airknives.
In producing 700 tonnes of insulation product a week, the factory runs 24/7 and sees waste glass product melted in a furnace and spun into fine non-combustible, wool-like filaments, which drops onto a collection belt. It was here that savings were achieved.
Previously an air bar, working off dirty wet factory compressed air to remove surface water from the metal collection belt system. Having read about the benefits of the ACI blower-powered Airknife, it was trialled and an immediate improvement in performance and energy savings were seen. Consequently five more systems were installed.
“The installation of ACI’s Aiknives has resulted in energy and maintenance cost savings estimated to be in excess of £76K per annum, against a total outlay of only £32K,” commented Project Electrical Engineer, Steven Whyte, “plus on-going savings against our CCL”
Alutrade
Specialist aluminium scrap processing company, Alutrade Ltd of Oldbury, has upgraded its can processing operation to achieve purity levels of 0.03%. This level of purity meets international recycling standards for the drinks can industry and has opened the door to many new markets. In addition, it has enabled the company to get a better price for its higher quality recycled aluminium. An essential part of this improved efficiency is the use of ACI airknives during the separation of aluminium from non-conductive materials.
The purpose of the airknives is to boost the flight of the conductive aluminium as it is ejected by the electric field created by the eddy current device beyond a separating baffle. This greater distance of travel ensures a more positive separation of materials to achieve a cleaner end product.
“Since the introduction of the ACI airknives the purity levels of our recycled product has improved significantly,” said Malcolm George, Director. “Consequently, this has enabled us to meet higher purity standards, broaden our markets and obtain better prices for our enhanced product quality.”
Alutrade accepts cans in various forms including bailed, ‘clean’ loose cans and cans separated out from mixed rubbish such as domestic waste.
Air Control Industries Ltd Silver Street, Chard, Somerset, TA20 2AE, UK -- Tel: UK 0845 5000 501 | ROW +44 1460 67171 | Fax: +44(0)845 5000 502-- -- Email: sales@aircontrolindustries.com
ACI supplies industrial fans, axial fans, air blowers, centrifugal blowers, centrifugal fans, air knives and nozzles. We also supply ebm papst products.
