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.
Zorb South
Zorbing – the new adventure
activity that enables you to roll down hills safely – even if it is a ‘little’ bumpy and sometimes wet!
All great fun, thanks to the protection provided by the air cushioning that is central to the successful design of the Zorb. And it can be enjoyed just outside Dorchester through Zorb South UK.
A key facet to the success of Zorbing is ensuring the correct level of inflation. Helping Zorb South to achieve this is a ‘MultiStage’ blower from ACI.
Before every trip downhill, each Zorb is checked and inflated as necessary using the ACI MultiStage, to ensure a safe, fun ride.
Prior to adopting the ACI blower, Zorb South used a leaf-blower but it was noisy and difficult to use, particularly inconvenient when close to customers.
Following a visit to the ACI factory and a professional consultation, a MultiStage was identified as the right solution for the application.
“My requirements were understood immediately,” says Paul Knight, “and the solution offered has met all our needs. It’s quiet, it’s efficient and its electricity demands fall within the power limitations of our on-site generator.”
Electrocatalytic
Safety is of paramount importance in the use of electrical equipment in flammable or potentially explosive atmospheres, making the correct selection of equipment essential. The superior corrosion protection of ACI’s ATEX Approved Fans make them ideal for harsh environments, experienced in such areas as offshore oil and gas platforms.
This is one reason why ACI’s stainless steel fan units are employed by Electrocatalytic Ltd for use in its electrochlorination equipment. They are used to ensure the levels of hydrogen liberated during the electrolysis process are kept to a safe level.
The sodium hypochlorite solution is used for a variety of purposes including dosing of cooling water systems and treatment of sea-water for oil-well pressurisation.
ACI can offer a selection of its centrifugal fans and ‘Multistage’ blowers range of products in stainless steel together with extra protected motors.
Decap Organs
It takes a lot of air to operate an accordion but Tony DeCap of Decap Organs, Herentals, Belgium believes he has found the ideal solution for his automated instruments.
For five generations the DeCap family have been designing and building fair/street/dance band organs but these days the demand is not what it was. So Tony DeCap, the current owner of the business, has been exploring new ideas. The end result of his endeavours and significant investment is the company’s automated accordion.
“What we need for these automated accordions is a constant and consistent supply of air at a fixed pressure delivered quietly”, says Tony. “Et voila! The Multi-Stage MS8 centrifugal blower range from Air Control Industries is exactly what we need. It is so right that it could have been made for us!
“In addition, the blower so compact it can be hidden in the base of the plinth upon which we mount the accordion.”
Special features of the MS8 blower range that make it ideal for this application are a virtual silent (noise levels below 65dB(A)) and maintenance-free operation.
Mecwash
The traditional method of cleaning and degreasing engineering components is by the use of solvents, even though the majority are carcinogenic or hazardous. An alterative method has been developed by MecWash that is based upon 98% water and 2% detergent which is both more environmentally sensitive and more health conscious - and defies the argument that such systems are slower due to longer drying times.
“Cleaning and drying are inseparable, and the efficiency and reliability of the ACI blowers/fans are critical in removing water in order to avoid corrosion”, says Paul Young, Marketing Director, MecWash. “We also use them to cool the product before it is handled. This in turn reduces lead time if a part needs to be measured or tested directly after cleaning.”
“The difference between our machines and traditional aqueous systems is that the latter is principally a row of tanks, a wash, a rinse, a dryer” explained Young. ‘In our system, the cleaning operation is combined in a single chamber, so when you run through a hot wash, hot rinse, the drying operation using high velocity air takes place in a pre heated environment”.
Bioquell
BIOQUELL UK Ltd has developed the Clarus range of patent protected bio-decontamination technology, designed to generate hydrogen peroxide vapour used for the surface bio-deactivation of micro-organisms. It is a ‘residue-free’ process because at the end of the bio-decontamination process the hydrogen peroxide is catalytically converted to just water and oxygen.
BIOQUELL’s Clarus range also has the major benefit of being fast along with excellent material compatibility, including sensitive electrical and electronics devices. Clarus technology is also able to operate at negative pressure when applied to sealed enclosures which ensures zero leakage through out the decontamination process, therefore protecting surrounding operatives and the immediate environment.
Helping to achieve effective circulation of the hydrogen peroxide vapour are specially sealed ‘Multi-Stage’ blowers from ACI.
Features of the Multi-Stage include the use of contamination and maintenance-free brushless motors. The motors also offer high-efficiency and low-noise operation (77dB(A)). Further, the bearings are sealed for life and the white polyester resin housing is inert and does not degrade when exposed to hydrogen peroxide.
BIOQUELL also use ACI’s fans for venting its ASTEC Monair and Monair Plus range of filtration fume.
Bradley Harris, Blacksmith
You can’t say a blacksmith’s forge is quiet but noise coming from a fan aspirating the smithy’s fire does not add to the ambience! Certainly that was true for blacksmith Bradley Harris, but his working environment has been improved significantly since installing a 9MS8 Multi-Stage blower from ACI.
The fan is used to raise the temperature of the coals in the forge up to 2000oC. Previously, Bradley had improvised and used a grain drying fan, which he found particularly noisy and had to be turned off when air was not needed.
“It’s so quiet,” says Bradley, “and it delivers air on demand. I can control the air flow with a simple butterfly valve and there is no risk of burning the motor out on total shut down - it’s brilliant!”
This simple airflow shut-off feature is unique to ACI’s Multi-Stage blowers. With side-channel blowers an additional pressure-relief valve would be required in order to avoid motor burn out.
The 9MS8 used by Bradley is from ACI’s direct drive Multi-Blower range, which offers options for up to 9 impellers mounted on a single shaft.
Comet
On the 12.3 km Vienna Lainzer rail tunnel project, for the Austrian railway company OeBB, Consulting Messtechnik (Comet) is employing a Global Navigation Satellite Positioning System-based measuring device to monitor excavation work and check for any deformation.
To ensure maximum efficiency and accuracy at all times, Comet has introduced a novel way of keeping its equipments lenses clean – an Air Control Industries blower supplied by the company’s German distributor Carl von Gehlen. Whilst other systems require surveyors to clean lenses manually at frequent intervals, the Comet system’s lenses are kept dust-free at all times by the blower, eliminating the need for anyone to try and reach hazardous locations, such as tunnel ceilings, for cleaning duties.
The blower used for this application is the ACI VLB5/3 slimline fan. This unit is based upon an inside-out motor with the rotor on the outside driving a forward bladed impeller. This blower with its forward curved blades is a compact efficient unit, delivering high air volumes at high pressure, the precise characteristics required for this application.
Currently, Comet are using two of its deformation measuring devices with ACI blowers on the Vienna Lainzer rail tunnel project, which is expected to be completed late 2010.
“It is essential that we keep the lenses of our OBM measuring systems clean at all times”, said Boris Schukoff of Comet. “This has been achieved successfully thanks to the performance and reliability of the ACI blowers in a very difficult, dusty environment.”
McCloskey
A novel way of employing ACI blowers for extracting ‘lights’ (paper, plastic, cardboard etc.) from skip loads of waste for more effective - and more financially rewarding - recycling is employed by McCloskey International.
When skips arrive at the sorting depots large items, such as fridges and TVs, are removed. Fines (-40mm) are then extracted using a trammel screen.
The next stage is a conveyor where material like wood and metal is hand-picked. At the end of the conveyor the material drops onto a second conveyor. Here a blower is used extract ‘lights’ by blowing a continuous curtain of air horizontally across the drop diverting lights into a collection bin.
A similar blast of air is delivered as media falls off the second conveyor after final picking and magnetic extraction of metals.
The blowers used are forward bladed, centrifugal blowers. ACI recommended these because of their superior performance compared to other designs, on a size-by-size basis.
“Because the ACI units are so efficient they are compact for their output performance”, said Declan Dooley, Engineering Manager, McCloskey International. “Their compactness and mounting arrangement also means the blowers are easy to install.”
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.
