Speed up production.
Reduce downtime.
Improve quality.

Air drying removes production line bottlenecks. Less moisture means fresher, tastier, more appealing food – processed and packaged faster. So you can ship it sooner.

What Are Air Knife Systems?
Why Use Them?

  • Dry food so it can be packaged, labelled and shipped faster
  • Remove surface contaminants and keep the food clean
  • Blow off excess coating (such as batter or chocolate) – improving product quality and appearance, reducing waste
  • Neutralise static charges on surfaces (by adding electrical charges to the stream of targeted air).

What Are Air Knife Systems?
Why Use Them?

Air knives create high-velocity and precision-targeted jets of air that will:

  • Dry food so it can be packaged, labelled and shipped faster
  • Remove surface contaminants and keep the food clean
  • Blow off excess coating (such as batter or chocolate) – improving product quality and appearance, reducing waste
  • Neutralise static charges on surfaces (by adding electrical charges to the stream of targeted air).

Advanced Air Knives And Blowers
For Faster Food Production

Moisture reduces food quality and shelf life. But compressed air drying systems are costly to run (and risk oil contamination). And self-engineered/DIY air blowers are almost always inefficient – slowing down production.

Cutting corners on air drying causes production bottlenecks, machine stoppages, and failures. Every minute of delay or downtime is money lost. At best, you will fail to keep up with rising demand. At worst, quality failures and hold-ups will jeopardise your major supermarket contracts.

Perishable raw meat and frozen foods need reliable air knife systems that guarantee consistent drying – all day, every day. Dairy products require aseptic air drying to prevent contamination.

Solving Your Air Drying Problems

Old compressed air systems used to be the go-to solution. They were cheap to install. But they are very expensive to run – costing 10 times as much as air knives.

Modern air knives and blowers pay for themselves within a year. We can calculate precisely how soon your new ACI system will start saving you money.

Air knives also have a lower carbon footprint than compressed air – enabling you to meet the increasingly stringent environmental auditing requirements of your customers.

To find out more about air knife systems, and air knife technology, view our detailed guide.

Why DIY Air Blowers Can Underperform And Fail

Struggling along with outdated air blowers is a false economy. Our engineers regularly see badly designed and poorly manufactured drying systems that clients have built themselves.

Faults include:
wrong fans
incorrect power, size, and filtration specifications
contamination or dust/moisture ingress issues.

Fail to install a properly designed air system and you risk:
slower production, more bottlenecks and delays, increased downtime, and more line stoppages
quality control failures – food products shipping with excess moisture, spoiling their appearance and taste, reducing their shelf-life and saleability, resulting in product recalls in the worst cases.

DIY air blower systems with no safety certification could leave you vulnerable to personal injury litigation (with higher compensation costs) if employees have an accident.

Why Compressed Air Systems Can Underperform And Fail

Most food processing companies have air compressors. So they see compressed air as a ‘free’ resource. Sadly, the opposite is true. Compressed air systems are very expensive to run. Click here to compare their running costs against air blowers.

Compressed air systems are also less efficient at drying. This is because air under high pressure can carry moisture and also oil. So you are blowing moisture and contaminants – the very things you want to remove – on to your food products.

Compressed air also carries health and safety risks. Industrial injuries can include embolisms if air enters the body through a skin cut. These can be fatal if air bubbles reach the heart or lungs.

Injuries can also include ruptured ear drums and dislodged eyeballs. Noisy compressors can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss.

Advanced Drying Systems For Food Processing

Specify world-class standard and custom air knives and blowers for a wide range of food processing applications including:

drying fresh produce – salads, potatoes, and tomatoes before final packaging
blowing excess batter or coating from chicken and fish
even spreading of oil over pizza bread bases
even coating of chocolate on confectionery
drying food cans, jars and bottles before packaging and labelling.

Add ACI air blowing systems to your lines to speed up production, enhance product quality, save space and meet accurate temperature-control requirements.

All equipment is manufactured from 304 or 316 stainless steel to comply with stringent food industry requirements.

Guaranteed Improvements, Results And Savings

Demonstration units and testing will prove that ACI’s solutions are better than your existing technology. You will save energy, increase output and improve quality.

Your air systems partner: deal with an experienced supplier that delivers superior customer care – no matter how large, small or complex your project.

Gain ready access to our specialist engineers – from conceptualisation through manufacturing, installation and commissioning to completion and aftercare.

 

Why ACI?

50+ years of technical expertise
and experience.

World-class solutions –
US (Maine) subsidiary. Distributors,
agents and partners in 40+ countries.

Performance guaranteed – all standard and custom systems will perform as tested and specified. Guaranteed results and savings.

Advanced quieter air blowers
that take up less space.

UK designed and
manufactured equipment.

Thousands of happy customers
across the world.

How ACI has helped businesses like you

Food Processing Case Study:
Shorter Cleaning Cycles at TasteTech Ltd

Discover how ACI’s advanced air knives helped flavourings and
ingredients manufacturer TasteTech to speed up vessel cleaning and
accelerate production.

 

Talk to us about your requirements

We will ensure you get the best drying solution for your system by providing industry-leading advice and guidance.

Call our team at +44 (0)1297 630960 or email us below.