Air knives have become increasing popular in industries that have compressed air readily available. They have become increasingly popular as they are able to perform exceptionally well in tough industrial environment. An air knife has multiple uses, such as cleaning away dirt, blowing off liquids and chemicals, in the cooling process, cleaning of conveyor belts, creating an air barrier, and a host of other applications.

A heater can also be fitted on an air knife for heating purposes in industries where products need to be cured during the drying process.

Earlier, before the advent of air knives, industries used the traditional drilled pipe compressed air blow off systems for various applications. This was the only choice available then though there were problems associated with using this traditional method. Using air guns could never provide efficient results. For one, it would not be possible to clean and dry the parts completely. On top of this, it used to take a longer time to do a proper job.

Though compressed air was used in the traditional blow off systems, the cost was prohibitive. The cost of making compressed air was excessive and a lot of it was lost as it could not be fruitfully utilized during the blow off applications. Excessive ‘leak’ was its bane.



(( AIR KNIFE SYSTEMS ))

Compressed air can only be delivered efficiently for various applications through use of air knives. These are pneumatic devices that take in compressed air at a certain pressure (maximum 250 psig) and deliver the same in the form of pressurized air steam. The knife is used to direct the airflow in such a way that a uniform sheet of air is formed and directed onto the materials or products to be cleaned, dried, or cooled.

Compared to the traditional blow off methods used earlier, these are low cost air knives as the least air amplification ratio is 30:1. Such regular low cost air knives consume approximately 3.4 SCFM (Standard Cubic Feet per Minute) per square inch of air at 80 PSIG. Though the regular knife is quite efficient it is a bit noisy. In addition, it also consumes more air in comparison to the advanced air knife.

The advanced air knife also known as the super advanced air knife has an air amplification ratio of 40:1. This super advanced air knife consumes approximately 2.9 SCFM per square inch of air at 80 PSIG.