Air Amplifiers For Drying

Air amplifiers are a good choice of product for many drying applications. The move large volumes of air over a fairly broad target area and so provide a relative gentle air current when compared to other compressed air enhancement products in our range.

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Compressed air enhancement systems have and added advantage over fan or other types of blower. The compressed air used is typically much dryer than the ambient air. This being the case the localised air around the product being dried will be maintained at a lower humidity and hence have a higher moisture absorption rate. In humid ambient environments, as found in many production environments, this means that compressed air-drying systems can offer increased drying.

When selecting compressed air enhancement products for drying applications it is, generally, the volume of air moved over the target that is of primary concern. With large volumes of air being moved continually over the drying target we help maintain the necessary low humidity of the localised air and, hence, improve the rate of drying. As such air amplifier are often a very good choice of product for drying processes that rely entirely on evaporative drying. Air amplifiers can entrain surrounding air by up to a factor of 17:1 meaning that for every m3 of compressed air put through the amplifier 17m3 of ambient air will be entrained and moved. These large air volumes tend to move fairly gently when compared to the air streams produced by other compressed air enhancement devices like air knives. Again, this might be an advantage in many drying applications where powerful, high force, air currents might damage the product being dried.

Reliability and maintenance

When compared to blower systems enhanced compressed are drying systems are very easy to maintain. Whether the system is comprised of air nozzles, air amplifiers, air jets or air knives there are no moving parts involved and no external power is required. This means that there is virtually nothing to go wrong with the blow off system.

The simplicity of these systems means they can be deployed in areas that would preclude the deployment of powered blowers. In dirty, wet or humid areas of the production facility any powered equipment requires often costly protection to prevent it breaking down. This may involve water proofing or additional filtration / dust protection. Compressed air systems require none of this and so, in such environments, they are intrinsically more reliable.

Noise levels

Noise is a constant hazard when using air systems. Both blowers and compressed air blow off systems can be very noisy and constant exposure to high noise levels is a big health and safety concern. Indeed, there is stringent legislation in many countries that limit workers exposure to certain noise levels in the work place. As such noise reduction is often a critical design factor in air blow off applications.

A raw open air line may produce dangerous levels of noise perhaps 98 Db or more. All the compressed air enhancement nozzles supplied by ANP will reduce this noise significantly whilst, at the same time, enhancing the blow off force achieved for any given air pressure. For example an air edger using similar air pressure to an open pipe may reduce the noise level form 98 to 74 Db. This 24Db reduction, give the logarithmic nature of the decibel system, means the noise is reduced by a factor 2.4, simply changing the nozzle can result in under a quarter of the noise level.