On a finishing line, parts are conveyed through a washer, dryer, and paint spray booth. A Blow-Off System air knife following the washer will blow off a large percentage of water on most parts.
Removing the droplets of water before the dryer, cuts the fuel requirement to dry each part.
Air Blast will engineer each system, so the water blow-off is the most effective.
Air Blast Inc. air knives have been blowing water off of parts on overhead conveyor for over 30 years. This has always been probably the most common industrial application for air knives. The reason that this application lends itself so well to the use of air knives comes from cost savings. Parts on overhead conveyor as part of a 3, 4, or 5 stage painting or powder coating system almost always uses either a gas or an infrared type oven between the final rinse and the actual painting. These heaters are of course very expensive to operate and depending on how many shifts they are being run can cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars annually to run. By using an air knife, or air knives to blow off most of the water following the final rinse companies are able to turn way down the temperatures in the oven saving a great deal of money. Sometimes if the products being painted are are going to be painted with a water based paint, they can put some temperature on the final rinse water and then paint following the air knives (assuming a small distance so the part has a chance to do a little flash dry.