When you walk around a manufacturing facility, one of the things you will notice is they are typically pretty loud. All the processes going on start to add up to an excessive level not safe for personnel.
OSHA Standard 29 CFR – 1910.95(a) identifies the maximum allowable Noise Exposure by hours and sound level. If exposed to excessive levels of sound over a period of time, hearing impairment or even a total loss of hearing are quite possible when not wearing proper hearing protection.
How can you determine if the sound levels in your facility are exceedingly high? EXAIR has a Digital Sound Level Meter Model 9104 system that allows a user to measure sound pressure levels within the environment. This meter is calibrated from EXAIR and is able to measure the sound pressure level in decibels (dB) on either the A scale or the C scale with fast or slow response. This allows the user to identify those areas which are loud enough to require PPE to guard against hearing loss. Or, maybe a true problem that needs repair is identified and the sound is reduced in that way too.
Once you are able to make measurements, you can identify the applications that need to be addressed through repairs, attenuation efforts or through PPE requirements. Following are some of the most common sources of excessive compressed air noise levels:
- Open pipe blow offs
- Cross-drilled holes in Safety Air Gun Nozzles
- Liquid nozzles that are used for air blow offs
- Poorly designed air nozzles
By simply replacing the open tubes and cross drilled nozzles with an Engineered EXAIR Super Air Nozzle, you can quickly reduce air consumption AND reduce the sound level just like the application below!
One Case Study I can Share, where a machine shop was blowing off parts they make for the military that are classified in nature. They had crimped copper tubing pointed at the cutting tool, and it worked…it was just loud and wasteful. Our customer zipped the crimped ends off and installed Model 1100 Super Air Nozzles using a simple compression fitting. Sorry, we couldn’t show the machined part in the lathe chuck. It was a proprietary part for the customer:
This quick and easy change to an EXAIR solution saved 2.7 SCFM per nozzle (over $840.00 a year in compressed air savings), and reduced the sound level from 96dBA to only 76dBA. A 20 dBA reduction!
EXAIR Intelligent Compressed Air Products have been making things better for compressed air users for almost forty years. If you’d like to find out how MUCH better we can make things for you, give me a call.
Jordan Shouse
Application Engineer
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