A new version of this article was first published on silvent.com
Compressed air systems and blowing with compressed air can often be the reason for high and sudden noise levels in industry. The sudden blowing noise occurs when the compressed air expands out from the compressed air system.
If compressed air is allowed to expand freely turbulence is created, which in turn generates loud noise. To decrease the noise when blowing with compressed air the turbulence has to be controlled.
The occurring blowing noise are of two types. The first occurs when compressed air is used for cleaning, cooling, transporting or sorting in industry. The other type is impulse noise, which occurs when venting valves. The two different applications need different solutions, which controls the turbulence in a way that decreases the noise. Below are tips on how to decrease the noise in both cases of blowing sounds.
Blowing with compressed air
Applications for blowing with compressed air are often consisting of open pipes. To make it easier to control the turbulence that occurs when blowing with compressed air, the open pipes can be replaced with air nozzles. Air nozzles can be used for both stationary and manual blowing application. A stationary blowing application with an open pipe should, as mentioned above, be replaced with an air nozzle. With regards to a manual blowing application, this should be replaced with an air blow gun that is provided with an air nozzle. Specially designed air nozzles also lowers the noise level by dividing the air through several uniquely designed holes and slots. If the air is blown through smaller holes, instead of one big hole, parts of the sound frequency will rise to levels the human ear cannot hear or get injured by.
Venting valves
To decrease the noise when venting valves silencers should be installed. Compressed air is often ventedthrough open valves, which can be installed with silencers. It is a simple solution that makes a big different on the noise level. Many companies choose not to use this solution since silencers need maintenance. Clogged silencers can cause both expensive down time and operational disturbance. Therefore, it is important to replace all clogged silencers. To make it easier to locate the silencers that need to be replaced, silencers with warning indicators can be used. These silencers clearly show which silencers need to be replaced. With this type of silencer, it is easier to avoid time-consuming and unexpected down time and operational disturbance. Read more about silencers with warning indicators.
In other words, blowing with compressed air and venting of valves does not have to be a dominating noise generator in industry. With the correct equipment, it is possible to decrease the sound level with up to 10 decibels, which the human ear perceives as a halving of the noise level.
Find out more about blowing with compressed air nozzles
