Airknives remove moisture and reduce maintenance

Industrial cutting of natural stone paving slabs involves the use of copious amounts of water. The water is used to cool the diamond-encrusted cutting blade, clean the cut and reduce the levels of dust within the working environment.

The subsequent operations of handling and secondary processing demand that the water is removed. At its Howley Park Processing Plant, Marshalls Natural Stone has installed an efficient means of achieving this: blower-powered Airknives from Air Control Industries (ACI) of Axminster.

The ACI Airknives replace the manual operation of removing the water from each stone paving slab with a squeegee. The Airknives avoid potential shortcomings in the manual operation to ensure effective surface water removal. This, in turn, reduces maintenance on the vacuum lifting systems, such as frequent emptying of the reservoirs on the vacuum pump units.

Efficient and effective moisture removal

All this is achieved as a result of the efficiency of the Airknives' air delivery pattern; an even and continuous curtain of air across the full width of the slabs.

In addition, there is the bonus for those on the secondary cutting line who no longer get wet due to the natural action of wiping the water from the slabs towards themselves.

Andy Reed, Maintenance Manager at the Marshalls plant, comments: "The Airknives are extremely effective. After discovering ACI's Airknives on line I contacted the company and trialled one to prove its effectiveness. We now have two installed at Howley Park and are looking to install further units on other Natural Stone Processing sites."

At Howley Park, the 700mm long air knives are powered by ACI's EV fans. Other options are available. Contact ACI for more information about air knives and fans.