Sonic Air Systems is the inventor of the single piece tear drop shaped air knife with 95% air efficiency. Reduce Energy Use by 75% Versus Compressed Air Systems
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Sonic Air Knife Systems,
powered by Sonic Centrifugal Blowers ,will deliver high velocity, warm/dry air, with consistent and reliable blow-off power. As the first air knife system manufacturer to offer the Application Based Money-Back Performance Guarantee; Sonic Air Systems provides our customers with increased production output, the elimination of quality problems associated with other drying/blow-off methods and a reduction of the financial burden associated with excess energy usage. Since 1990 we have been Saving Energy Worldwide...one psi at a time.™
Sonic Air Knife - OEM's Preferred Choice
Sonic XE Air Knife , in hard anodized aluminum or 300 series SS, are available in dozens of design variations which helps make them the #1 choice for Sonic's OEM machine builders around the world.
Sonic is often asked which is more important for blow off and drying? Is it the wide ranging performance from Sonic's family of high velocity centrifugal Blowers or is it the vast array of Sonic's pioneering XE Air Knife designs with our 95% air efficiency? The truth is that pairing our blowers and air knives together, especially since Sonic offers to design and guarantees the effectiveness for each application, always produces the most effective and efficient results for the majority of Sonic's customers. Of course, there are always exceptions. Some of Sonic's loyal OEM customers buy Sonic Air blower/motor assemblies to enhance the performance of their own long term proprietary air knife or nozzle designs.
Then we have many Sonic OEM's who exclusively specify our XE Air Knife designs because the XE's have proven to produce significantly higher blow off performance within their OEM systems versus any other air knife they have purchased or made themselves. In these instances, the XE allows the OEM to continue using their legacy fans or blowers for cost or standardization preferences. Whenever there are more difficult drying or blow off applications, Sonic routinely designs and supplies these same OEM's with a complete Sonic blower/air knife package guaranteed to produce the higher air knife performance that their legacy systems simply can't match.
The superior quality, competitive costs and short lead times of the XE Air Knives have created high OEM demand. For high volume OEM customers, Sonic also offers our XE's with private labeling agreements upon request.
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What is an Air Knife?
The Sonic XE Air Knife was the first extruded "tear drop" shaped air knife in the industry. Developed by Sonic in 1995, its modular design and infinitely adjustable gap have emerged as the standard design for industrial applications.
The term air knife is derived from a device called a doctor blade, a mechanical scraper used to control ink thickness in rotary printing presses beginning in the year 1900, and in most of today′s desk top printers. The doctor blade concept was later implemented in a few other industries to control the thickness of viscose solutions (oil, paint, water, etc) in the manufacturing of steel, textiles and paper but, it soon became obvious that mechanical scrapers for coating control in these other applications was not effective enough and required far too much maintenance, except in printing presses.
The ″air″ doctor blade was born in the 1940′s, which later became known as just ″air knife″, as the first non-contact method for coating control or complete solution removal when needed. High pressure compressed air was pumped into metal tubes having holes or slots thereby producing a thin curtain of high velocity air to uniformly remove excess coating from the base material as it passed by without any physical contact. Until the 1980′s, because air knives were only used in a few specialized textile and steel mill applications, the majority of all other industries had little knowledge of or any use for an air knife. The 1987 Montreal Protocol resulted in the worldwide elimination of hydrofluorocarbons in most industries so, the blower driven air knife was born.
Initially, blower driven air knives were round tubes with holes or slots just as it had been with compressed air. The poor efficiency of the round tubes was soon replaced when Sonic created the single piece extruded aluminum XE (eXtra Efficiency) air knife with a tear drop shape having a 0.95 coefficient of discharge (95% air efficiency). It is the Sonic's air amplification of 4-5x the air volume of a compressed air knife which allows a 1 to 4 PSIG Sonic Air Knife meet and exceed the blow off force with 75% less motor horsepower than any compressed air knife or nozzles.Today Sonic air knives are the standard for all air knife manufacturers and are available in six profile sizes from 1 - ½ to 10 ″ tall, lengths from 2 ″ to 144″ in assorted materials and with dozens of features and add-ons to suit different industries. Sonic Air Systems provides the air engineering to ensure that Sonic blowers and Sonic XE air knife combinations are both effective and with the highest energy efficiency.
By combining Sonic′s XE air knife technology with compact Sonic centrifugal blowers (3Hp to 50Hp), plus our comprehensive air engineering, Sonic provides our customers with air knife solutions. Sonic provides our customers with air knife solutions. Sonic is often copied but, our success is rarely imitated.
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Case Study: Read about how our air knives are used in the drying & labeling of avocados 
