Air Silencer
How many times have you been in a work environment where you’ve had to cover your ears? Occupational noise exposure is so bad in some work environments that some governmental agencies have actually set limits as to how much people can handle. In some areas, people that are subjected to loud noises over a long period of time actually have to wear hearing protection whenever they’re on the job site.
Do you want your place of business to become this uncomfortable?
Unless you’re a glutton for punishment, you’ll want to employ pneumatic air silencers to prevent these kinds of problems from happening. These small units are designed to be installed on exhaust circuits, where noise is usually generated. They can reduce the noise levels of any piece of operational equipment that has to exhaust in this fashion, which can greatly improve user comfort.
As long as you’re not actively running a compressor or have it located somewhat far away from where your crews are, they won’t have to hear too much at all as soon as you have these installed.
Our team at SMC Pneumatics has made sure to put together plenty of options for those who need to invest in these vital components. If you’re still not sure of what they can do for you, then consider the following specifications.
General Purpose 1/8 inch Silencers
These units look quite small, and that’s because they fit on relatively tiny exhaust ports. That doesn’t mean that they lack power or that the kind of equipment they’re designed to work with doesn’t get quite noisy. Even when you’re dealing with exhaust circuits that mount ?-inch tubes, you’ll still probably hear your fair share of irritating sounds.
A single basic silencer can reduce noise levels by approximately 16dB while more sophisticated models can further reduce it by around 21dB. Basic models have an effective area around 6/20mm² while their stronger cousins boast an area of around 35mm².
That’s quite a bit of power tucked in a small package.
Consider the fact that a noise level of 85dBA or higher in a regular eight hour work day is enough to cause hearing damage to staffers who don’t use hearing protection. While we always stress the importance of wearing protective equipment even when equipment noises aren’t that loud, a different of 16 or 21dB can go a long way toward bringing the amount of sound generated by a piece of equipment back down to a safer level.
Naturally, this isn’t enough to alleviate all the problems caused by such loud noises, but it does take things down below the number of sonic annoyances created by things like lawnmowers and generators. In some instances, you might find that properly installed air silencers make it so that you never hear much out of the exhaust circuit at all.
Technicians have been promoting these devices for years for precisely this reason. Interestingly enough, though, you’ll find that they come with a number of ancillary benefits as well.
Using Pneumatic Mufflers to Protect Exhaust Ports
Industrial workshops often have to worry about metal powder or flakes finding their way into an exhaust port. Some operations might have various other types of containment matter present in the natural work environment. Engineers who have to work on wet clay or muddy sites often worry about getting some of that material sucked up into their pneumatic equipment.
Over time, this can eventually clog an exhaust port. It’s relatively difficult to clean matter out of them once something has made its way in there, as well. By installing a pneumatic muffler or silencer, you can reduce the risk of anything getting into the exhaust port. While they’re normally not explicitly designed to filter the open end of your circuit, these handy devices can help keep out everything from dust to abrasive grit.
Premature valve failure is one of the most annoying consequences of allowing particulate matter into an exhaust port. You might find that dirt and grime have chewed up even strong stainless steel valves that you have installed on sensitive equipment. Installing a few relatively inexpensive air silencers might be all that you need to do in order to keep your new replacement valves shining for many years to come.
Best of all, it’s quite easy to keep the silencer units clean. They generally wipe clean and it isn’t difficult to get the dirt out of them. Keep in mind that exhaust ports force air out of them by design, so you shouldn’t find that anything gets sucked into them the way a cooling fan might. Some engineers have noted that they never get anything stuck in the mesh or protective screens because of this design feature.
Installing an Air Muffler
Whether you call it a muffler or silencer, these devices are easy to install and maintain. They simply screw onto the end of the exhaust port with little effort. Technicians need only the most basic of tools, if any at all, to install and maintain them. If you’ve ever added a valve to an air circuit before, then you already know how to add a silencer. Even if you haven’t, you might find that it’s easy enough to do without any experience.
There shouldn’t be any reason that you can’t add one to any kind of existing ?-inch run.
Stocking Up on Air Silencers
Depending on your particular needs, your business might want to order just a handful of these devices and install them on your existing exhaust ports. Larger companies may want to keep a whole bunch on hand at any given time to perform repairs and so that they’re ready whenever someone wants to install a new piece of equipment that necessitates running completely new air hoses.
Regardless of where you stand on this spectrum, SMC Pneumatics has got you covered. Contact us online today and speak to one of our friendly representatives. They’ll help you stock up on the type of pneumatic muffler that makes the most sense for your particular use case
