Paxton’s custom-designed air delivery device solution blows debris off vinyl siding.

THE CLIENT

Since 1904, an East Coast-based building materials manufacturer has been North America’s leading brand of exterior and interior building products, including roofing, siding, fence, decking, railing, trim, insulation, gypsum and ceilings. As the world’s oldest and largest building products company, the building materials manufacturer has been able to expand throughout the United States and Canada maintaining 60+ manufacturing facilities.

THE CHALLENGE

The building materials manufacturer was expanding at a fast rate and needed a solution for their new line. The manufacturer suspends 17” wide vinyl siding to blow off any debris, followed by a washdown and subsequent drying before moving further down the production line. Compressed air was being used for blow-off and drying, but they wanted to replace it due to cost and capacity issues: the drying and blow off was taxing the capacity of their air compressor. Additionally, the compressed air-drying system was not performing well, resulting in inadequately dried products.

The building materials manufacturer’s main concern was the amount of water left on the vinyl. The vinyl is ribbed causing water to be trapped in the crevices and out of the reach the current air solution. If the water is not removed from the vinyl before the next step in production, production would be delayed, and product rejected. The building manufacturer needed a better solution and reached out to Paxton.

THE SOLUTION

Paxton was able to replace the compressed air with six 15 hp PX-1550 blower systems each powering two air knives and two air manifolds. The air knives were mounted on the top and bottom of the conveyor and the air manifolds were mounted on the sides of the conveyor to reach every crevice of the vinyl siding. Because Paxton application engineers have extensive experience in air flow technology, they were able to precisely analyze the best placement for each air delivery device for this application.

THE BENEFITS

The new Paxton system reduced their energy costs by 80% compared to their previous compressed air-drying system. The end user is pleased with the drying and blow off solution, and is reassured that they will not have quality issues in the future.

Learn more about the benefits of using a Paxton Air System compared to a compressed air system.