What are air knives used for?
The high velocity sheet of discharged by an air knife can be put to many uses. Some of the more common are:
Driving water and other liquids off wet objects, especially off moving objects that would be difficult or impractical to dry by other means (such as wiping or heating). Drying applications include; bottles and cans after washing, metal parts following cleaning or electroplating, conveyor belts after washing, fruit and vegetables after washing, wet plastic packages discharged from hot-water shrink tunnels and so on.
Removing dust and other particles. E.g., removing excess flour from pastries and removing machining swarf from conveyor belts, machine slides and machined components.
Thickness calibration of fluid films, such as paint coatings.
Density separation (winnowing). I.e., separating light components from heavy components.
To form an air slide, e.g., to stop products sticking to a conveyor.
Separating different atmospheric zones. Quite literally by forming an air curtain between zones, e.g., to keep flying insects from a critical hygiene area.
Gentle air-cooling.