Home > Blog > Vortec Solutions: From A to Z

Vortec Solutions: From A to Z

31/05/2022
At Vortec we have a wide range of compressed air solutions for your unique manufacturing needs. Take a deeper dive into the different industrial products we offer for a wide range of manufacturing applications! 
A – Air Amplification

Air Flow Amplifiers deliver a large airflow for conveying, drying, cooling, or ventilation. These high-flow, bladeless blowers have no moving parts so they are inherently safe. They amplify compressed air volumes by 12 – 20 fold in ducted applications. They are especially useful for removing metal chips and scrap, ventilating fumes or smoke, and conveying small parts, pellets, powders, and dust.

B – Blow Off Products

Whether your application needs pin-point blow-off, flat curtains of air for wide blow-off, or adjustable air amplifiers for a variety of blow-off needs, Vortec has the solution for you. Our line of blow-off products includes air nozzles, air jets, air amplifiers, and air knives. These products meet your various blow off needs while helping reduce compressed air consumption, meeting OSHA deadhead standards, and reducing noise levels.
C – Conveying

Vortec conveying solutions allow you to move products quickly and efficiently from one area to another. Our solutions are easy to install and engineered to improve productivity.

Air Amplifiers use powerful transvector technology to help move small components and parts, convey dust, powders, and pellets, convey plastic media and granules, and draw cool or fresh air to another area.

D – Dual-Force Vac Drum Pump

The Dual-Force Vac Drum Pump is a convenient and versatile solution for liquid material handling and spill clean-up. Using powerful air amplification technology, the Dual-Force Vac Drum Pump can either fill or discharge a 55-gallon drum in under two minutes.

It switches easily -- with a 1/4 turn of a knob -- from fill to discharge mode. And the Dual-Force Vac can handle viscous liquids and particulates. Quiet and safe, the Dual-Force Vac is air-powered with no moving parts, meaning no motor burnout and no shock hazard. It quickly installs on a 55-gallon drum and comes with a 10-foot hose and nozzle.

E – Enclosure Cooling

Enclosure Coolers keep electrical enclosures, electronics, and control panels cool, clean, and protected and are a low-cost alternative to expensive, high-maintenance air conditioners while avoiding contamination with dirty, humid air caused by fans.

Vortex Enclosure A/C Coolers use no refrigerant, maintain a slight pressurization in the cabinet to keep electrical and electronic components clean and dry, and most are thermostatically controlled to maintain enclosure temperatures within a specified temperature range.

Vortec offers multiple types of enclosure cooling systems to meet your enclosure cooling needs, all available in a variety of cooling capacities and location ratings, including hazardous; ATEX & UL-certified models.

F – Frost-Free Spot Cooling

The Frost Free Cold Air Gun eliminates the mess associated with condensation and frost arising from the continuous use of a Cold Air Gun.

A must-have for sensitive applications such as:
- Cutting, drilling, or machining of paper products, wood products, fabrics, or any product that is sensitive to water
- Machining of materials covered with oil or oil-based lubricants

Cold Air Guns use vortex tube technology and filtered compressed air to produce sub-freezing air as low as -30 deg F for numerous industrial spot cooling applications. With no moving parts to wear out, Cold Air Guns require no electricity, just a compressed air source.

G – Generators

While our vortex tube technology is highly reliable due to no moving parts, sometimes it is necessary to replace the Generator in a Vortex Tube over time. This is typically necessary if the compressed air supply isn't filtered correctly and oil, dirt or moisture is infiltrating the vortex tube.

We offer replacement generators with instructions on how to replace them to avoid the unnecessary replacement of the entire vortex tube.

H – Hot Air Gun 

Hot Air Guns are used where milder heat is needed as compared to an electric heat gun. It is ideal for pre-heating of parts, processes, and solutions, with an output flow rate of 2-8 scfm; and is also widely used for softening adhesives, rubber, and vinyl, and accelerating drying.

The hot air gun requires no electricity at the target and uses only filtered compressed air to generate fully adjustable temperatures up to 200 deg F.

I – Industrial Spot Cooling

Vortex tubes produce up to 6000 BTU/hr (1757 watts) of refrigeration with temperatures as low as -40 deg to solve a variety of industrial spot cooling and process cooling needs. With no moving parts, a vortex tube is highly reliable and inexpensive; and requires no electrical connection at the cooling site. Vortex tubes cool instantly, relying on compressed air spinning in the tube to separate the air into cold and hot air streams.

J – Jets

Jets are round-throated air amplifiers: one end provides a strong airflow while the other creates suction as free air is entrained. As the free air is entrained, jets amplify air volume up to 25 times more than the compressed air supplied, resulting in less compressed air usage to deliver the same or greater thrust performance.

Jets are designed to reduce compressed air consumption and noise drastically as compared to open jets, copper tubes, and iron or steel pipes without an engineered nozzle. Perfect for all types of blow-off, conveying, cooling, and drying applications, jets are available in a variety of high and low-thrust models. Since they output a more concentrated, targeted volume of air than nozzles, they are ideal for water, solvents or light oil stripping applications. Additionally, because they deliver a precise air flow, jets are ideal for parts movement and ejection, with a focused air flow targeted directly on the parts being moved or ejected. Vortec Jets meet OSHA specifications for noise and dead-end pressure.

K – Kits

Vortec Spray Nozzles provide ultra-fine droplet-sized sprays for evaporative cooling, atomization, humidification, and wetting. There are three types of spray nozzles available:
  •          Fogging: Directed spray having droplet sizes of 20 – 60 microns. Liquid viscosities up to 1100 cP.
  •          Atomizing: Directed spray having droplet sizes of 60 – 200 microns. Liquid viscosities up to 1100 cP
  •          Humidifying: Wide spray with droplet sizes of 20 – 200 microns. Liquid viscosities up to 100 cP.
With our Spray Nozzle Experimental Kit, you can try out each type of spray nozzle to select which is best for your application.

L – Laminar airflow

Air Knives are air amplifiers, using a small amount of filtered compressed air to deliver a powerful, high velocity, laminar sheet of air over wide areas such as moving webs, film, sheets, strips, auto bodies, and other large assemblies and objects. Vortec’s patented design produces increased thrust and velocity, reduced noise, and excellent uniformity.

M –  Mini Cold Air Gun

The Mini Cold Air Gun is designed for applications where the standard Cold Air Gun is too large to fit, or where compressed air flow is limited. The Mini Cold Air Gun uses only 8 SCFM of compressed air and achieves temperatures as low as 0 deg F. The Mini Cold Air Gun is available with a single nozzle or a dual-point nozzle for multi-directional cooling.

N – Nozzles

Using proven amplification technology, Vortec nozzles entrain and accelerate free surrounding air, resulting in airflow volume up to 25 times more than the volume of compressed air, giving 25 times the blow-off capability.

Vortec air nozzles are available in a full range of designs, materials of construction, sizes and force/thrust levels compatible with most installations; capable of replacing open copper tubes, flex-line, drilled pipe, and other nozzles that are not designed to save air. Worker safety standards are met as well, as Vortec safety air nozzles are compliant with OSHA 1910.242(b) dead-end pressure regulations.

O – Operating Cost Reduction

Vortec engineered blow-off nozzles significantly reduce compressed air consumption and noise, compared to open nozzle jets. When a plastic manufacturer needed to reduce their compressed air consumption without hindering their production of over 13 million bottle caps a day, they looked to Vortec air nozzles. With the installation of Vortec air nozzles on their bottle cap line, the manufacturer was able to reduce air consumption by 70%, saving $300,000 a year in compressed air costs.

P – Personal Cooling

Workers in extreme temperatures wear Vortec Cooling Vests (VCVs) to minimize heat stress and fatigue.  The VCV's improve comfort and productivity.

Vortec personal cooling vests have two components:
  •          a cooling tube that generates cold air to provide air flow to the worker
  •          a perforated cooling vest through which the cold air flows to cool the worker’s torso
VCVs are available in two cooling capacities; 1500 BTUH and 2500 BTUH.   All models can achieve temperature differentials of  -45 – 60 deg F from the inlet compressed air temperature using vortex tube technology. These models are adjustable by the worker using an integral temperature adjustment knob.

Q – Quick installation (Vortex A/Cs)

Vortex A/C Coolers were designed to offer quick and easy installation into electrical panels or enclosures. These enclosure coolers can be easily installed in around 5 minutes. Check out the quick installation video to see how easy it is.

R – Removing toxic fumes

Air Amplifiers provide powerful air removal to effectively:
  •          Ventilate gas, smoke, vapor, and fumes
  •          Clear away metal chips and shavings
  •          Blast debris from surfaces and adjust airflow
  •          Adapt to user needs, from fume control to blow-off
S – Spray Nozzles  

Vortec Spray Nozzles provide ultra-fine droplet-sized sprays for evaporative cooling, atomization, humidification, and wetting. Superior to conventional hydraulic and piezoelectric nozzles, spray nozzles produce spray patterns that can be widely diffused or directed. The liquid stream is entrained by high-velocity compressed air to create a range of micron-level spray droplets, resulting in greater surface coverage than conventional nozzles. With this more efficient use of the liquid, spray nozzles accelerate air-liquid interaction to give more effective cooling, humidifying, wetting, and dust control.

T – Thread Guard Needle Cooler

The Vortec Thread Guard Cooler was designed specifically for industrial sewing applications. It keeps needles cool to reduce heat-related needle breakage and thread burning. The air stream is especially effective on difficult sewing surfaces such as belt loops and waistbands; or on tough materials like denim or canvas. Cold air temperature and flow rate are preset to 10 deg F (-12 deg C) and 4 scfm (113 slpm).

U – UL Certification

Our models of the Vortex A/C Enclosure Coolers are UL-certified for various location ratings. This includes the Vortex A/C, the Electric Vortex A/C, HazLoc Vortex A/C, and the ProtEx Vortex A/C. The ATEX Vortex A/C and ProtEx Vortex A/C are ATEX-certified.

V – Vortex Tube Technology

Vortec tube technology has been around for almost a century after first being discovered in 1933. The basics of vortex tube technology are the vortex tube spins compressed air to produce hot and cold air streams, generating temperatures down to 100 degrees F below inlet air temperature.

When selected and applied correctly, successful vortex tube applications include cooling a wide variety of items such as electronics, gas samples, personnel working in hot environments, cutting tools and work-pieces, molded parts, heat-sealed products, industrial sewing machine needles, composite and rubber materials, thermal sensors, industrial robots and many more. Although heating applications are not as prevalent as cooling applications, vortex tubes are being used with great results for softening rubbers and vinyls, drying paints and inks, shortening adhesive cure times and warming personnel working in cold environments.

W – Wide Surface Blow-Off with Air Knives

Achieve wide surface blow-off with Vortec Air Knives. Benefits include more uniform blow-off of large surfaces than nozzles or jets, 25 times air amplification over compressed air input, blow-off lengths of 6, 12, 18, and 24 inches, and interchangeable shims to enable adjustable airflow by the user.

X – x25 air amplification

With the combined use of compressed air and free air, Air Jets amplify air volume up to 25 times more than the compressed air supplied, resulting in less compressed air usage to deliver the same or greater thrust performance.

Y – Years of experience

Innovation is a vital characteristic for any company to maintain success over 6 decades, and Vortec is no exception. Since our inception, Vortec has paved the way for expertly designed compressed air solutions to improve efficiency and increase productivity in manufacturing. A true pioneer, Vortec became the first company to develop technology for converting the vortex tube phenomenon into practical, effective industrial cooling solutions.

Since its origination in 1961, Vortec has pioneered vortex tube technology and worked to continuously improve and develop new products for industrial application needs. As we enter the fourth industrial revolution and the industrial manufacturing sector continues to grow, Vortec will strive to lead the way for another 60 years of innovating compressed air products.

Z – Zero moving parts in the Vortex Tube Technology

With zero moving parts making up the vortex tube technology, users do not have to worry about replacing parts on any Vortex Tubes, Cold Air Guns, Enclosure Coolers or any other products that utilize the highly reliable vortex tube technology.
Home > Blog > Vortec Solutions: From A to Z

Vortec Solutions: From A to Z

31/05/2022
At Vortec we have a wide range of compressed air solutions for your unique manufacturing needs. Take a deeper dive into the different industrial products we offer for a wide range of manufacturing applications! 
A – Air Amplification

Air Flow Amplifiers deliver a large airflow for conveying, drying, cooling, or ventilation. These high-flow, bladeless blowers have no moving parts so they are inherently safe. They amplify compressed air volumes by 12 – 20 fold in ducted applications. They are especially useful for removing metal chips and scrap, ventilating fumes or smoke, and conveying small parts, pellets, powders, and dust.

B – Blow Off Products

Whether your application needs pin-point blow-off, flat curtains of air for wide blow-off, or adjustable air amplifiers for a variety of blow-off needs, Vortec has the solution for you. Our line of blow-off products includes air nozzles, air jets, air amplifiers, and air knives. These products meet your various blow off needs while helping reduce compressed air consumption, meeting OSHA deadhead standards, and reducing noise levels.
C – Conveying

Vortec conveying solutions allow you to move products quickly and efficiently from one area to another. Our solutions are easy to install and engineered to improve productivity.

Air Amplifiers use powerful transvector technology to help move small components and parts, convey dust, powders, and pellets, convey plastic media and granules, and draw cool or fresh air to another area.

D – Dual-Force Vac Drum Pump

The Dual-Force Vac Drum Pump is a convenient and versatile solution for liquid material handling and spill clean-up. Using powerful air amplification technology, the Dual-Force Vac Drum Pump can either fill or discharge a 55-gallon drum in under two minutes.

It switches easily -- with a 1/4 turn of a knob -- from fill to discharge mode. And the Dual-Force Vac can handle viscous liquids and particulates. Quiet and safe, the Dual-Force Vac is air-powered with no moving parts, meaning no motor burnout and no shock hazard. It quickly installs on a 55-gallon drum and comes with a 10-foot hose and nozzle.

E – Enclosure Cooling

Enclosure Coolers keep electrical enclosures, electronics, and control panels cool, clean, and protected and are a low-cost alternative to expensive, high-maintenance air conditioners while avoiding contamination with dirty, humid air caused by fans.

Vortex Enclosure A/C Coolers use no refrigerant, maintain a slight pressurization in the cabinet to keep electrical and electronic components clean and dry, and most are thermostatically controlled to maintain enclosure temperatures within a specified temperature range.

Vortec offers multiple types of enclosure cooling systems to meet your enclosure cooling needs, all available in a variety of cooling capacities and location ratings, including hazardous; ATEX & UL-certified models.

F – Frost-Free Spot Cooling

The Frost Free Cold Air Gun eliminates the mess associated with condensation and frost arising from the continuous use of a Cold Air Gun.

A must-have for sensitive applications such as:
- Cutting, drilling, or machining of paper products, wood products, fabrics, or any product that is sensitive to water
- Machining of materials covered with oil or oil-based lubricants

Cold Air Guns use vortex tube technology and filtered compressed air to produce sub-freezing air as low as -30 deg F for numerous industrial spot cooling applications. With no moving parts to wear out, Cold Air Guns require no electricity, just a compressed air source.

G – Generators

While our vortex tube technology is highly reliable due to no moving parts, sometimes it is necessary to replace the Generator in a Vortex Tube over time. This is typically necessary if the compressed air supply isn't filtered correctly and oil, dirt or moisture is infiltrating the vortex tube.

We offer replacement generators with instructions on how to replace them to avoid the unnecessary replacement of the entire vortex tube.

H – Hot Air Gun 

Hot Air Guns are used where milder heat is needed as compared to an electric heat gun. It is ideal for pre-heating of parts, processes, and solutions, with an output flow rate of 2-8 scfm; and is also widely used for softening adhesives, rubber, and vinyl, and accelerating drying.

The hot air gun requires no electricity at the target and uses only filtered compressed air to generate fully adjustable temperatures up to 200 deg F.

I – Industrial Spot Cooling

Vortex tubes produce up to 6000 BTU/hr (1757 watts) of refrigeration with temperatures as low as -40 deg to solve a variety of industrial spot cooling and process cooling needs. With no moving parts, a vortex tube is highly reliable and inexpensive; and requires no electrical connection at the cooling site. Vortex tubes cool instantly, relying on compressed air spinning in the tube to separate the air into cold and hot air streams.

J – Jets

Jets are round-throated air amplifiers: one end provides a strong airflow while the other creates suction as free air is entrained. As the free air is entrained, jets amplify air volume up to 25 times more than the compressed air supplied, resulting in less compressed air usage to deliver the same or greater thrust performance.

Jets are designed to reduce compressed air consumption and noise drastically as compared to open jets, copper tubes, and iron or steel pipes without an engineered nozzle. Perfect for all types of blow-off, conveying, cooling, and drying applications, jets are available in a variety of high and low-thrust models. Since they output a more concentrated, targeted volume of air than nozzles, they are ideal for water, solvents or light oil stripping applications. Additionally, because they deliver a precise air flow, jets are ideal for parts movement and ejection, with a focused air flow targeted directly on the parts being moved or ejected. Vortec Jets meet OSHA specifications for noise and dead-end pressure.

K – Kits

Vortec Spray Nozzles provide ultra-fine droplet-sized sprays for evaporative cooling, atomization, humidification, and wetting. There are three types of spray nozzles available:
  •          Fogging: Directed spray having droplet sizes of 20 – 60 microns. Liquid viscosities up to 1100 cP.
  •          Atomizing: Directed spray having droplet sizes of 60 – 200 microns. Liquid viscosities up to 1100 cP
  •          Humidifying: Wide spray with droplet sizes of 20 – 200 microns. Liquid viscosities up to 100 cP.
With our Spray Nozzle Experimental Kit, you can try out each type of spray nozzle to select which is best for your application.

L – Laminar airflow

Air Knives are air amplifiers, using a small amount of filtered compressed air to deliver a powerful, high velocity, laminar sheet of air over wide areas such as moving webs, film, sheets, strips, auto bodies, and other large assemblies and objects. Vortec’s patented design produces increased thrust and velocity, reduced noise, and excellent uniformity.

M –  Mini Cold Air Gun

The Mini Cold Air Gun is designed for applications where the standard Cold Air Gun is too large to fit, or where compressed air flow is limited. The Mini Cold Air Gun uses only 8 SCFM of compressed air and achieves temperatures as low as 0 deg F. The Mini Cold Air Gun is available with a single nozzle or a dual-point nozzle for multi-directional cooling.

N – Nozzles

Using proven amplification technology, Vortec nozzles entrain and accelerate free surrounding air, resulting in airflow volume up to 25 times more than the volume of compressed air, giving 25 times the blow-off capability.

Vortec air nozzles are available in a full range of designs, materials of construction, sizes and force/thrust levels compatible with most installations; capable of replacing open copper tubes, flex-line, drilled pipe, and other nozzles that are not designed to save air. Worker safety standards are met as well, as Vortec safety air nozzles are compliant with OSHA 1910.242(b) dead-end pressure regulations.

O – Operating Cost Reduction

Vortec engineered blow-off nozzles significantly reduce compressed air consumption and noise, compared to open nozzle jets. When a plastic manufacturer needed to reduce their compressed air consumption without hindering their production of over 13 million bottle caps a day, they looked to Vortec air nozzles. With the installation of Vortec air nozzles on their bottle cap line, the manufacturer was able to reduce air consumption by 70%, saving $300,000 a year in compressed air costs.

P – Personal Cooling

Workers in extreme temperatures wear Vortec Cooling Vests (VCVs) to minimize heat stress and fatigue.  The VCV's improve comfort and productivity.

Vortec personal cooling vests have two components:
  •          a cooling tube that generates cold air to provide air flow to the worker
  •          a perforated cooling vest through which the cold air flows to cool the worker’s torso
VCVs are available in two cooling capacities; 1500 BTUH and 2500 BTUH.   All models can achieve temperature differentials of  -45 – 60 deg F from the inlet compressed air temperature using vortex tube technology. These models are adjustable by the worker using an integral temperature adjustment knob.

Q – Quick installation (Vortex A/Cs)

Vortex A/C Coolers were designed to offer quick and easy installation into electrical panels or enclosures. These enclosure coolers can be easily installed in around 5 minutes. Check out the quick installation video to see how easy it is.

R – Removing toxic fumes

Air Amplifiers provide powerful air removal to effectively:
  •          Ventilate gas, smoke, vapor, and fumes
  •          Clear away metal chips and shavings
  •          Blast debris from surfaces and adjust airflow
  •          Adapt to user needs, from fume control to blow-off
S – Spray Nozzles  

Vortec Spray Nozzles provide ultra-fine droplet-sized sprays for evaporative cooling, atomization, humidification, and wetting. Superior to conventional hydraulic and piezoelectric nozzles, spray nozzles produce spray patterns that can be widely diffused or directed. The liquid stream is entrained by high-velocity compressed air to create a range of micron-level spray droplets, resulting in greater surface coverage than conventional nozzles. With this more efficient use of the liquid, spray nozzles accelerate air-liquid interaction to give more effective cooling, humidifying, wetting, and dust control.

T – Thread Guard Needle Cooler

The Vortec Thread Guard Cooler was designed specifically for industrial sewing applications. It keeps needles cool to reduce heat-related needle breakage and thread burning. The air stream is especially effective on difficult sewing surfaces such as belt loops and waistbands; or on tough materials like denim or canvas. Cold air temperature and flow rate are preset to 10 deg F (-12 deg C) and 4 scfm (113 slpm).

U – UL Certification

Our models of the Vortex A/C Enclosure Coolers are UL-certified for various location ratings. This includes the Vortex A/C, the Electric Vortex A/C, HazLoc Vortex A/C, and the ProtEx Vortex A/C. The ATEX Vortex A/C and ProtEx Vortex A/C are ATEX-certified.

V – Vortex Tube Technology

Vortec tube technology has been around for almost a century after first being discovered in 1933. The basics of vortex tube technology are the vortex tube spins compressed air to produce hot and cold air streams, generating temperatures down to 100 degrees F below inlet air temperature.

When selected and applied correctly, successful vortex tube applications include cooling a wide variety of items such as electronics, gas samples, personnel working in hot environments, cutting tools and work-pieces, molded parts, heat-sealed products, industrial sewing machine needles, composite and rubber materials, thermal sensors, industrial robots and many more. Although heating applications are not as prevalent as cooling applications, vortex tubes are being used with great results for softening rubbers and vinyls, drying paints and inks, shortening adhesive cure times and warming personnel working in cold environments.

W – Wide Surface Blow-Off with Air Knives

Achieve wide surface blow-off with Vortec Air Knives. Benefits include more uniform blow-off of large surfaces than nozzles or jets, 25 times air amplification over compressed air input, blow-off lengths of 6, 12, 18, and 24 inches, and interchangeable shims to enable adjustable airflow by the user.

X – x25 air amplification

With the combined use of compressed air and free air, Air Jets amplify air volume up to 25 times more than the compressed air supplied, resulting in less compressed air usage to deliver the same or greater thrust performance.

Y – Years of experience

Innovation is a vital characteristic for any company to maintain success over 6 decades, and Vortec is no exception. Since our inception, Vortec has paved the way for expertly designed compressed air solutions to improve efficiency and increase productivity in manufacturing. A true pioneer, Vortec became the first company to develop technology for converting the vortex tube phenomenon into practical, effective industrial cooling solutions.

Since its origination in 1961, Vortec has pioneered vortex tube technology and worked to continuously improve and develop new products for industrial application needs. As we enter the fourth industrial revolution and the industrial manufacturing sector continues to grow, Vortec will strive to lead the way for another 60 years of innovating compressed air products.

Z – Zero moving parts in the Vortex Tube Technology

With zero moving parts making up the vortex tube technology, users do not have to worry about replacing parts on any Vortex Tubes, Cold Air Guns, Enclosure Coolers or any other products that utilize the highly reliable vortex tube technology.