Blog

Energy-Efficient Alternatives to Compressed Air Nozzles
Compressed air nozzles are commonly used in industrial settings but have significant drawbacks, including high energy consumption, noise, and maintenance demands. This blog explores efficient and sustainable alternatives that help industries reduce costs and environmental impact while improving overall performance.

How Are ATEX Fans Designed And Built?
Discover how Ex-certified fans are designed and built for hazardous environments

What Is An ATEX Fan?
Exploring the realm of hazardous environments, understanding the pivotal role of ATEX fans in safety becomes paramount. ACI brings an insightful dive into the world of ATEX, elucidating its significance across diverse industries. Delve deeper into the intricacies of explosion-proof fans and how ACI meticulously ensures compliance with rigorous safety standards, catering to multifaceted application needs.

A New Chapter – Employee Ownership
In January 2023, ACI took the decision to transition into an employee-owned company

1,000 Hours and Counting: Our Commitment to Upskilling
Continuous learning is essential for both personal and professional growth.

Stronger Together – Employee Council Fosters Engagement
ACI’s employee council fostered engagement through celebratory events, community outreach and social events

ACI’s Industry 4.0, IoT, and Machine Learning Advancements
the transformative impact of these technologies on our operations

Living Our Values: ACI’s Core Values Award Winners
ACI awarded six employees for showcasing company core values

Expanding Horizons – A Journey Through Leading Exhibitions
ACI leverages industry events to stay at the forefront of manufacturing.

Long-term Investments: ACI’s Growth Track
Long Term Investment – ACI Growth Track

Building Tomorrow: 7 New Hires Across the Board
ACI new hires ensure knowledge continuity, and future-proof the company.

Team Members Raised to Key Positions
ACI has promoted three employees to key sales and marketing management positions

Staying Ahead of Safety Standards
ACI successfully underwent official updates of ATEX, IECEx and UKEX certifications

Fortifying the Future: Unveiling Our Dedicated R&D Team
ACI has formed a dedicated R&D team to take a more strategic approach to product innovation

ACI Team’s 5K Muddy Run for Cancer Research
ACI unites for charity: Team runs obstacle course, raises £1,250 for Cancer Research

Types Of Centrifugal Fans
The 3 main types of centrifugal fans: forward curved, backward curved, and radial.

Fan Safety and compliance
Learn how to mitigate industrial fan risks for safe operation.

Which Centrifugal Fan is best for my application?
Navigate the intricate world of industrial fans and their various applications

Fan Performance and Testing
Discover the key factors influencing fan performance.

Centrifugal Fan Materials And Construction
Discover how materials used centrifugal fan construction influence performance.

5 Reasons Why Air Knives Are Safer Than Compressed Air
Air Knife systems for safe working environments

Specifying an air knife system
9 Key questions to consider when purchasing an air knife solution

How Do Centrifugal Fans Work?
The Pros/cons of centrifugal fans and what affects their performance.

Can I Retrofit An Air Knife?
Most air knives tend to be retrofitted to existing production lines. Find out the key considerations

What is an air blower?
Discover the difference between air blowers and air knives.

How Does An Air Blower Work?
Learn how different types of air blowers work. See which is right for your application.

Air Knife System Return on Investment
Discover the return on investment for a typical air knife system.

Blower-Driven Air Knives vs Compressed Air Dryers
Cut your drying cost by 90%, and save over £35,500 per year with an ACI Air Knife system.

7 Reasons To Review Your Air Dryers
Learn how and when to review your air drying system performance.

Why is testing fan performance essential to your application?
Find out how systematic testing is the only way to measure your fan’s performance.

Innovative aseptic carton drying solution
Discover how ACI’s innovative aseptic carton drying solution can help you reduce production costs and improve drying efficiency.

Getting the right drying solution matters
How to get the right air-drying solution for your production line. Find out the different steps.

Process Drying – Testing for the Best
If your supplier can’t test your process drying system before installation, how do you know whether you are paying too much for an over-engineered solution or worse for something that will not do the job? The trick is to find the best value solution that effectively...

ACI: Our Year in Review
2020 has been a challenging year for everyone, both on the personal and commercial level. Like our customers, we have needed to be vigilant and dynamic. As a business, we have had to adapt our operations and our plans swiftly. We've also needed to transform the way in...

ATEX vs IECEx – A Question of Standards
It is easy to get lost in the detail when you specify explosion-proof equipment. Do you find yourself pondering over ATEX and IECEx and what certification you need for each? Before explaining the differences, it’s worth recognising that all the standards and...

Air Control Industries joins Made in Britain
ACI has achieved the internationally recognised Made in Britain accreditation for its range of products.

Cable Drying: Why is residual moisture an issue for cable manufacturing?
Water plays an essential part in the cable manufacturing process as it helps cool down the jacket moulded around the cable or wire.

Innovative drying solution for the extrusion manufacturing market
UK-based ACI, a world leader in industrial air movement solutions, has announced the launch of an innovative new profile drying solution that is set to revolutionise the extrusion manufacturing industry. Providing a custom drying solution for complex plastic and...

COVID-19 – Advisory Notice
Air Control Industries is closely monitoring the evolution of the coronavirus situation and liaising with suppliers critical to the running of our business.

New drying solution set to cut costs for the cable and wire manufacturing sector
UK-based ACI®, a world leader in industrial air movement solutions, has announced the launch of an innovative new range of cable drying products that are set to transform the cable, wire and extrusion industry. Putting an end to quality-check failures due to...

ACI reflects on a decade of achievements
As a worldwide designer and manufacturer of industrial blower-driven air systems, ACI has over the last decade not only developed some truly innovative solutions but has also celebrated some important milestones. EV Fans – launched following customers' request, this...

HSE dust-related inspections – are you ready?
This week, the Health and Safety Executive have started to roll out UK-wide dust-related inspections, with HSE inspectors visiting construction sites to assess how they are controlling dust in the workplace.
The inspections, which began on 17th June, are mainly focussed on workers’ health, and this means monitoring the control measures that companies have put in place to minimise the risk of dust exposure, as this can lead to a variety of short and long-term occupational health problems.

Hillhead 2018: Another Successful Year
We have just returned from what we would consider to be our best Hillhead event yet! It was only our second year exhibiting, but already we are building on the success of our first show back in 2016. It was great to see familiar faces return to see us from the previous year, and to also have the opportunity to introduce so many new people to our range of personnel cleaning products…

Revolutionising Top Drive Motors: Efficiency Redefined with Self-Cleaning Centrifugal Air Blowers
ACI has added a further innovative blower design to its already extensive range of industrial centrifugal units. The MR315WS clean air blower model has been specifically designed to self-clean without the need for additional filters…

We’re Exhibiting: BevExpo 2018
Following the success of exhibiting at this year’s DRINKTEC EXPO, and having continued to attract orders from many of the leading global beverage companies, Air Control Industries (ACI) will be present at the BEVEXPO event in January 2018. Visit us on stand 25…

ACI install new powder and wet paint spray booth
Within the last few days, ACI has finalised the installation of a new spray-booth facility at its headquarters in Axminster, UK. Catering for both powder and wet paint finishes, the new spray-booth will allow us to…

Hinged Filler Caps
Ergonomical locking design and cast aluminium construction, ACI’s magnetic hinged filler caps are designed specifically for traction motor gearcases. With internal diameter dimension of 57.2mm, and external diameter of 82.6mm, the filler caps are designed to keep out debris and water.

Addressing Drying Challenges in the Cable & Wire Industries
Driving productivity in wire and cable products requires consideration of best practise in process drying. As an innovative provider of blower-driven equipment for industrial surface drying applications, ACI is assisting some of the World’s leading cable and wire manufacturers and earning a solid reputation for producing quality, engineered drying process units…

The Vital Role of Clean Industrial Fan Filters
Whether you religiously clean or change a fan filter every two months or barely remember to do it once a year, you may not know just how critical the cleanliness of the filter can be to be to your fan and the process it is performing. In fact, the role of the filter is often under-appreciated. They don’t just filter out air contaminated such as dust, oil and mist particulates, but they also provide a first line of defence against larger objects being pulled through the fan itself where they could cause much more serious damage…

Walk On Through – New Two-Door Booth Design
Following on from the success of the Personnel Cleaning Booth with its integrated JetBlack Cleaning Station, ACI has now added a two-door walk-through version to the options available. The additional exit/entry point allows the Cleaning Booth to be installed in walls as a pass-through portal where workers can go from a dirty area to a clean one in just seconds…

Drying of Motors with Reciprocating Nozzles
Many automotive components such as camshafts, engine blocks and clutch plates as well as full automotive bodies, have benefited from the drying capabilities of the reciprocating nozzle system…

New JetPlates for Curved Conveyors
Since their official product launch at Munich’s Drinktec Expo in 2005, ACI’s JetPlates have proven to be a highly successful method of drying bottles of all different shapes and sizes prior to labelling processes. They remain…

We’re Exhibiting, Drinktec 2017
Following the success of the last show in 2013, and having continued to attract orders from many of the leading global beverage companies, Air Control Industries (ACI) will again be present at this year’s DRINKTEC 2017 – the world’s biggest fair dedicated to drink and liquid food process, bottling and packaging solutions…

Is compressed air really safe?
When production and factory personnel are at work, it can often be tempting for them to find the easiest, or in their opinion, the fastest way of doing certain things. This is all well and good, but shortcuts can lead to individuals and companies running into major problems, and even falling foul of regulations that may be in place….

ACI’s Craft Brewery Can Drying Systems
ACI’s latest drying solutions for the food and beverage industries, includes the development of a low cost systems specifically designed for both bottling and canning applications within the Craft and Micro-Brewery environments.

Air Control Industries’ LED lighting overhaul reduces costs by 70%
A recent overhaul of ACI’s factory lighting is paying dividends – lower electricity bills and a huge improvement in our factory working environment, thanks to the introduction of a new LED lighting system.

Industrial Fans for Biomass and Biofuel Generation
Discover the comprehensive range of industrial fans designed for renewable energy, particularly for Biomass fuel applications.

Turnkey Conveying Systems: Pet Food Containers Benefit
Within the last 12 months, ACI has supplied numerous turnkey conveyor systems with integrated air knife solutions to companies within the food, pharmaceutical and industrial sectors. For example, most recently we have supplied a leading pet-food supplier with a turn-key unit designed to effectively remove any excess water from plastic pet food containers before further processing.

ACI improve design of their Blower Enclosures
Enclosures protect blowers from water, dirt and other environmental factors during oper, and during wash down processes; while reducing noise level significantly. ACI has been developing a new range of its own – constructed from a series of acoustic panels retained within an aluminium frame, three standard enclosure sizes are initially being offered which will be capable of housing the most commonly used blowers.

High Speed Cable Dryer launched
ACI’s latest addition to its arsenal of cable and wire drying systems, is capable of effectively drying product well in excess of 500m/min. The Double HIgh Speed Cable Dryer has been developed with…

ACI exhibiting at Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo 2017
For the first time ACI will be exhibiting at this year’s 2017 Craft Brewers Conference & BrewExpo America, an event that is considered to be the largest brewing conference and trade show in the United States. This year’s event is being held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. on April 10-13, 2017.

Value Added: ACI offering complete fan solutions
As well as being a worldwide supplier of high quality industrial fans and air delivery system solutions, ACI has a number of customers who have asked us to help take the strain out of managing their own products. For example…

Destratification Fans – a perfect way of reducing your buildings energy costs
ACI’s JetFan destratification units enable building spaces not to be overheated or cooled unnecessarily, the results are to significantly reduce energy costs and increase comfort levels. JetFans continuously and gently mix the air balancing temperatures from ceiling-to-floor, wall to wall.

New legislation for marine ballast water fans
Air Control Industries have supplied centrifugal fans for hydro-chlorination for many years. The imminent legislation in ballast water management presents an ideal opportunity…

JetBlack in a Box Enclosed Cleaning System Revealed
A parts blow-off / cleaning unit which incorporates ACI’s blower-powered JetBlack Cleaning Station mounted within an acoustic glove box enclosure, is being delivered this week. Although ACI has been supplying its JetBlack for personnel cleaning applications for well over a decade, this is the first time an enclosure design of this type has been manufactured for delicate parts cleaning operations. Up until now ACI’s customer has been using…

What makes ACI’s EP10A so reliable?
Our Belt-Driven Compact Blower, or more specifically the models EP10A and EP10AH, continues to be a success story. Launched in 1999, and with a failure rate (within the 12 month warranty period) of less than 0.5%, ACI now has over 5000 units in the field…

How do you prolong the life of a cherry?
Scientists at Washington State University (WSU) are currently testing a three-prong approach to reducing splitting of fresh cherries during storage, which can be a significant problem for the industry. Packaged cherries absorb moisture during storage. As the cherries go through physiological changes and the pressure inside the fruit increases, the fruit’s skin becomes thinner and the fruit tends to crack…

Cutting-Edge De-Dusting Solutions: ACI’s Showcase at Hillhead 2016
ACI are exhibiting for the first time at this year’s Hillhead, the World’s largest exhibition of its kind for the quarrying, construction and recycling industries…

Successful can drying with new, 3-Stage System…
ACI is launching a new full can drying system using their existing and proven JetPlate and Can Drying Tunnel Technology.

NEW Tool: Industrial Fan Selector
We are pleased to announce the introduction of our new industrial fan selection tool available now on our website. Once you have identified your fan, you have the option to…

Conveyor Systems Now In Full Swing.
We have recently launched Complete Turnkey Solutions to clients who are looking for a fully integrated Conveyor / Air Knife Drying or Cooling Systems. In this instance, the customer was looking for an integrated conveyor system that could remove water from small polymer sheet…

Effective Pouch Drying – How We Did It
Liberty Process Ltd both supply & install quality food processing equipment mainly to the UK market. Their primary focus is to assist specialist food producers to increase batch sizes and improve efficiency, without detriment to, and on many occasions, enhance the quality of their product. They recently approached us with a requirement for drying food pouches and pre-packed food products before labelling and packaging…

In The Lab with Magnox – Drying Waste Metal
Last week some of the engineers from the Magnox team based at Hinkley Point A visited our testing facility in Axminster, Devon. Magnox are an operations contractor responsible for managing nuclear power sites through their lifecycles, overseeing all aspects of electricity generation, defueling, and decommissioning. They were looking to find a way to dry some non-uniform scrap metal and a spot of research had led them to ACI’s Spiral Drum Dryer – a system designed specifically for loose component drying….

NEW – Square Bladed Air Knives
Following the introduction of ‘ring’ air knives, Air Control Industries has the additional capability of supplying square and multi-bladed air knives to industry…

Ring Air Knife Technology Optimisation
The ring air knife development is a great demonstration of ACI’s customised/ bespoke design capabilities. Because this air knife is a circular design, it has the capability of drying continuously extruded product around the entire circumference of the product….

VIDEO: Vacuum vs. JetBlack
Occasionally we get asked why the JetBlack blows instead of sucks like a vacuum, so we have made this video to explain…

Axial Fans For Forced Ventilation
We have recently supplied a number of large Euroventilatori EVF 1120/B Axial units for use in forced air applications within construction sites in and around London…

Guide to Industrial Fan Selection
There are several intrinsically different fan types and each offers different performance characteristics. Many questions need to be answered in order to determine the correct fan shape selection. This post will give an overview of the different fan types available, and the questions you need to consider when selecting a fan.

ACI increases its fan testing capabilities…
Our test facility comprises three discharge side test ducts and an inlet side test chamber specially engineered for measurement of fan performance designed to BS EN ISO 5801:2008 previously BS 848-1:2007. By matching the fan size to the appropriate test duct performance can be measured from the smallest fans right up to…

ACI’s wall-mounted JetBlack takes cover…
We are now able to offer a protective stainless steel safety cover for our wall-mounted JetBlack personnel cleaning stations…

ebm-papst: Celebrating 15 Years in Partnership
We are pleased to announce that we are celebrating our 15th year as a distributor for ebm-papst fans and motors. Back in 1999, we were appointed as an official UK distributor…

Fresh From Success at PackExpo 2014!
Pack Expo has confirmed its significance as a packaging and labelling technology platform and industry meeting spot. It provided us with the possibility to present our Surface Drying, Cleaning and System Solutions together at one trade fair. We were especially pleased about…

How to clean & replace your EP10A filter
ACI EP10A belt driven compact blower is designed to be a minimum maintenance device. Nevertheless, following some basic maintenance operations will extend the life of the blower’s mechanical components and ensure continued efficiency and longevity…

New “Heights” for Can Drying Tunnel
ACI’s Can Drying Tunnel can now be offered with a precise height adjusting feature that is “stepless”. This new feature enables operators to set specific heights of the air delivery plenum to accommodate different can sizes…

Over 10,000 JetBlack Units Sold Worldwide!
Since entering the US Industrial market with the JetBlack Personnel Cleaning Station, we have now sold 10,000 units!

The Evolution of the Beverage Can – Napoleon, Churchkeys & Ring-Pulls…
Today, over 280 billion beverage cans are manufactured worldwide each year. This article takes a look back at how the beverage can has evolved over time and how we reached the end product that we are all so familiar with today…

ACI Drying Systems to be Exhibited at PackExpo 2014
We are excited to confirm that we will be attending PackExpo 2014 in Chicago this November and showcasing our range of drying systems for the packaging and process industry…

ACI Forge Blowers Firing Up the International Blacksmiths Festival
Greystone Forge, a leading UK forge manufacturer, are supplying all of the forges for the competitions taking place at the International Blacksmiths Festival later this month. Greystone use a selection of our centrifugal blowers in their forge designs…

Coming Soon: Side Channel Blowers
ACI have been appointed as sole distributor for italBLOWERS side channel compressors/exhausters. In recent weeks we have been busy getting ready for the impending arrival of our new range of side channel blowers from Italian manufacturer italBLOWERS….

Bottle & Can Drying Systems Combat Extreme Operating Temperatures
Supplying Bottle and Can Drying products to extremely hot countries around the World has always been a challenge due the effect heat can have on rotating machinery…

The Evolution of the Blacksmith Forge Fan – Lungs, Bellows & Blowers…
A brief look at history of one of the most important tools in the Blacksmith’s workshop – the forge blower. The function of the blower is to deliver a consistent air supply to the base of the fire to aid the combustion process. Historically blacksmiths would have used…

Drying Seam Welded Steel Tube – How We Did It
The challenge here was to find a way to dry water/coolant from seam welded steel tube prior to the printing process. Sounds easy, right? Think again… The steel tube currently has swarf on it as a result of the welding & trimming process… space is limited… we needed to find a way to dry the tube without pushing water and swarf back up the process line. Find out how we did it…

New personnel cleaning products to be showcased at Safety & Health Expo 2014
We have just booked our place at this year’s Safety and Health Expo which is to be held at the ExCel Exhibition centre between 17-19th June. We will be showcasing…

Space Re-Booked at the NSC Congress & Expo in 2015
Following the success of last years NSC Health & Safety Expo, we have comitted to the event again and rebooked our space for 2015. The NSC Congress & Expo is the worlds largest annual event for safety, health and environmental professionals…

Drinktec 2013 – A Huge Success
We are pleased to report that we had another successful year at Drinktec. This was our fourth time exhibiting at the show and it did not disappoint. Drinktec 2013, which was recently held at the Trade Fair Centre in Munich, was not only a great chance for us to…