Experimental Analysis of Air Jets for Sorting Applications Available to Purchase

Pulsed air jets are used in the industry to eject objects in sorting operation and understand the jet establishment and its spatial characteristics is important to optimize the application. This paper presents a first experimental analysis of jets issued from a high speed solenoid valve in terms of pressure, temperature, and velocity. Results will be first shown for steady state flows at different pressure conditions inducing subsonic or supersonic air jets and compared to the literature. For a subsonic jet, the results confirm the topography proposed in the literature. For the supersonic jets, a subsonic topography was identified after the supersonic zone. These supersonic jets have a constrained diameter which is appreciated in order to perform sorting with precision. Then, first unstationary experimental results will be presented and commented. This first measurement of the jet development is encouraging, since it was possible to identify the different delays linked to the propagation time from the valve outlet to the measurement point on opening and closing.