Air Blower and Figure Brochure

1 AIR BLOWER AND FIGURE-8 DEVICE The following components will be required to use the air blower. Starting in the upper left hand corner of Figure 1 and working clockwise, they are as follows: a. cable grip with connector and carrier attached (carrier is also called a missile) b. air blower with venturis (this size is painted blue) and air seals (white) c. duct adapter (also called a carrot) d. allen wrench for cable guide extension e. swivel connector used to attach missile to cable grip f. small cable guide extension g. air plug (also called an air seal, hockey puck, or birdie) h. sponge. Figure 1: Air Blower Components.2 SETTING UP THE EQUIPMENT 1. Check the outside diameter of the cable and be sure you have the correct cable pack with the venturi, seals, and cable grip. 2. Check the duct size and be sure you have the correct duct adapter. 3. Be sure the reel is loaded on the trailer so that the cable is coming off the top of the reel. See Figure 2. Figure 2: Reel is loaded with the cable feeding off the top of the reel. 3 4. Apply grease to the grease zerks on the bushings as well as lubricating the outside of the bushings. This drastically improves the ability of the reel to spin with little resistance. See Figures 3 and 4. Figure 3: Grease zerks on bushing. Figure 4: Grease the outside of the bushing. 4 5. Attach the figure-8 device to the trailer as shown in Figures 5, 6, 7 and 8. Figure 5: Remove figure-8 pole from storage tray at the front of the trailer. Figure 6: Place the pole into the tube on the receiver hitch. 5 Figure 7: Remove the figure-8 device from the mount on the passenger side of the trailer. Figure 8: Place the figure-8 device on the figure-8 pole. Engage the spring latch to lock the device in place. 6 6. Attach the blower components as shown in Figures 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13. Figure 9: Attach the blower mount to the figure-8 device. Figure 10: Attach the air valve assembly to valve tray on trailer. 7 Figure 11: Connect the air valve assembly to the blower with the air hose. Figure 12: Connect the supply hose from air compressor to the inlet of air valve assembly. 8 Figure 13: Connect a piece of duct to the buried duct, long enough to reach the blower, using a quality connector. Caution -- high pressure could cause duct to come apart if not connected properly, potentially causing injury. 7. Prepare to proof the duct as shown in Figures 14 through 20. Figure 14: Pour lubricant into the duct (approximately 1 qt/2000 ft of duct). 9 Figure 15: Cut a sponge large enough to fit snuggly into the duct. Place sponge in duct. Figure 16: Screw the duct adapter into the duct. 10 Figure 17: Place the duct adapter into the front of the blower. Figure 18: Install the air plug (round plastic disk resembling a hockey puck) into the rear of the blower. 11 Figure 19: Close the blower and tighten the clamp. The air blower closes much easier if the seams of the duct adapter are aligned with the seams of the air blower. Figure 20: Align the blower with the duct as much as possible. Insert the pin through the hole in the air blower mounting tube that puts the mount at the proper height. To adjust the angle, loosen the wingnut on the side of the air blower, tilt as desired, and tighten the wingnut again. 12 8. Proof the duct. a. Have a person at the other end of the duct standing by with a radio or phone to let you know when the sponge comes out. Caution -- do not stand directly at the end of the duct as the sponge could cause injury upon exiting the duct under pressure. b. Slowly open the air valve until you reach 50 psi. Shooting the sponge through the duct will evacuate the water, dirt, rodents, etc. If the sponge requires more than 2 minutes/mile, we recommend repeating the process. Warning Never open the air blower while pressurized. 9. Prepare cable for blowing. a. After the air blower is depressurized, open the air blower and remove the air plug used for the proofing step and place it in tool box. b. Unscrew the duct adapter from the duct. c. Attach the appropriate sized cable grip to the cable. Tape the grip to the cable to ensure that it remains connected to the cable. See Figure 21. d. Attach the carrier to the cable grip with a breakaway swivel connector or a snap connector. See Figure 21. e. Screw the duct adaptor back into the duct as tight as you can by hand. 13 Figure 21: Feed cable into duct. f. Fit the appropriate size cable seals to the cable. When the proper size of air seal is selected, there is no gap between the cable and the air seal when the air seal is pinched. Put two seals onto the cable with the smooth side facing the reel and the flanged side facing the duct. The cleaner the cable is, the longer the seals will last. See the cable seals in Figure 22. g. Fit the appropriate size venturi to the cable seals and put it into the air blower with the "nose" facing the duct. Note that the half with the groove goes into the bottom and gets screwed into place while the top half has the protrusion and sets into the groove. Use the 2.5mm hex wrench. See the green venturi pictured in Figure 22. h. Feed the cable into the duct and push it in as far as you can by hand (approximately 15 to 20 feet) as shown in Figure 22. i. If the cable is 3/4" or smaller, use the cable guide extension on the rear of the blower. This prevents the cable from kinking between the tires and the blower. See the cable guide extension in Figure 22. 14 Figure 22: Air blower set up with cable extension, cable seals, and venturi. 15 j. Pour additional lubricant into the duct. k. Place the two halves of the duct adapter around the cable and screw the duct adapter back into the duct. l. Place the duct adapter back into the blower. m. Place the cable and seals into the venturi half in the blower. Then place the other half of the venturi into the blower. Place the duct adapter into the blower with the seams aligned with the seams of the blower. Close the blower and tighten the clamp. n. The cable should be coming through the figure-8 device in between the tires. Close and lock the figure-8 device. Tighten the wingnut on the figure-8 tension arm so that there is firm pressure on the cable. Adjust the height and angle of the air blower to line up with the duct as best as possible. 16 o. Move the orbital motor from the reel-turner axle to the figure-8 device and engage the spring latch to in place. 17 p. On the reel-turner axle, align the tires with the edges of the reel. Tighten the set screws. q. Set the brake on the reel-turner axle so that you cannot turn the wheels by hand. Use the reel turner valve to bring the tires up to about 4" away from the reel. To reduce back lash, use the brake if you need to stop the reel during the blowing process. 18 9. Unlock the spring latches on both ends of the control panel. Swing the control panel out and lock the spring latch at the back of the control panel to secure the panel in the working position. 10. Take note of the footage maker on the cable. This may be useful in case the cable hits a restriction in the duct or for getting the appropriate amount of cable at the end once it comes through. 19 11. Start applying air to the duct . Allow the pressure to reach 10 psi. Then slowly start feeding the cable through the figure-8 device by operating the rotation lever on the control panel. Increase the speed slowly so that the tires do not spin on the cable. Spinning tires can damage the jacket of the cable. The correct speed is when the upper figure-8 tire is spinning at the same speed as the lower figure-8 tire. If the bottom tire is spinning faster than the top tire, then you need to slow down the figure-8 device. For 1/2" cable and below, the air pressure should be 60 to 75 psi. Increase the air pressure for larger cables. The cable can be blown into the duct at 300 to 400 ft/min. 12. Continue to carefully monitor the tire speed in relation to the cable speed and keep them as closely synchronized as possible. Do not stray away from the controls. The cable can stop at an obstruction or slow down for a loop or bend in the duct. If this happens, quickly stop or slow the figure-8 device to match the speed of the cable. It is normal to be down to a "crawl" if there is a bend, loop, or incline near the end of the duct. Don't panic. Have someone manually turn the reel by hand and keep minimal speed on the tires to provide just enough push to keep the cable moving without spinning out. Warning In the event the cable stops suddenly, quickly disengage the figure-8 device and apply the reel-turner valve to bring the tires against the reel to stop it. 13. Once the cable comes out of the other end of the duct, you can continue to apply air to the duct and pull more cable through by hand at the other end of the duct. Or the preferred method is to use two trailers--one at each end of the duct. Continue to blow air into the duct with the figure-8 device and air blower with the first trailer. Then put the second trailer at the other end of the duct so that you can pull the cable out of the duct and roll it onto an empty reel. After you have a sufficient amount of cable pulled through the duct and rolled onto the empty reel, you will have to figure-8 this cable off of the reel to get to the end of the cable. You can now blow this cable (right off the figure-8 pile) into the next section of duct. 20 14. This completes the blowing process, you can now disassemble the blower and place the components back in the tool box. 21 Picture of what is included with a typical cable pack.