An Air Curtain is a continuous broad stream of air circulated across a doorway serving a conditioned space. Air curtains are normally mounted horizontally over the doorway. They can also be mounted vertically at the side of the door or under the floor directed upwards.
One of the most important benefits of Air Curtain is Energy saving
• Limits energy loss from conditioned space thereby reducing central plant capacity.
• Increases efficiency of cooling plant.
• Reduced carbon emissions.
• Reduces the running cost of a building.
• Recovers stratified air from high level.
Some of the major Applications of Air Curtain are
Air conditioned areas; typical locations are at the entrances to retail stores to condition the ingress of outdoor air into the conditioned space.
Industrial climate control; Normal locations for Air Curtains are exterior doors to factories and warehouses as well as interior doors between factory areas of different temperatures.
Cold stores; used to reduce the loss of refrigerated air, minimize temperature variations and misting of a cold store each time the entrance is opened.
Clean rooms; Air curtains can be installed on the ‘clean’ side of a space to control the transfer of dust and humidity through the doorway.
Other uses; Air curtains are also used for diverse applications such as in the mining industry, insect control in food processing plants, dairies, restaurants, supermarkets and across the openings of industrial ovens and refrigerated display cabinets. They may also be used to separate smoking from non-smoking areas, helping to maintain an agreeable internal environment.
Industrial Oven Opening
It is very important to save energy and fuel during the performance of an Oven. Using Air Curtains on opening to ovens has resulted in fuel savings of up to 40% of the total oven fuel consumption.
These Air Curtains are normally installed horizontally over the oven opening and angled slightly inward toward the oven to contain the hot air that is trying to come out at the top.
Many Air Curtains are successfully operating on ovens with temperatures up to 475° F. The Air Curtain drive motor should be located to the side of the oven opening to protect them from damage from hot air that would escape in the shutdown of the Air Curtain. Oven applications should be designed case by case to meet each set of unique conditions