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Age old confetti question


TomHoward

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Hi

 

I am looking at options for confetti dropping - we have a couple of homemade blowers, but frankly they don't work, so either I am looking at plans for a better homemade system using a fan or options for purchasing a system.

We've done a mixture of homemade at the moment, or hiring Le Maitre or Showtec systems, but we hire regularly enough that we ought to look at purchasing.

 

The two homemade units are with 1500W air handling fans, so they aren't short of power, it's the delivery system that's at fault. I understand we want to blow over a container to deliver and pick it up with the lower air pressure, but does anyone have any tried and tested designs to save me a week of experimenting?

 

Pictures of the fans attached - the system we tried, on the larger square tube we blocked up the bottom half of the front, so that it did blow across the top, but it still doesn't work that well and it clogs up.

If we are using a system where it picks up, does the hopper that holds it underneath need an air inlet, or should it be sealed? Are the ratios of hopper size / etc important?

 

5f69d7d6cc.jpg 5f69e204bf.jpg

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Has anyone got a plan or a picture of something they've build that works?

I could knock another up but I'm reluctant to spend a week experimenting if anyone knows if there is some kind of magic ratio of main tunnel to hopper gap etc..

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What's occurred to me as well, is that we have a couple of compressors in the workshop.. if you could find a 240V solenoid valve you could probably make an impressive system based on compressed air in a compressor run up before the show.

 

I think the venturi delivery is the answer, but are there any secrets to it or can I just add a box on the bottom of the tube for delivery?

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What's occurred to me as well, is that we have a couple of compressors in the workshop.. if you could find a 240V solenoid valve you could probably make an impressive system based on compressed air in a compressor run up before the show.

 

Compressed air is usually used for a one shot "cannon" type effect. A blower is used for a continuous effect. I have had commercial units of both variety. I am not sure I would want to be making a DIY compressed air version, there is a risk of it exploding with the pressure.

 

The blower unit we had used a handheld 6" hose to pick up the confetti from a drum, this fed into the top of the blower airstream, suction generated by venturi effect as you have suggested. It required some skill to avoid clogging the tube though.

 

If you google images for "confetti blower" and "compressed air confetti" some of the pictures give a good clue as to how the commercial units are built.

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The venturi systems have a tube up to six feet long and there is a narrowing in the middle. so the fan pushes air along the tube and it gets faster where it goes through the restriction so the pressure is reduces and the fetti is sucked in via a side tube in the narrow venturi and it goes with the air stream.

 

The gas powered jets usually feed bottle pressure CO2 into an annular orifice round the bottom inside edge of the launch tube. Again a 6" tube will suck up a kilo of fetti in a second or two. A brewery CO2 cylinder dumping gas will last a minute, venting liquid (CO2 is usually liquid in the cylinder) through the proper delivery system it may well last less time.

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The actual system we need is much smaller than this. The room is about 80ft x 40ft and it's either over the audience or full stage.

 

If it's blower based it ideally needs to be without op, so the fan can just be attached to a dimmer channel or switch pack and just dump about 500g - 1kg confetti.

 

I might just try build something without doing any maths and see what happens.

 

Out of interest (although I'm going to leave it alone for now) it seems you can buy the venturi tubes separately for other applications and you could just put it together with a suitably rated solenoid valve and a small compressor with off the shelf parts I reckon.

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Search google images for venturi. there are so many designs and drawings there.

 

If you attempt to pull confetti up it usually comes up steadily. BUT if you try to pull it down and out it usually blocks up and fails to flow.

 

https://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=I&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjKqMm6v4_OAhWMhRoKHTvzCwsQjRwIBw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lenntech.com%2Fventuri.htm&psig=AFQjCNGkvRiYDhWRAe1jAO0KYpTNFlDxhw&ust=1469566092612963

 

 

Try 4" drain pipe with a 3" narrow section for the venturi and perhaps an angled interpenetration in 2" pipe to pick up the fetti.

 

http://www.lenntech.com/

 

http://www.paramountwaste.co.uk/venturisystems.html

 

go look in the Marley drain fitting catalogue for all sorts of useful plastic bits

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Here's one I built for a popcorn party. Hope this gives an idea of dimensions, I built the channel with 6mm ply and then used corriboard to make curved sections and form venturi. I could measure if required but it was probably a few pieces of lath to space out the narrow section. Blower is bouncy castle fan around 1000 - 1500watts. . I think I put inlet at top in case the suction was insufficient and then I would have used gravity feed. But it worked very well and sucked up popcorn into the air stream.

 

I had tried earlier using 110mm plastic drain sections, Ys and Tees and using modelling clay to make the venturi but the air pressure always seemed to blow back instead of sucking. This system used a more gradual narrowing and expansion.

 

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/wiki/File:Popcorn_Blower_20140328_140040.jpeg

 

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/wiki/File:Popcorn_Blower_20140328_140104.jpeg

 

http://www.blue-room.org.uk/wiki/File:Popcorn_Blower_20140328_140124.jpeg

 

 

OK so I need help to insert the pictures. I uploaded three jpegs to Blueroom File Upload page but pasting the links to this post doesnt seem to work

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OK so I need help to insert the pictures. I uploaded three jpegs to Blueroom File Upload page but pasting the links to this post doesnt seem to work

 

You need to host your images somewhere public on the web, such as pinterest or onedrive or photobucket or wherever, then paste the links to those locations in using the "chain link" tool on the tool bar above.

 

 

 

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OK so I need help to insert the pictures. I uploaded three jpegs to Blueroom File Upload page but pasting the links to this post doesnt seem to work

 

You need to host your images somewhere public on the web, such as pinterest or onedrive or photobucket or wherever, then paste the links to those locations in using the "chain link" tool on the tool bar above.

 

 

 

 

 

Alternatively, in the meantime should anyone like to see said images you can right-click and 'Open Image in New Tab' the broken images (or equivalent in your chosen browser). That'll take you to where they're uploaded on the Blue Room wiki: example.

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OK here are the pictures now I hope

 

 

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah171/blitzproms/Popcorn%20Blower%2020140328_140040_zpswyp5geqv.jpeg

 

 

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah171/blitzproms/Popcorn%20Blower%2020140328_140104_zpswsqvb0t3.jpeg

 

 

 

http://i1380.photobucket.com/albums/ah171/blitzproms/Popcorn%20Blower%2020140328_140124_zpsxbjvhc8a.jpeg

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