The impact of dust and mist in the workplace is significant. Dust and mist contaminants can be detrimental to the health of your employees, harmful to the environment, and damaging to your facility and equipment. The implementation of an effective industrial dust and mist collection solution is critical to the well-being of your workers, as well as the productivity and profitability of your business.
Capture – Contain – Convey – Collect
The basics of industrial dust management can be summarized in the four C’s of dust collection: capture, contain, convey, and collect.
Capture
The primary objective in dust and mist collection applications is to capture 100 percent of the pollutant while using a minimal amount of ambient air to draw in the pollutant. Factors such as facility layout, room pressure, cross drafts, process set-up, and worker access can all complicate the capture of dust and mist. The size of the dust collector, duct diameter, and system horse-power can all vary depending on the amount of air that must be drawn to capture the pollutants.
Hoods provide an effective means for capturing contaminated air from free standing dust sources as well as areas that cannot be contained within an enclosure.
Contain
Containing dust and mist sources can be accomplished with enclosures. These are structures designed for specific spaces and processes to keep polluted dust and mist within a controlled area. The use of enclosures is not always possible in every application, but when enclosures can be used they are highly effective and also facilitate easier clean up and management of spillage.
In an enclosure system, air is drawn into the enclosure space by a dust collection system. Air velocity is used to contain dust contaminants. This can be done continuously or intermittently with the opening of the access doors.
Convey
In the dust control process, captured and collected dust must be conveyed to a specific point for collection. This happens within the duct work system. Dust and mist laden air travels through the duct system to the collection area and then the air is discharged from the building or sometimes recirculated after going through an after filter. The velocities used to convey the dust vary depending upon the process and pollutants involved.
Within the ductwork, issues can arise wherever the direction of the airflow changes. This may happen at joints or elbows, where the airflow resists the change of direction, resulting in dust build up within the duct. The smoother the interior of the duct surface, the more it will resist the formation of dust accumulation. Duct cleaning is necessary to keep the conveying velocity within the desired range.
Collect
Once the dust laden air stream has reached the collection point in the dust collector, the particulate must be separated from the air stream. The dust can be disposed of or recovered and recycled. Pulse cleaning is used to continuously remove particulate and recondition the cartridge filter.
Proper filter media selection and compressed air pulse system design will assure the effective reconditioning of the filters. Filter life and maintenance needed are determined by the surface loading and release characteristics of the filter media.
To learn more about managing industrial dusts in your facility, download our FREE guide, Controlling Dust and Mist in the Industrial Environment.