How to Choose a Dust and Fume Collector

When it comes to buying industrial ventilation equipment, it can be difficult to properly evaluate a dust collector’s capabilities. What buyers see most often are claims about construction, reliability or how long a company has been making them. Even though these claims have become standard fare, they do little to help a buyer differentiate one unit from another.

Choosing a complete package eliminates the need to source and spec individual components, or schedule and coordinate a more complicated installation. Furthermore, units that are completely assembled prior to shipping can be properly inspected and tested before they leave the manufacturer.

To compound the matter, manufacturing’s needs have changed over the past 20 years. Improving plant safety and productivity are pressing issues. Obviously, air quality is an important factor in reaching those goals.

Creating an effective ventilation system requires that a wide range of variables be considered, from the type of dust and fumes produced to the air flow dynamics that carry the particulates and pollutants throughout a plant. RoboVent (Sterling Heights, MI) has compiled five important features to examine if you want to hit pay dirt when choosing a dust and fume collection system.

ROUGH AND READY
A well-designed dust collector integrates every component needed to make it operational — cabinet, motor, blower, control panel, safety features, filters — into one cohesive design. The only things that should be required on-site are simple electrical and compressed air connections.

Too often buyers have to spec a cabinet and the mechanical components separately, and then are faced with hours or days of labor expenses to wire and connect the individual components. Engineering the proper fit and performance, compounded by this more complex installation makes it more expensive and challenging.

Today, choosing a complete package eliminates the need to source and spec individual components, or schedule and coordinate a more complicated installation. Furthermore, units that are completely assembled prior to shipping can be properly inspected and tested before they leave the manufacturer.

Of course, this should include the all-important leak test to ensure the integrity of a cabinet. A fully functional collector with an integrated cabinet, motor blower and particulate containment unit is one indication of a smart design that will be easier to install.

GET WIRED
For years, the best way to improve the performance of a dust and fume collector was to find a suitable control panel that could be mounted to the cabinet in order to automate certain functions. This often required contracting an electrician to wire and install this add-on equipment. Sounds a little like buying a motherboard and CPU to assemble your own computer.

Will it work? Not without a keyboard. But now some companies — the innovative ones — are designing ventilation equipment that incorporates an intuitive electronic control panel that automates the entire process without having to add or install an auxiliary control system. When you’re evaluating control systems look for those that start and stop instantaneously as a welder or machine operator works.

The best control systems monitor the collector’s performance continuously including the blower and the filter differential pressure; have built-in diagnostic features; and track maintenance history to help maintenance and engineering staff create a safer environment and maximize a collector’s performance. A collector with an integrated control panel that has a digital touch screen interface is clean, sleek and far more effective.