When purchasing a welding fume extraction system, companies often debate on whether they need to incur the cost for a dust collector as well.
If the aim of installing a fume extraction system inside the workshop is to rid the air of dangerous fumes and dust, then why should a dust collector also be installed to collect the dust?
The simple answer is that once the fumes and dust particles are extracted from the workshop floor, that does not mean that they are now not dangerous. In fact, they are still as dangerous as before, except now they are escaping out of the workshop into the air outside. This dust now can not only affect the employees on the workshop floor, but also the employees and adjacent factories and their employees outside.
Although it would be cost effective to only install an extraction arm and a fan only, this will harm even more employees than before. Welding fumes are dangerous when inhaled and are also known to be carcinogenic having been classified as a cause of lung cancer by the World Health Organisation. When welding occurs, the fumes emitted can be found in two different sizes with the smaller particles being easier to inhale and cause more damage to the lungs.
With the welding fumes, gases are also emitted into the air such as argon, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen chloride, phosgene, hydrogen, formalin and cyanise which can all cause extreme damage to the lungs when inhaled. Other health issues caused by the inhalation of welding fumes, depending on the longevity of exposure by employees, includes irritation of the eye, nose and throat, as well as dizziness and nausea, metal fume fever, stomach ulcers, kidney damage, nervous system damage and even Parkinson’s disease.
To ensure that the eradication of the welding fumes is done correctly, and that there is hardly any chance of inhalation of the fumes by any employee of the company, a dust collector needs to be installed together with the welding fumes extraction system.
Nederman, supplied by Envirox, has a range of dust collectors suitable for the collection of welding fumes. Envirox supplies these dust collectors as well as fume extraction systems and is available to provide consumers with a solution to their welding fume extraction needs.
Nederman Dust Collector Solutions for welding fumes
The Nederman MCP SmartFilter is a multi-purpose dust filtration system that has a modular design allowing it to work as a standalone or as a multi-filter unit, in either outdoor or indoor applications. It is designed to optimise a longer filter cartridge lifespan, and this in turn adds to its lower cost of ownership. The MCP is suitable for welding fumes, metal cutting and general dust.
The Nederman MJC mini cartridge dust collector is suited for light to medium volumes of any type of dust. It has a range of compact reverse jet tubular cartridge filters which were developed for continuous operation in industrial filtration and dust collection. It is Atex certified for St1, St2 and St3 dusts, and is suited to industries involved in materials handling, shot, sand and bead blasting, and welding and cutting processes. It can also be used in chemical, plastics and pharmaceutical powder industries.
The Nederman LCP cartridge dust collector is designed for continuous operation in process and general dust extraction applications with free-flowing dust. It is Atex certified for St1, St2 and St3 dusts, and can be used with different cartridge media types for different applications. The well-sized integral pre-separation chambers can increase the dust load capacity, while reducing the load on filter cartridges.
