Airborne impurities may affect workers from a distance
Clean air in the work environment is not only a question of the employee health, safety and comfort. Today clean air in the workshop is also an important factor for all companies to keep and develop their position in the market as a safe, efficient and highly productive organization.
Good industrial ventilation is becoming increasingly important as it can directly impact the company’s energy efficiency and the environment. In the production and manufacturing industries, the cost of heating and air conditioning can be more than a third of the company’s energy costs!
Welding should always take place in a well ventilated area to actively remove the toxic fumes and gases. General ventilation systems such as opening doors, roof fans, ceiling fans, heat exchangers ceiling hung circulators or extraction hoods over workbenches are often completely inadequate: the welder or operator cannot avoid inhaling the fumes as these always contaminate the general airflow. The welding fume travels through their breathing zone to the “extraction” point, so the workers are now considered part of the filtration system. To put it into perspective the diameter of welding fume particles can be from below 0.01 to over 0.1 μm at source. When the particles reach the welder’s breathing zone agglomeration has occurred (where by the particles form a small mass, creating fume particles in the size of 1- 2 μm). The size of the particles is important because it controls the depth to which they penetrate the respiratory system. Particles larger than 5 μm are deposited in the upper respiratory tract. Particles in the range of 0.1 – 5 μm, which includes welding fumes, penetrate and deposit the inner parts of the lungs (the alveoli).
Nor are systems like these necessarily cost effective: with general ventilation, large volume of heated / cooled air needs to be exhausted and this requires a great deal of power to operate. The additional cost of running the system is added to the cost of re-heating or reconditioning the air in the plant.
A number of studies show that a well designed and efficient capture at source (CAS) system has the potential to drastically lower a plant’s total energy costs. It shows that a combination of balanced removal of fumes and ventilation with energy recycling is often so cost efficient that the investment in the new technique is paid off faster than other production solution investments in the companies.
Wherever it is a viable solution, it has been said that capture at source is the most effective and efficient method of capturing and removing welding fumes. Using this method, the risk to the welder or operator being subjected to hazardous fumes is minimized.
For instance, a capture at source system focuses the suction on the specific area where the fume is produced, capturing the fume before it can dissipate into the workshop. The localized capture of fumes requires much smaller airflow volume than would a general ventilation system. In a larger workshop with multiple work stations, the use of automatic dampers and speed control on the extraction fan allows for even greater savings in power consumption and re-heating cost.
There’s a handful of suppliers that have the knowledge, experience and the capacity to design, deliver and install an optimal, efficient and cost effective solution for a clean and safe work environment.
Here are some factors a pollution control expert will take into consideration when determining the right solution:
