Types of Industrial Dust Collectors

Industrial dust collectors clean air from manufacturing equipment to protect employee health and safety, improve productivity, and maintain compliance with local and federal regulations. They can be stationary or portable units.

All components must be properly matched to maximize collection efficiency. The design of the duct system, fan performance and placement, and filter media are key factors.

Baghouse Filters

Baghouses use fabric bags filled with a filter material to remove dust particles from the air in manufacturing processes. A fan pulls dirty air into the baghouse housing, the filter media traps the particulate and clean air is pushed out of the house at the top. Unlike electrostatic precipitators, functioning baghouses have very high collection efficiency, even at high flow rates. This efficiency is due to the interception and interaction INDUSTRIAL DUST COLLECTOR of particles with fibers on the bag surface, brownian movement in the fluid streamlines, and the application of electrostatic forces between the dust and fibers.

The baghouse is divided into a dusty or lower side and a clean or upper topside by a plate with holes in it called a cell sheet. The dust-laden air or gas enters the dusty side and flows downward through the filters, a baffle (if present) and the tubesheet to the clean side. The dust cake on the filter surface builds up until it restricts the flow of air, which triggers a sensor or a mechanical shake-cleaning system to agitate the filters and dislodge the dust cake. The loosened dust falls into a waste hopper and is removed from the system.

Sly works with square/rectangular and cylindrical baghouses in both high and low dust loading applications. For higher loads, the advantages of a baghouse include superior cleanability and ease of maintenance.

Cartridge Filters

Cartridge-type dust collectors use pleated filters to collect fine particulate and fumes from industrial processes like welding, grinding, and bulk powder. They’re much smaller than baghouse filters and operate at lower capture velocities to collect particles down to 0.3 microns. Small cartridge-style systems may have as few as two or four filters, while larger industrial systems could utilize dozens of filters within one system.

These cylinder-shaped filters have a base filter media made from a polyester-cellulose blend or nonwoven cellulose material. They can also have a specialized coating to provide performance benefits, such as static dissipation, water and oil resistance, and flame retardance. Premium filter media can extend filter life to up to a year, which reduces maintenance downtime and disposal costs.

Dirty air enters the system through an inlet, and clean air exits out a clean air outlet. Most cartridge-style systems have internal pulse cleaning that keeps the filters working efficiently. Pulses of compressed air shoot through the center of the filter, blowing dust and other material off the filters, where it falls down into a collection hopper for easy disposal.

The frequency of cleaning depends on the system’s operating conditions, but the pulsing process typically occurs every few seconds. Regular maintenance and filter change-outs prevent the filters from overworking or losing their efficiency, which can reduce overall energy consumption by the system.

Downdraft Tables

Downdraft tables are source-capture workbenches that pull fumes, dust and smoke down through an air filtration system, separating them from the breathing zone of operators. They’re used in a variety of industrial processes, including welding, sanding, grinding, deburring, polishing and machining. They’re also commonly used in woodworking to help reduce respiratory issues and improve the quality of finished products.

Dry downdraft tables are self-contained, portable filtration systems that remove particulates and return clean, filtered air. They’re ideally suited for applications that produce dry particulates and don’t require the use of water, such as weld fume extraction, powder containment and light grinding. In INDUSTRIAL DUST COLLECTOR addition to metalworking, they can be used for woodworking, automotive finishing, dental appliance/denture sanding, QC/QA testing and inspection, jewelry polishing and soldering and powder processing.

Grizzly downdraft tables are designed to be easy to assemble and maintain, with convenient filter bays, 120V outlet receptacles for accessory tools, power cord hangers and rubber-grommet table surfaces. They’re ideal for sanding operations in woodworking, where they can help reduce respiratory issues and increase productivity by preventing sawdust from interfering with equipment. The easy-to-read manual includes comprehensive instructions on how to keep your downdraft table in peak condition. All Grizzly customer service and technical support teams are located in the U.S. and can help you choose the right sanding downdraft table for your application.

Ventilation

Industrial ventilation systems use fans and louvers to control air movement, removing heat, humidity and other contaminants from work areas. But when your company uses combustible materials that produce harmful dusts, fumes and particulates in its production processes, it’s important to also have a system that can capture these toxins before they are exhausted or recirculated. That’s where industrial dust collectors come in.

An industrial dust collection system uses a series of filters to collect contaminated air, capturing the particles and contaminant before they can escape into other spaces in your facility or be expelled to the atmosphere. It works by constantly drawing in air through a baffled inlet and filtering it to remove the dust, before being either redirected back into the plant or vented outside. It comes in a variety of designs and models, including baghouse systems that have different sizes and efficiency levels and pulse jet systems that use rapid blasts of air to clean the filter.

The type of collector you need depends on the volume of contaminant and dust to be collected, as well as whether it is combustible and requires special handling. Your ventilation specialist will help you determine what model and size of dust collector best suits your needs. The right system can prevent combustible dusts from building up in your facility and creating health issues, productivity drops and even fires and explosions.