Baghouses and cartridge collectors often use compressed air / plant air to clean the filters.  By pushing compressed air through the filter, in theory, dust should be removed from the filters.  However,  air compressors are high maintenance pieces of equipment that have high operating costs.  Also, the filters are never completely dust free after an air blast, meaning that, over time they become blinded. This high time-and-monetary cost can be lowered by breaking away from using compressed air and instead using a cyclone pre-filter in your dust collection system.

 By putting a cyclone pre-filter ahead of your filters you can:

• Decrease the loading on filters, reducing their cleaning from twice a minute to possibly once every 2-3 minutes.
• Eliminate the wear and tear on your filters and therefore the risk of your filter developing a hole and compromising the whole filter.

If you are looking to save money on your compressed air usage, a pulse-on-demand controller with a cyclone pre-filter is a good option to explore.

Contact Aerodyne at 440-543-7400 or dc@dustcollectorhq.com to help you problem-solve your dust collection problems.

Hoods are probably most important component in a dust collection system because they will:

1. direct the dust away from the employees and equipment, even if the dust collector is not operating correctly
2. allow dust to be captured at the lowest airflow possible, saving you money

If a hood is improperly designed it will not capture the dust from an application, no matter how well your dust collector or fan is designed.

A few things to remember on hood design:

• Place the hood as close to the dust generating area / equipment as feasibly possible to lower the airflow required
• Use the Industrial Ventilation Handbook to help you design / evaluate your hood
  1. Location
  2. Geometry
  3. Pickup velocity
• If you use of local dampers for greater flexibility in the future remember they could allow un-intentional changes

Click here to get an easy how-to-guide for selecting the right dust collector for your specific application.

If you have questions about your hood design or your dust collection systems our consultants are here to help.

Contact Aerodyne at 440-543-7400 or dc@dustcollectorhq.com to help you problem solve your dust collection problems.

Variable Frequency Drives allows for you to control the airflow through your system by changing the fan speed without breaking the bank.  Without VFDs, one has to manually open or close dampers, creating high manual labor cost. Furthermore, if there are multiple dampers on the system, then tampering with the opening and closing of any one damper, can cause the airflow balance to be off and can increase the static pressure of the system.  

The VFD allows you to control the airflow of the fan, rather than allowing a constant high air output, as would be the case when dampers are being used. VFDs give the system the airflow that is required while lowering electrical costs.  VFDs can further lower costs by replacing motor starter control panels. All in all, using a VFD is the smart way to control your airflow.

 If you are having operational issues on your dust collection system contact Aerodyne at 440-543-7400 or dc@dustcollectorhq.com to help you problem solve your dust collection problems.

Dampers are used in dust collection systems to control the airflow to specific branches of the ductwork.  This is done by opening or closing the damper.  Air, like water, travels the path of least resistance.  By using a damper, you are changing the resistance to the air.  Every dust collection system should have a manual damper near each hood/pickup point to balance the system.  This makes sure that the system is properly operating.  An unbalanced system could cause too much air to be pulled from one area (causing loss of product) while in another area not enough airflow is available to capture dust.  Other times, a soft connect (space between flanges) is used to control airflow at a pickup point.  However, this isn’t very efficient.  This keeps the airflow in that area constant, but it’s picking up air from an area where it isn’t required.  A damper would work much better, since you are only moving the air in the area you need.  Soft connects are only advantageous when you are looking to cool down an airflow using outside air.  Dampers can also be used to shut off portions of the system that are not being used, thereby allowing a smaller system.

So when you are looking at your dust collector system, don’t forget dampers.  They allow you to optimize your system.

If you are having operational issues on your dust collection system, contact Aerodyne at 440-543-7400 or dc@dustcollectorhq.com.

Dust collection systems consist of four major items.  All of them are important and can cause a dust collection system to underperform.  The major items are the exhaust fan, dust collector, ductwork, and hoods/pickup points.   While the exhaust fan provides the motive power to collect the dusty air, its performance is affected by each of the components.  This means that if one of the other components isn’t operating as designed, the whole system will be affected.  Ductwork is usually by far the largest component and often the most overlooked.  Depending on the size of your system, the ductwork can span hundreds of feet and have dozens of side streams.  The ductwork is like railroad tracks, it moves the dusty air from one place to another.

Often times, additional lines will be added to a dust collector system after installation.  Without proper evaluation of the system, this could negatively affect the performance of the whole system.  This means that just because the dust collector system was operating correctly before, it might not after an additional pickup point or hood is added.  What happens is that when you add additional pickup points, you change the balancing of the system.  This could change the airflow to each and every hood and pickup point in the system, so while the system was originally adequately venting an area, it might not after a change.

A few things can be done to address this, such as changing fan speed, adding dampers, modifying ductwork, etc.  The main thing you need to keep in mind is that if you slow the airflow through ductwork too much, you begin to build up dust within the line.  This will further restrict your airflow and become a fire / explosion hazard.

So when you are looking at changing your dust collector system, review the system parameters or hire someone to review so that you do not cause additional issues.

Learn about the questions you should be asking to make sure you're buying the right dust collector for your application. Get your whitepaper now.

If you are having operational issues on your dust collection system, contact Aerodyne at 440-543-7400 or dc@dustcollectorhq.com.

If you are working with a high value material or product, then you should investigate using a cyclone ahead of your baghouse or cartridge collector.  The cyclone will allow you to recover the dust without contamination from the filters.  The filters in a baghouse or cartridge collector use a dust layer built up on the filters to collect the dust from the airstream.  During the process of filter cleaning, dust from this layer is dislodged and falls into the hopper.  Any particulate from prior batches can cause contamination of the dust.

A cyclone, on the other hand, collects the dust and deposits it in the hopper continuously.  There is very little dust buildup inside of a cyclone.  This minimizes the chances of contamination from prior batches.  Since there aren’t any filters, a cyclone can be washed or wiped out to remove the prior batch particles.

One area where this could be very helpful is pigment collection.  A baghouse or cartridge collector filter will collect the pigment and contaminate the color.  This requires the filters to be changed every time a new color is produced.  So the system will require a filter set for every different color produced.  Conversely, the cyclone can be washed out or wiped down between colors.  This saves in both maintenance time and spare parts costs.