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Manufacturing Technology Insights | Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Industrial air filtration systems are necessary to capture pollutants to ensure product integrity and safety in manufacturing environments. They also protect process equipment and maximise uptime and performance.
FREMONT, CA: From pharmaceutical to food processing and power generation industries, specialised equipment like vacuum pumps, blowers, compressors, gen-sets, etc., must be protected to ensure maximum uptime and high-quality products. The level of air pollution in industrial buildings is higher, especially for manufacturing plants or chemical processing facilities. Moreover, carry-over from the manufacturing process, like dust particles, oil mist aerosols, and condensed vapours, can be present inside and outside the equipment, leading to challenges in process quality, equipment maintenance, and worksite safety.
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With these hazardous scenarios, industries require air filtration and separation systems to protect equipment and the working environment. Industrial filtration removes the contaminating particles from the air and other gases. Therefore, utilising filtration provides significant benefits for various industrial applications.
Protecting Equipment from Ingesting Harmful Contaminants
Contaminants present during the manufacturing process are extremely damaging to equipment. Industrial filtration captures and removes these contaminants and contains them for proper elimination and disposal. For example, vacuum pumps are commonly used in pharmaceutical manufacturing to remove moisture from a product and create a powdered substance. This process releases moisture or powder particles into the air stream flowing to the vacuum pump, which then clogs the equipment and damages rotating components. However, using a liquid separator and a particulate filter protects the vacuum pump from liquids and particulates.
During more intense applications, the manufacturing process can emit dangerous aerosols and vapours, resulting in vacuum pump failure or even a combustion event, depending on the chemical compound. The industrial air filtration system removes these harmful byproducts to keep the equipment up and running. A vapour condensing trap ensures hazardous vapours are condensed and effectively removed.
Removing Contaminants to Purify Air and Gas Streams
Industrial filtration is significant in industrial manufacturing applications such as pneumatic conveying, additive manufacturing, and landfill gas collection. It helps to maintain the air and gas contaminants free during operations, ensuring the purity of the process outputs. Air and gas filtration should be proper and measurable to guarantee destructive or undesirable particle removal. The outcomes for many industrial manufacturing processes must be clean and pure, as any small variation in the contaminant level creates unusable products.
When producing plastic parts, the appearance of dust particles in the final product is a common issue. Pneumatic conveying moves the raw plastic pellets or powders from a storage bin to a piece of production equipment, such as an injection moulding machine, by using a blower with pressurised air. The blower pulls ambient air in from the surrounding environment and compresses it to push the raw plastic materials via transfer tubes. Often, airborne dust particles in the ambient air often result in the rejection of entire batches. However, using an inlet air filter or a combination inlet air filter and silencer protects the pressure blower.
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