As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wood chipping and grinding equipment, this company constantly faces high demand. A switch to a vertical cartridge dust collector helped them to solve a serious problem.
Problem:
With logging and sawmill industries relying on them, the company employs over 350 welders working ten-hour days, five days a week. The company had purchased a dust collector with horizontal cartridges to handle their welding and plasma cutting fumes.
Unfortunately, the horizontal filter design created serious problems. The arrangement of the filters trapped sparks and embers, causing multiple fires inside the dust collector. Fires like this are dangerous and expensive, requiring replacement of damaged filters.
In addition, OSHA regulations continued to limit what types of dust could be blown outside. So the company needed a better dust and fume collector. The new system would have to handle plasma fumes, meet OSHA standards, and be easier to use than the current one.
Solution: A Vertical Cartridge Dust Collector Design
Dave, the maintenance manager, began researching dust collector manufacturers. He had three goals in mind: easier filter change-outs, decreasing the risk of fires and reducing company downtime. He found out about Imperial Systems through the company’s cutting table manufacturer.
The company decided to make the replace the collector with horizontal filters with a vertical cartridge dust collector. Their new system, a CMAXX CM010, met Dave’s requirements. It also promised to handle the company’s need for efficient filtration of their welding and plasma cutting fumes.
“When changing the filters on our old dust collector, there were twelve different holes I had to unbolt just to change one filter,” Dave said after working with the CMAXX. He added, “The simplicity of maintenance was huge and the CMAXX has delivered.”
In addition, the vertical filters do not allow embers or sparks to sit on them and start fires. Without dust collector fires, the company no longer had to waste work time replacing fire-damaged filters. To reduce the risk of fires even more, Imperial Systems recommended a Spark Trap. This prevented most of the burning embers from getting to the collector in the first place.
Feedback:
The company reported that they have not experienced any more issues with fires since switching to the vertical cartridge CMAXX and Spark Trap. Also, Dave reported that maintenance takes much less time and is much easier. In addition, the efficiency of the DeltaMAXX filters allows the company to be compliant with all their OSHA air quality regulations.
The company has since purchased another CMAXX, a CM006, for another cutting table. They are using DeltaMAXX fire-retardant filters in their dust collectors. They continue to work with Imperial Systems for their filters and dust collector service needs.
Contact us to learn more about this case study or how we can help solve your own problem with welding or plasma cutting fumes.
