Technical Articles

Bericap, located in Burlington, Ontario, had two plastic bottle cap recycling lines that needed to be upgraded and equipped with dust collection systems. The dust collection systems needed to match the following design criteria:
• Extract ground polypropylene bottle caps from the granulator and dump them into the gaylord
• Contain and filter the dust, and prevent it from escaping to the facility
• Comply with the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Ontario Fire Code and NFPA

Regular maintenance on your dust collector can often catch problems from worn parts and fix them before the part fails and causes downtime to the whole system.  Here is a checklist below of basic maintenance that can prevent system shutdown and downtime to your production line.

The attention in dust collection system design often focuses on the filtration device (collector). As a result, system designers may overlook other factors such as what options to consider regarding the air leaving the collector. This article explains some of the opportunities and challenges for discharged air from filtration devices.

The implementation of a dust collection system offers many benefits to a production facility including increased manufacturing effectiveness and a generally cleaner and safer work environment for employees. Given the positive impacts a quality dust collection system affords, it would be nice if its installation could go smoothly so the system can start delivering those benefits quickly.

When it comes to dust collection, it is essential to understand the importance of conveying velocities and their impact on the proper design of a system. Moving air through ducts too slowly or too quickly can have significant consequences that are equally problematic.

Initially when a dust collector is commissioned, the service technician will measure the total air volume and the duct conveying velocity; he will then assess proper dust control at the hoods in the process. Once the measurements have been completed, the technician will set and record the fan damper position.

In many situations in life you can go cheap, but you may pay for it in the end. This is especially true for dust collector hood designs. Small changes in hood designs often yield big results - especially in performance and total cost of operation.

Many industrial dust collectors use compressed air to clean and extend the life of their filters. This is typically accomplished using short pulses of compressed air inside of the individual bag filters or cartridge filters in order to blow or knock the dust off of the outside of the filter.

The dust collector is the main ingredient in getting cleaner air for your shop, but if you can’t get the dirty air into the collector efficiently, you risk high energy usage, degraded collector performance, and unsafe conditions in the plant.