Clearing The Air With Cartridges (continued)

Implementing A Solution

Thermal Ceramics contacted Air Improvement Resources, Inc., Young Harris, Ga., a specialist in the design and engineering of systems for in-plant air quality control and manufacturing ventilation improvement. Together they settled on a Farr Gold Series® cartridge collector for the application, as well as the 60 hp fan needed for this new collector. This high-efficiency collector offers a compact, modular design, rugged construction, and a variety of features and options that make it easy to customize the unit to the individual needs of the customer.

To make sure the new dust collection system would deliver optimum performance, Air Improvement Resources recommended a dust analysis at Camfil Farr APC's dust testing laboratory in Jonesboro. Thermal Ceramics forwarded a dust sample to the lab, where Farr technicians performed a series of bench tests to determine the characteristics of the dust - including its size, shape, weight, moisture content, abrasiveness and other properties. "Bench testing is a very useful tool because it helps the design team to specify a collector's filter media, hardware and other components based on scientific analysis rather than guesswork," says Morgan.

View of the Gold Series® dust collector housing.

According to Scott Soncrant, president of Air Improvement Resources, "Bench testing revealed that the dust [at Thermal Ceramics] was irregularly shaped. Some of the particles were spherical, while others were in the form of short, pointed strands that were highly abrasive. The sizes also varied from very fine particles to fibrous strands of 1/4 to 1/2 in. in length. Based on this analysis, we determined that standard pleated cartridges would be likely to plug up quickly and would not be suitable for this application." Instead, the solution was to specify high performance Dura-Pleat™ cartridges in a wide pleat configuration that would minimize plugging problems. Manufactured specifically for tough challenges involving heavy dust loading conditions, the Dura-Pleat cartridge uses a dense, spun-bond media designed to outperform conventional cartridge and bag-type media. It is rugged, highly resistant to abrasion and wear, and washable with medium water pressure, extending the service life of the cartridges.