Five Tips for Selecting Cartridge Dust Collector Filters - #3

#3 Evaluate total cost of ownership.

When choosing between two cartridge filters with the same rated efficiency, some purchasers will regard these items as a commodity and simply choose the lowest-priced filter. But as with most purchasing decisions, initial cost is only one factor, and it requires a “Total Cost of Ownership” (TCO) evaluation to make the best filter selection.

TCO helps you determine what it really costs to own your dust collector filters by calculating all the components of true filter cost: energy, consumables, and maintenance and disposal. A reputable filter supplier should have software to help you perform the calculations. The TCO evaluation will ultimately save you money, time and energy by ensuring the most cost-effective filter choice.

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FAQ: What preventive maintenance steps can we follow to keep our dust collector operating efficiently?

Verify that dampers are in position, valves are working and pulse cleaning systems are functioning properly. Check pressure drop on filters to make sure it has not exceeded the manufacturer’s recommended limit.  Check compressed air pressure and purge the compressed air header, looking for signs of moisture. If you are located in a cold climate, make sure that your compressed air has a dew point that is below the lowest temperatures your equipment will be exposed to. An integrated control panel can monitor key functions and alert you when critical set points are reached, ensuring that preventive maintenance is performed when needed.

If you are conducting preventive inspections and basic maintenance but your system is still not performing efficiently, most likely the collector is undersized or inadequately designed for the dust challenge. Bring in an air pollution control supplier who has application expertise; who is knowledgeable about OSHA, NFPA and EPA requirements; and who has dust testing capability and other technical resources to develop an engineered solution to the problem.

An Introduction to Indoor Air Quality

Indoor Air Pollution and Health

Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) refers to the air quality within and around buildings and structures, especially as it relates to the health and comfort of building occupants.  Understanding and controlling common pollutants indoors can help reduce your risk of indoor health concerns.
Health effects from indoor air pollutants may be experienced soon after exposure or, possibly, years later.

Immediate Effects

Some health effects may show up shortly after a single exposure or repeated exposures to a pollutant. These include irritation of the eyes, nose, and throat, headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. Such immediate effects are usually short-term and treatable. Sometimes the treatment is simply eliminating the person's exposure to the source of the pollution, if it can be identified. Soon after exposure to some indoor air pollutants, symptoms of some diseases such as asthma may show up, be aggrevated or worsened.

The likelihood of immediate reactions to indoor air pollutants depends on several factors including age and preexisting medical conditions.  In some cases, whether a person reacts to a pollutant depends on individual sensitivity, which varies tremendously from person to person. Some people can become sensitized to biological or chemical pollutants after repeated or high level exposures.
Certain immediate effects are similar to those from colds or other viral diseases, so it is often difficult to determine if the symptoms are a result of exposure to indoor air pollution. For this reason, it is important to pay attention to the time and place symptoms occur. If the symptoms fade or go away when a person is away from the area, for example, an effort should be made to identify indoor air sources that may be possible causes. Some effects may be made worse by an inadequate supply of outdoor air coming indoors or from the heating, cooling or humidity conditions prevalent indoors.
 

Long-Term Effects

Other health effects may show up either years after exposure has occurred or only after long or repeated periods of exposure. These effects, which include some respiratory diseases, heart disease and cancer, can be severely debilitating or fatal. It is prudent to try to improve the indoor air quality in your home even if symptoms are not noticeable.

While pollutants commonly found in indoor air can cause many harmful effects, there is considerable uncertainty about what concentrations or periods of exposure are necessary to produce specific health problems. People also react very differently to exposure to indoor air pollutants. Further research is needed to better understand which health effects occur after exposure to the average pollutant concentrations found in homes and which occurs from the higher concentrations that occur for short periods of time.

Click here to learn more from the United States Environmental Protection Agency

FAQ: Does a dust buildup or “dust cake” on dust collector filters indicate that the system is not working properly?

Some people worry that their dust collection system is not performing properly when they open the collector and see dust on the filters. It is just the opposite: A controlled level of dust on your filters actually improves the filtration efficiency by helping to filter out more dust particles, thereby extending the life of the filters.

A dust collector automatically pulse-cleans its filters using very brief bursts of compressed air that blow the dirt off the filter surfaces and down into a collection device. Most dust collector control panels offer a choice of three pulse-cleaning methods:

1. Continuous pulsing describes a dust collector that pulses at a set time period – for instance, every 10 to 15 seconds. Sometimes this method is absolutely required, but this pulse-cleaning method uses the most compressed air over the life of a dust collector and is very costly.
2. On-demand pulsing only activates the cleaning system when the collector’s pressure drop reading goes above a preset high set point and pulses back to a preset low point on the collector’s control panel. This method typically conserves on compressed air as the collector only periodically pulses. In addition, most dust emissions pass through a filter when the reverse pulse occurs in a dust collector, so fewer pulses will equal low dust emissions for most dust collectors.
3. Downtime pulsing is used while the dust collector fan is not running. Using downtime pulsing reduces dust re-entrainment and will return your filters to their lowest possible pressure drop reading.

To maintain a controlled dust cake on filters, it is recommended that you pulse your dust collection system as little as possible – avoiding continuous pulsing unless absolutely necessary. This approach will also save on compressed air, reducing the total cost of ownership to operate your dust collection system. Your manufacturing plant probably has a value placed on compressed air and you understand that excessive compressed air usage gets expensive.

If filters become totally blinded by heavy dust buildup, and/or the pressure drop reading has reached a level higher than the filter manufacturer’s recommended limit, it’s time to change the filters. However, even if this situation has not occurred, it’s a good idea to replace filters every two to three years at longest. An older filter may develop a hole or leak after time and will no longer deliver the guaranteed efficiency.

Request/download a comprehensive white paper on dust collector filter selection here.