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HAZARDOUS AREA & SAFETY THE KEY TO SAFETY AND PRODUCTIVITY


Whatever the process, operations and health and safety managers must evaluate the most effective means of capturing airborne emissions, and filter them in a way that enhances productivity


Joshua Evans MEng (Hons) IChemE, applications engineer and head of BOFA Academy at BOFA International, discusses how fume and gas filtration technology plays an important role in helping employers implement environmental health practices in the workplace


with numerous industrial processes, such as lasering, additive manufacturing, printing and electronics manufacture. This technology can also be a key


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contributor to productivity, by helping keep equipment free from particulate that might otherwise impact product quality. In the FMCG market, for example,


innovations in laser technology have transformed the speed of marking and coding processes, particularly in the food and beverage industry. On some production lines where once the benchmark was to code around 50,000 products per hour, today’s laser marking lines for aluminium cans are able to operate at more than 100,000 units per hour. For operations at this scale, the pain of


unscheduled downtime can be significant, prompting companies to look for technology solutions that can be net contributors to productivity. This includes extraction systems that can filter airborne emissions which would otherwise have the potential to contaminate laser lenses and impact product quality. In the UK, exposure levels to potentially


harmful airborne contaminants are tightly mandated through the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health regulations (COSHH) and expressed as workplace exposure limits (WELs). These limits are presented in the Health & Safety Executive’s EH40 guidance as time weighted averages for either 15 minutes or eight hours, in both ppm (parts per million) and mg/m³ (milligrams per meter cubed). Understanding the requirements for


12 MAY 2022 | PROCESS & CONTROL


iltration systems, such as those developed by BOFA International, can help filter airborne emissions associated


extraction in line with WELs needs reference to Safety Data Sheets as well as an understanding of any chemical changes that might occur during the process. BOFA works closely with businesses to help them choose the most appropriate system for their process by determining the type, volume, size and velocity of particles being emitted. This will help form part of a company’s regulatory compliance programme designed to improve the workplace environment. This information, together with data-driven


airflow analyses and control parameters, will help define the optimal filtration technology, which will usually include pre-filtration, a main High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filter plus a layer of activated carbon to filter and contain vapours and gases. System design should also take account of


the quantity and size of particulate emitted and its chemical composition, including toxicity of each element of the process and any resultant chemical interaction. These factors will inform the design of the


system architecture, the filtration media used, the integration of inline filters (for applications that present the risk of a thermal event, for example) and the most appropriate monitoring and control mechanisms. For example, filtration systems designed for


certain printing processes need to take account of potential chemical reactions, notably those involving the use of Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK). Variables such as fume velocity also need to


be taken into account, as complex design calculations may be needed to capture of emissions. Today’s manufacturing environment is


reliant on automation aligned with Industry 4.0, which is why BOFA’s iQ2 provides independent filter status monitoring, real-time system condition visualisation, a colour touchscreen user interface, smart navigation, enhanced alarms and remote system upgrades. Extended onboard data logs can be


valuable for high volume manufacturing because with increasing production line speeds, filter capacity is best measured through units of product rather than units of time. Interrogating these logs can provide the granular detail needed to establish optimal filter exchange patterns in step with maintenance routines to avoid the risk of unplanned downtime. This means diagnostics no longer rely on


operator interpretation of data alone – the performance visualisation can show the status of each element of the filtration system.


BOFA International www.bofainternational.com


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