FEATURE DUST & FUME EXTRACTION


Maintain productivity and safety through effective fume extraction


Fume and dust extraction systems, such as those produced by BOFA, play a key role in helping businesses maintain 24/7 production


schedules. They also capture potentially harmful airborne particulate, protecting the breathing zones of employees. Pictured: BOFA’s FireBOX


Poor workplace practices, particularly where hazardous materials are being worked, not only present a health risk to employees, but they can also significantly impact productivity through downtime and create unnecessary cost for businesses. Here, the experts at BOFA International explain how to maintain a productive and safe working environment through effective fume extraction


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n the UK, exposure levels to potentially harmful airborne contaminants are tightly


mandated through the COSHH (Control of Substances Hazardous to Health) regulations 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). “Employers are under a legal obligation to


assess the risk to health created by work involving hazardous substances, taking account of any relevant WELs,” says Joshua Evans, an applications engineer at BOFA International, a global leader in portable fume extraction. “Potentially harmful airborne contaminants


can result from numerous industrial processes, including laser and ink jet coding onto food and pharmaceuticals packaging, soldering, welding, laser cutting and engraving, spraying, and hand and mechanised grinding. “Health risks are also associated with


thermal plastic processes and solvents, which can give off volatile organic compounds (VOCs). PVC is worth a special mention in this context since it releases hydrogen chloride/hydrochloric acid and small amounts of phosgene when lasered or thermally processed, both of which are highly toxic.” One of the key decisions for compliance is


for health and safety managers to evaluate the most effective means of capturing these


22 SPRING 2021 | INDUSTRIAL COMPLIANCE


potentially harmful emissions and filtering them appropriately, both to ensure operator safety and to contribute to a more efficient production environment. Typically, these options include captor


hoods, which use a capture velocity across the source of the emissions; receptor hoods, which use the movement of particles / vapour towards the device to capture them; partial enclosures, which extract contaminants typically for hand grinding and finishing; and full or partial enclosures matched to the needs of automated processes such as laser coding or PCB manufacture. Matching the process to the most


appropriate extraction technology will not only ensure that companies meet their health and safety responsibilities, but it will also ensure that equipment stays free of debris that can impact on product quality and, the worst case scenario, lead to unplanned downtime. And in the face of ongoing challenges for business resulting from the pandemic, no company can afford to lose either people to sickness or production capacity. In just about every sector, manufacturers are being challenged to implement new ways of operating to take account of restrictions designed to keep workplaces as safe as possible.


Joshua Evans, applications engineer at BOFA International


Evans says: “There are inspirational


examples of innovation in this new normal, including many companies investing in our fume and dust extraction technology to maintain continuity of supply for products of critical importance, such as pharmaceuticals, PPE and food. Manufacturers are also seeking new markets, displaying an agility that has become a hallmark of diversification.”


BOFA’s Intelligent (iQ) Operating System provides independent filter status monitoring, optimised airflow and remote system diagnostics


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