In an effort to improve industrial hygiene within their compounding plant, a major plastic manufacturer needed to upgrade their existing dust collection system. The construction for a new system was beyond their capital budget, so a strategic upgrade was a practical solution.

Based upon past experiences, they contacted JOA® to advise them on how best to upgrade their system. As with older systems, processes and equipment had changed. Several local exhaust hoods were added to the original design which reduced the effectiveness and efficiency of the fan and filter. At some exhaust hoods, there was visible over-extraction of powders. At others, there was no extraction and heavy dust emissions were apparent.

After a detailed site survey, JOA® modeled the existing system with their advanced fluid flow software, the GCM™, to verify system bottlenecks and to develop an effective strategy for optimization. After several iterations, a retrofit layout with proper conveyance velocity and system balancing was developed. New extraction points were added, and several unused points were removed from the system per customer request. As a result, the existing dust collector and main header were re-used, while a new fan and local exhaust branches and hoods were required.

One year after this strategic upgrade, the customer has reduced emissions below their target OEL’s, process waste has been reduced by 40%, and maintenance costs are 20% lower.