Flextraction Helps Working Environment At Foundry

When Flextraction installed a lead/copper dust and fumes extraction system at Daido Industrial Bearings Europe Ltd in December 2006, it enabled them to meet the requirements of their local authority environmental department and receive their pollution prevention and control (PPC) permit.

Daido Industrial Bearings Europe LtdDaido, in Ilminster, Somerset produces plain bearings, bushings and thrust bearings for medium speed diesel engines, turbochargers and a range of other rotating and reciprocating machines for the engineering, shipbuilding and power generation sectors of industry. The Flextraction extraction system is being used in the production of castings for bearing casings on Dross Tanks, Crucibles and cooling stations. In total there are 9 extraction points with various hoods, including fishtail hoods and billet hoods.

The complete system comprises 1.5m diameter galvanised mild steel ductwork with radius bends, a Kiekens 12-FTEN-500/0.9, centrifugal, 400V 30kW, IP55 classification fan/air mover with a maximum air extraction rate of 18,200 m3/hr extracting from all the extraction points at the same time, a Donaldson Torit primary cartridge filter/air cleaner with 24 ultra web flame retardant filter cartridges, having reverse jet air filter cleaning, automatic flame retardant filters and 423.6m2 filter area with a filtration velocity of 0.72m/min.

There are also 6 x 32m2, HEPA, EU 13, 370Pa gauge secondary filters in line with a magnehelic monitoring gauge. The expected lifetime of these filters is around 2 years.

Alan Riste, Daido's Health and Safety Co-ordinator said: "Previously we used a 24-inch square ductwork system with inline fans extracting the contaminants into the atmosphere and it became clear we needed a new system primarily to meet the environmental standards for our 600mm diameter high cover stack system with a jet cowl. Also the air flows of the old system, needed to be continually maintained to control the hazard of lead to the operators.

The project began 9 months prior to the installation in December 2006; Flextraction undertook an initial survey of our requirements and came up with a solution that both met our requirements in the quality of the equipment as well as our requirement to control the lead emissions to the atmosphere.

Since the system was installed our last round of personal air monitoring in the area of the system has seen our lowest levels of lead, with improvements both on health and safety as well as for the local environment. We work day and night shifts so it is in constant use and has been very easy to maintain with the filters meeting our expectations and requirements."