Overhead, Ambient & Portable Air Cleaners

Welding Smoke and Weld Fumes

Problem:  New Appreciation of Health Hazards from Welding
Advances in welding technologies have been accompanied with a new appreciation of the health hazards associated with common welding processes such as SMAW (stick), FCAW (Flux core) and GMAW (MIG).  These hazards can present exposure concerns even when welding on common carbon steel.  Recent research has identified problems with exposures to manganese, chromium, nickel and other potentially toxic metals in welding fume.  OSHA has recently promulgated a new regulation focused on the carcinogen, hexavalent chromium (CrVI or Cr6+).  These health hazards, along with the understandable reluctance on the part of welders to wearing a respirator under the welding hood, mean that better approaches to removing welding fumes from the welder’s breathing zone are required.

Solution: Practical Engineering Controls
Industrial air cleaners by Air Quality Engineering provide a wide range of options both in terms of air cleaning technology and configurations.  We offer three air cleaning technologies suitable for welding fume.  Electrostatic air cleaners feature permanent collector cells which offer high filtration efficiency along with the advantages of eliminating ongoing filter replacement costs.  Some applications are best served by conventional media filtration and Air Quality Engineering offers several options using this technology: inexpensive bag filters, extended service minipleated filters and, when required, HEPA filters.  When long maintenance intervals at high fume loading are the driving factors, our reverse pulse cartridge systems are the answer in these high production applications.  Each of these three technologies (electrostatic, conventional media and cartridge) is available in portable, ambient (general background) or overhead ducted configurations.  Portable fume extractors are ideal for welders on the move.  Ambient (sometimes referred to as general background) air cleaners work well for dispersed welding stations.  Overhead ducted filtration systems provide the advantages of source capture while conserving expensive floor space.   Please review our product information below and work with our application professionals to identify the correct solution to meet your requirements.