Welding Fumes Must Be Captured to Prevent Exposure

Welding on armored vehicles, tanks, ships and other military equipment presents unique challenges that can impact air quality. Weld fumes must be captured to prevent exposure and keep workers comfortable and productive.

Welding fumes contain ingredients that irritate eyes and skin, and long-term exposure can cause health problems. Hexavalent chromium, produced when welding stainless steel, can cause upper respiratory illness and rashes, while zinc oxide generated during hot work on galvanized steel can lead to metal fume fever.

Safety

Welding is a thermal process that creates a permanent bond between two pieces of metal. This creates a solid joint that can be as strong as the metals from which it was created. However, welding is not without its risks. Welding produces harmful dust, heat, smoke and fumes that can irritate the skin and eyes. It also produces toxic gases like carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide.

Welders need to be equipped with the proper work gear for their job. This includes protective eyewear and masks to filter out harmful particles, as well as fire-resistant suits. Keeping flammable materials away from your workspace and having a designated fire watcher nearby can help reduce the risk of fire.

To minimize the health impacts of welding, it’s essential to have a comprehensive system in place for dust and fume extraction. This will typically include some type of hood or method for fume capture, ducting to connect these points and the proper sizing for the ducting back to the collection point. It’s also advisable to test your welding fumes for combustibility since some aluminum welding applications produce unoxidized particles that can be explosive.

If you need a complete solution for welding fume and dust removal, consider using a movable high vacuum dust collector designed specifically for fine metal particles. These mall-sized dust collectors offer amazing filtration performance, ensuring that even the most microscopic metal particles are captured and safely removed from the working environment.

Efficiency

Various types of welding fume extraction systems are available to help you ensure your welders have access to clean air and a clear field of vision. The system you choose should offer minute filtration to capture combustible and toxic dust particles that could ignite and burn during welding, or displace oxygen to the point of suffocation.

A system that can also remove hexavalent chromium – one of the most dangerous toxins in solid weld wire – will protect your welders, too. The system combines an extractor and a filter to capture all the inhalable particulates produced by welding. It’s easy to welding dedusting equipment install, too, since it’s designed to attach directly to the welding gun.

To determine the best solution for your shop, you can start with an industrial hygiene assessment to identify harmful elements in your workspace. This will also help you determine whether your facility is meeting OSHA’s permissible exposure limits.

For high-production environments, it’s important to evaluate the current capacity of your dust collection and ventilation systems. It may be necessary to invest in a central fume extraction system engineered to support multiple robots or multiple welders working on large parts. For smaller environments, a portable hi-vac extractor that can be hooked up to one or two welding guns at a time can provide maximum flexibility and portability.

Cleanliness

Welding produces dangerous fumes as well as dust particles. These particles are small enough to irritate workers’ skin, eyes, ears, respiratory systems and other internal organs. They can also clog the lungs and cause serious, long-term health issues. Many US states and foreign countries have welding dedusting equipment laws to protect employees from exposure to hazardous substances in the air.

The best way to ensure your welding space offers safe conditions for your employees is by installing a dust collection system with the necessary filtration capabilities. The system should feature easy-access filtration cartridges that can be removed and replaced without any special tools or training. Additionally, it should have an explosion vent to provide a safe means for flames and expanding gasses to escape the system before they can cause injuries or damage equipment.

Besides the obvious health hazards associated with combustible material, metal dust can also damage equipment and cause fires. It can clog delicate mechanisms, which reduces efficiency and may result in costly repairs. The best welding dust collector designs will incorporate explosion vents to prevent these types of risks.

The dust-collecting unit you choose must also provide minute filtration and be easy to clean. In addition, it should have easy-to-reach controls to maintain optimal operation and safety. Moreover, the control panel should allow you to monitor air quality and welding activity in real time. This will help you keep track of the performance of your welding dedusting equipment and identify any areas where the system might need to be cleaned or improved.

Maintenance

The welding process produces noxious fumes that can negatively affect the health of your team and cause costly interruptions to production. Capturing these pollutants using a local exhaust ventilation (LEV) or ambient capture air cleaning system will keep your employees comfortable and productive.

Dust collection systems used in the welding industry must gather extremely small particles to reduce contaminant buildup in your workspace and protect expensive equipment from damage caused by dust settling on and clogging delicate mechanisms. They must also be capable of filtering out flammable contaminants, such as metal shavings.

These dangerous specks of combustible material pose the risk of a fire or explosion if they’re exposed to heat. Your industrial dust collection system must include easy access to filtration cartridges designed to remove these harmful elements. Additionally, your business must develop a schedule for safe handling and removal of these filter materials when they’re exhausted.

Exposure to some of the chemicals released during welding can cause a variety of health issues, such as eye or skin irritation, short-term upper respiratory illnesses, or even life-threatening diseases like lung cancer or zinc oxide poisoning. Your dedusting system must be able to detect and capture dangerous gases such as carbon monoxide and hydrogen fluoride, and remove them from your workspace for the safety of your employees.