When it comes time to purchase or upgrade a baghouse dust collector for your operation, consider the following factors to help ensure you get exactly what you need.

1: Dust profile & control requirements
A one-size-fits-all approach with dust collectors rarely meets the specific needs of each customer. In most cases, the application dictates the type of collector to be used. Whether you’re producing sawdust, mineral dust, or welding fumes, it’s important to review your processes and identify the type of dust that’s being created – is it fine or rough; how much is generated per shift; what kind of air volume is associated with the process? Each dust collection situation is unique and applications with heavy and abrasive dusts call for a collector built to handle the work.

2: Filter configuration, life & maintenance
Heavy and abrasive dust applications can cause premature wear, tearing and frequent replacement of filters if you don’t have a baghouse collector that is configured to handle this environment. Filter changeouts on a traditional baghouse collector can be messy, labor-intensive and time-consuming for maintenance teams and plant personnel. Most filters in the conventional snap-in felt bag and cage configuration are up to 3.05 meters/10 feet long, adding to the inconvenience and challenge of the job.

3: Energy usage
In general, dust collectors use a fair amount of energy on a daily basis. A significant amount of that energy is used to move air. Combine that energy usage with an undersized collector that is overworking to compensate for its lack of performance, and energy costs can quickly become a concern. Due to the physical makeup of the dust, applications that generate heavy and abrasive dust can be more susceptible to inefficiencies than other operations.

Maintaining the ideal rate of airflow and ensuring optimum pulse-cleaning energy for your specific application can help you to manage costs.

4: Emissions
Baghouse collectors are often found in some of the harshest work environments, so concerns over emissions are top of mind for facility managers. Since environmental regulations vary from region to region and application to application, it’s important to understand the requirements for your location and work environment. Before selecting a dust collector, you should make certain that it can meet or exceed the emissions standards for your operation.

5: Remote dust collector monitoring
Adding a remote monitoring service to your dust collector can help improve production uptime, prompt timely maintenance, and reduce operating costs. Calculate downtime costs and compare them with the costs of subscribing to an IoT-enabled monitoring service.

Source: Donaldson Co. For information call 800-365-1331 or visit bit.ly/DonaldsonBaghouse.