BRAZING AND WELDING
Welding Fume Extractor Systems
Portable Fume Extraction Units
When we think of welding and brazing we all picture large industrial welders generating heavy oils and mists. Most brazing applications, however, are closer in nature to the soldering process and the expense of units designed to remove the oils and mists are not required. IP Systems offers a wide range of portable fume extraction units designed for brazing applications when heavy oil and mist control are not needed.
Contact us at info@ipsystemsusa.com to find out more detail.
Why Choose Our Portable Welding Fume Extractors?
Welding produces fumes that contain gaseous and particulate matter. This matter can be harmful to human health, and often consists of heavy metals, hazardous chemicals, and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The fumes result
from the high heat of the welding torch and the release of particles from the metal being welded. What happens is that the heat expands the air, allowing for solid particulate matter and gaseous matter to enter the air as fumes.
Welders are exposed to fumes regularly, and both short and long term exposure to these fumes can cause serious health hazards . Short-term consequences are usually mild and result in irritation, lightheadedness, and nausea. However, long term exposure can result in metal fume fever, organ damage, high heavy metal levels in blood, skin damage, and respiratory illness.
Some fumes can have known carcinogens, raising the worker’s cancer risk.
OSHA has restrictions on the amount of toxic chemicals a worker can be exposed to. These permissible exposure limits, or PELs, must be met otherwise workers can be at great health risk. It’s also important to keep below PELs in order to stay compliant with OSHA regulation.
Our portable welding fume extractors take these dangerous fumes out of the air, filter it, and recirculate the cleaned and purified air. This lowers worker risk substantially while also making it easier on the air filter in your shop’s HVAC system.
Our portable welding fume extractors contain a combination filter media, with a HEPA filter and an activated carbon base. This protects workers from both particulate matter and several types of dangerous gases.
To learn more about our portable fume extractors, check out our product lines below, or call us to ask how our welding fume extractors can fit in your operation!
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FAQs about Portable Welding Fume Extractors
- Welding fume extractors work by collecting fumes, capturing the harmful particles and gases within the fumes, and recirculating the cleaned air back into the workspace. Fumes are sucked up by an extractor unit, piped through the ducting, and sent through filter media to be cleaned.
- The extractor comes in multiple different forms, depending on the application. Welding fume extractors typically rely on an extraction arm which acts similarly to a vacuum, sucking up the fumes from the workspace not far from the source.
- The filter media consists of a HEPA filter, which removes the solid particulate matter from the fumes, and an activated carbon base to remove harmful gaseous vapors.
The air is then recirculated back into the area, which lowers the burden on the HVAC system and ultimately reduces operating costs. - Welding fume extractors are designed to protect workers from the harmful effects of welding fumes. These welding fumes are created during the process of welding and exposure to these fumes could have harmful effects. For this reason, it’s highly recommended to use a welding fume extractor to protect workers and keep compliant with OSHA regulations.
- Welding fume extractor cost varies greatly depending on the solution you use for filtering welding fumes in your shop.
- More powerful welding fume extractor systems tend to cost more, with the upside being greater airflow. Our F3200 series has a much greater airflow range than our F1020 or F1800 series welding fume extractors, for example, and is preferred for larger operations. However, our F1020 and F1800 series have smaller airflow ranges but are compact enough to fit under the workbench.
- We highly recommend you choose the welding fume extraction system that best fits your needs. To get the most accurate possible quote, call us at 770-613-7701 and ask us about portable fume extractors, welding fume filters, or recommendations for your operation!
- Welding fume extraction systems should be portable, should be able to filter both gases and particulate matter, and should be able to capture fumes before they enter the wider air.
We recommend using a fume extraction system with an extraction arm for welding applications. This is because welding applications do not produce fumes that can be easily captured directly at the source. Soldering fumes can be captured at the tip of the soldering iron, resulting in most fumes being captured.
IP Systems produces several families of fume extractors that work great for welding applications. These are the F3200, the F1800 and the F1020. Our F1020 is our most portable unit, whereas the F3200 is our most powerful unit for welding applications. Check out our product lines to learn more about how they work to extract welding fumes from the air!
- The welding fume extraction arm should be positioned in a way so that it captures as much of the fumes as possible. Extraction arms only work within a defined area, so positioning is important.
- First, make sure to extract the fumes away from the breathing zone. Position the arm so that the fumes are not being sucked into the direction of the worker’s face.
- Ideally, the welding fume extraction arm should be positioned around 12 inches (30cm) diagonally above the welding point.
- However, unlike soldering fumes, welding fumes cannot be captured directly at the source. So positioning becomes paramount to maximizing user safety while making sure that it’s not a hindrance to their work.
