Industrial Dust collection is used to remove particulate from process gases as a form of pollution control. Dust collection is also useful for capturing valuable particulate that may have other industrial uses. The nature of mechanical separation allows dust collection cyclones to act as classifiers, collecting the larger particles and sending the fines to a final filter.
Typical Industrial Dust Collection
Industrial Dust collection is usually achieved by use of fabric filter bags, a cyclonic dust collector, or combination of the two. In cyclone dust collection, air (or other gas) laden with particulate is made to spin (vortex) inside a conical chamber. Centrifugal force causes particulate to move to the walls of the chamber where it gains inertia. Then gravity pulls the particulate into a hopper for dust collection. This is called cyclonic separation. Sometimes multiple cyclones are used with a common inlet and outlet.
Counter-Cyclonic Dust Collection
Counter-cyclonic dust collection is a cyclone with a secondary air stream that reduces wear on the cyclone walls and increases efficiency. Some other cyclones use a ground plate to reverse the vortex and increase efficiency that way.
Cyclone-based industrial dust collection equipment requires little maintenance because it has no filters to replace and no moving parts except for the blower.
Filter media dust collectors such as cartridge filters and bag houses are usually able to capture fine, light particles easier than cyclones, however cyclone dust collection is often used upstream of filters as a pre-treatment, to remove the majority of dust and extend the service life of filters.
Cyclonic dust collectors have other advantages over filter media. Filters often do not allow collected particulates to be recovered for reuse. Also, installed before a bag house on high heat processes, a cyclone can act as a spark arrestor. Finally, unlike filters, cyclone dust collectors actually work more efficiently as humidity increases.
