Wes Barton of IKONICS Imaging and Robert Robinson of Media Blast & Abrasive recently teamed up to put together a blog post explaining HEPA Filtration in the Sandcarving industry.
High efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters are used in medical facilities, automobiles, aircraft, homes and more. In order to quality, filters have to passstandards of efficiency set by the United States Department of Energy.
Since it’s inception in the 1940s, HEPA filters have evolved to satisfy the higher and higher demands for air quality in various high technology industries, such as aerospace, pharmaceutical drug processing, hospitals, health care, nuclear fuels, nuclear power, and integrated circuit fabrication (Wikipedia, HEPA, 2017).
The Importance of HEPA Filtration
HEPA after filters and HEPA Filtration are important to abrasive blasting cabinets for a variety of reasons. Using a HEPA after filter is common when the abrasive being used is finer than 180 mesh. Fine abrasives have unique qualities and many contain sub-micron particles due to poor sizing or long distance shipping. Finer abrasives are always used with machines that include the pneumatic conveyor to allow abrasive recycle without abrasive loss. HEPA after filters can collect the fine particles that are often missed by new, unseasoned primary dust collector filters. Though primary filter cartridges are more efficient than cloth filters and HEPA after filters increase the efficiency. This allows one of the most common uses of HEPA after filters, “Cell Machine Operation”.
ProTip: An all-negative-pressure HEPA filter housing is the best set up possible. Also, HEPA after filters and HEPA FILTRATION are different.
Robert Robinson draws from nearly five decades of experience in the sandblast machinery manufacturing industry. In 1977, Robinson founded Media Blast & Abrasive, Inc., manufacturer of the largest line of abrasive blasting cabinets available in the market today.