Fume Extraction in the Workplace in Australia
Fume Extraction for the Workplace in Australia
Extraction of fumes from the work area, to either be filtered first or simply released responsibly to atmosphere, is an important part of maintaining a safe and efficient working environment for your staff.
Australian Workplace Exposure Limits (WES) vary for different types of fumes and employers must ensure these are not exceeded.
A common misunderstanding is fitting a few fans in the roof to expel fumes. While this reduces the overall level of fumes inside the building, it means employees will have breathed the fumes in and out before they are removed: this defeats the object of removing fumes prior to them coming into contact with the workers respiratory system.
Fume extraction is required in such processes as :
- manufacturing (plasma, laser cutting, welding and soldering fume),
- vehicle servicing and repair (exhaust fumes),
- paint, glass fibre, solvents, food processing, burning, heating, laboratories etc.
Why Fume Extraction/LEV ?
General fumes in the factory can be dealt with by basic ventilation to an extent, but if you can remove dangerous fumes close to where they are generated, with LEV ( Localised Exhaust Ventilation), you save money. Fume extraction close to the source requires smaller extraction ducts, smaller fans and if necessary, a filtration unit.
Welding fumes is a known carcinogenic, as is diesel exhaust from vehicles. Chemicals differ widely in the harm they can cause to staff. Welding has recently been identified as a particularly important source of employee harm and WES levels reduced correspondingly.
From 18 January 2024 the workplace exposure standard (WES) for welding fumes (not otherwise classified) has been reduced from an 8-hour time weighted average of 5 mg/m3 to 1 mg/m3
Filtration of the fumes is not always necessary. Most vehicle exhaust can be expelled to atmosphere, it’s the concentration of exhaust fumes that can lead to staff being affected by carbon monoxide poisoning as well as other, longer term lung damage.
According to Safe Work Australia the maximum recommended exposure to carbon monoxide (CO) gas measured over an eight hour period is 30 ppm (parts per million) based upon a Workplace Exposure Standard. (27 Aug 2024)
Ebcam Solutions to Fume Extraction
For the vehicle/automotive industry, Ebcam can offer various solutions to fume extraction : electrically controlled reels which lower extraction ducts from the roof or a rail fume extraction system that allows extraction hoses or arms to be shared among vehicle bays as required.
Welding fume extraction can be mobile unit, fitted to fixed Grinding and Welding Benches or the fumes can be extracted by Fume Arms mounted on Overhead Rails, pillars, walls or mobile extractors.
If welding is combined with grinding, it's normally false economy not to filter the extracted metal dust/ fume mix. Grinding dust expelled onto metal roofs rusts them. If allowed to fall back to ground level staff can breathe in these fumes and dusts and of course, staff and neighbouring businesse's vehicles suffer damage to paintwork and window glass. With replacement windscreens with sensors and displays now costing many thousands of dollars, a few thousand saved on not having a fume/ dust filter at the end of your fume extraction can be an expensive mistake.
Ebcam have a wide range of Fume extraction products and decades of experience in designing, specifying and supply / install of Fume Extraction systems working with our European suppluers who sell globally.
We hold a wide and increasing stock quantity and range of Fume Extraction Arms, Fume Fans, Fume Filter units as well as vehicle servicing Reels or Rail Fume Extraction solutions.
We can offer from stock a range of Fume Filters with differing filter cartridges to suit welding, laser and plasma cutting as well as dusts.
Our smaller systems will handle 1000m3/hour while our largest solutions included Fume Filtration of over 450,000m3/hour.
Provided you follow our advice regarding specification for your fume Extraction solution, our systems are warrantied for 3 years including in most cases the filter socks or cartridges. An EBCAM solution involves minimal maintenance reducing costs after installation is complete.
Call us so we can explain how simple and cost effective your new improved fume extraction could be : 1800 370 846
