LEV - Local Exhaust Ventilation

Meeting WES limits is an important issue for any manufacturing or processing operation producing harmful/toxic fumes and dusts.

LEV: Fume Extraction for the Workplace in Australia

Extraction of Fumes and or Dust from the work area, to either be filtered first or simply released safely to atmosphere, is an important part of maintaining safe and efficient working environment for your staff.

Australian Workplace Exposure Limits (WES) vairy for different types of fumes and employers must ensure these are not exceeded.

A common mistake is fitting a few fans in the roof to expel fumes. While this reduces the overall level of fume inside the building perhaps, this means the employee has breathed the fumes in and out - and then they are removed, which 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, and laboratories.

WES levels have recently been reduced for harmfil welding fumes

General fumes in the factory can be dealt with by general ventilation to an extent but, if you can remove the fumes close to the source with LEV, ( Localised Exhaust Ventilation), you will save money: getting closer to the source means smaller extraction ducts, smaler fans and, if necessary, a smaller filtration unit.

 Welding fume is a known carcinogenic, as is diesel exhaust from vehicles. Chemicals dissapated in laboratory procedures 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 have reduced correspondingly. 

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. Ebcam can offer 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, fitted to fixed Grinding and Welding Benches or the fumes extracted by Fume Arms mounted on Overhead Rails, pillars, walls or mobile extractors.

If welding is combined with grinding, its 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 businesses 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 considerable experience over a range of industries where correctly specified LEV improves air quality and worker safety

Ebcam have a wide range of Fume and Dust extraction products and decades of experience in designing, specifying and supply / install of Fume Extraction systems.

We hold a wide range and increasing stock and range of Fume Extraction Arms, Fume Fans, Fume Filter units as well as vehicle servicing Reel 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 245,000m3/hour.

Provided you follow our advice regarding our specification for your dust or fume extraction solution, our systems are warrantied for 3 years including in most cases the filter socks or cartridges.