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Exposure to welding or thermally generated fumes poses a significant health and safety challenge for modern manufacturers. These fumes can lead to various health risks, ranging from minor conditions like sore throat, eye irritation, and metal fume fever to more severe, long-term, or even life-threatening illnesses such as cancer.
Beyond the health risks, uncontrolled weld fumes can also affect factories by infiltrating machinery or electrical cabinets, causing downtime and productivity losses. They can also accumulate on inventory, requiring additional cleanup and housekeeping work.
Recognizing the gravity of the issue, international health and safety organizations have implemented strict exposure limits to protect workers from thermally generated fumes. These regulations are particularly stringent for certain materials, such as stainless-steel weld fumes, and even the fumes generated from mild steel are now considered carcinogenic.
The most effective way to protect workers from the fumes, dust, and smoke common in welding processes is to capture them at the source, preventing them from entering the worker's breathing zone.
Understanding Weld Fume:
Weld fume is a complex mixture of gases and metals that result from the base metal and filler metal being used during welding. It can contain various metals, including chromium, manganese, beryllium, lead, cadmium, aluminum, zinc, and many others.
Factors Influencing Worker Exposure:
Several factors contribute to worker exposure to weld fumes, including the welding technique, amperage, base metal, consumable materials, part geometry, and the local environment. It's worth noting that weld fumes are extremely small, with over 90% being less than 1 μm in size, which is 50 times smaller than the average thickness of a human hair. This small size poses a significant inhalation risk and requires the use of high-efficiency filters for effective capture.
Benefits of Proper Weld Fume Extraction:
Investing in adequate extraction for welders, robots, or any other thermally generated fumes is vital for ensuring a clean, safe, healthy, and sustainable operational environment.
√Worker Health and Safety
Exposure to weld fumes has been proven to cause respiratory diseases, including cancer. Proper extraction helps minimize this risk.
√Productivity
Improved air quality has been shown to enhance cognitive abilities and reduce absenteeism, ultimately driving productivity gains among your workforce.
√Regulatory Compliance
Exceeding permissible exposure limits (PEL) for materials found in weld fume can expose your organization to fines or increased insurance rates. Proper extraction ensures compliance.
√Welder Recruitment
With welder shortages expected to worsen, providing a clean and safe workplace helps your business stand out from the competition and attract the best welding talent.
Capturing the Fume
There are three general approaches to fume extraction: on-torch, local exhaust, and ambient. Each approach has its trade-offs when considering worker protection needs, energy consumption, and cost. The welding technique, welder preferences, part geometry, and factory layout all influence the selection criteria. Here are some general points about each approach and where they are commonly applied:
On-Torch Extraction
This form of source capture involves connecting high-vacuum suction hoses directly to the welding torch to capture fume during welding.
Local Exhaust
Fume is extracted using extraction arms or hoods positioned near the welding zone, drawing it away from the worker's breathing zone and preventing it from escaping the weld cell.
Selecting the Right Solution
Once the appropriate fume capture method has been determined, selecting the right product that will deliver the desired performance is the next step. Whether it's mobile extractors or central extractors, consider factors like floor space availability and whether installation needs to be outdoors.
YYVAC offers solutions for each approach and can assist you in making the decision that best fits your factory's needs.
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