HOW TO READ THE TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS: AIR LOAD ON THE PRIMARY FILTER EXPLAINED

The differences between an industrial vacuum cleaner and a commercial one are huge. You can find some good machines in places like DIY shops, there is no doubt, but, just because they offer a little more power than the one you have at home, it doesn’t mean they can be used in an industrial environment. You can look at the technical specifications to understand if a machine is suitable for your plant. And to understand what do technical specs like “air load in the primary filter” mean, just continue reading this article.

WHAT DOES AIRLOAD MEAN?

• It’s a measure Delfin uses to indicate the resistance of a filter to the blockage caused by fine dust.
• It’s the ratio between the airflow and the filter surface. The airflow is expressed in m3 and the filter surface is expressed in m2.
• The airflow measures the amount of air that enters in the vacuum cleaner in an hour and the surface determines de amount of dust a filter can handle.
• This means that it has to be an equilibrium between these two values in order to offer a good performance. We consider that a good performance is obtained with an air load under 200 m3/m2/h.

WHEN IT’S IMPORTANT TO LOOK FOR A LOW AIR LOAD VALUE?

• The air load is one of the key values to understand the performance of an industrial vacuum cleaner. It has particular relevance when it comes to fine dust.
• Fine dust is annoying, not only because it’s more difficult to filter or because it tends to compact itself and obstruct the filter, but also because it can be very dangerous for the health of your workers and the safety of your plant.
• Chemical, pharmaceutical, food or construction industries are therefore the ones more interested in having an industrial vacuum cleaner with a low air load value.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A VACUUM HAS A HIGH AIR LOAD?

• An air load value above 200 m3/m2/h means that a filter gets blocked faster.
• This means it has to be cleaned more frequently and that it wears more easily, so it has to be replaced more often.
• If you decide to keep using your industrial vacuum cleaner with blocked filters, two things can happen:
• you lose depression, so your machine is less efficient.
• And you allow dust to scatter inside the machine, putting the motor at risk.

SOME EXAMPLES

Let’s make a practical example to understand better the concept of air load. Let’s consider the 202 DS and the 352 DS. They both have the same motor and the same range or airflow: 360 m3/h. But they have different kinds of filters with different surfaces: the 202 DS has a 30 000 cm2 surface filter while the 352 DS has a 20 000 cm2 surface filter. If you do the math, you will see that the 202 DS has an air load of 120 m3/m2/h and the 352 DS one of 180 m3/m2/h.

OTHER ASPECTS TO TAKE INTO ACCOUNT

When choosing an industrial vacuum cleaner, airflow is certainly one of the aspects to look after, but not the only one and not always the most important.

• Depression: if, for example, you have to vacuum heavy material, you need to look for a high depression vacuum cleaner.
• Airflow: and if the amount of material to vacuum is high, then you should also consider the airflow.
• Class M or Class L? The first one offers you a higher filtration because there is less space between its threads to let fine dust pass. But this means also that the filter can get blocked easily.

CONCLUSION:

If you work in the pharmaceutical, food or construction industry and you have to vacuum fine dust, you have to definitely look at the value of air load. An efficient air load is under 200 m3/m2/h, but the lower the better.

Delfin is the specialist in vacuum construction for the industries. For mor than 20 years we have been offering high performance industrial vacuums, ATEX certified vacuums and centralized vacuum structures for professionals and industries all over the world.

Request immediately a free advice to know which vacuum cleaner better satisfies your needs or have a look to our wide range of vacuum cleaners.