How Air Cleaning Blowers (ACBs) Differ from Traditional Industrial Filters and other Alternatives
Our Air Cleaning Blowers combine air moving (blower) and air cleaning (filtering, or particulate removal) in one simple, self-contained unit
Blower: Our Air Cleaning Blowers act like any other blower since they move air from one place to another. We make them particularly rugged—with corrosion-resistant, stainless-steel cabinets, and blower wheels specifically designed to handle heavy loads of dust efficiently and quietly.
Air Cleaning: The ACB’s act like filters in that they remove dust, sand, pollen and other particulate contaminants from the air.
They work differently in that they do not retain the materials that they remove. Therefore, they do not have many of the disadvantages of filters such as 1) the need to buy, maintain, transport, replace, and dispose of filter media, and 2) the pressure and airflow variations and increases in consumption of electricity caused by filters as they clog with dirt.
As a result, ACB’s constitute a break-through, sustainable technology that makes them greener than alternative air-cleaning systems.
Definition of Filter and Filtration:
Filter: a porous article or mass (as of paper or sand) through which a gas or liquid is passed to separate out matter in suspension … 3. Something that has the effect of a filter (as by holding back elements or modifying the appearance of something)
Filtration: The process of filtering
By these definitions, ACB’s are a type of filter since they remove particles suspended in air and other gases. However, they function differently and offer many advantages over media-based filters because they 1) use no filter media and 2) move (blow) air.
These differences enable the user of an ACB to eliminate all filter media and thereby the labor, energy losses, clogging and other costs associated with media. The units also eliminate the need for a fan to blow the air through the filter media, which generally makes the air cleaner more compact and easier and less expensive to install, operate and maintain.
Installation: We have also designed them to be easy to install, much like a kitchen fan. First, make a hole in the wall the diameter of the duct that you want to use (line it if necessary). Then, fasten the ACB’s integral mounting plate to the wall with four bolts and connect the wiring. On the other side of the wall, mount whatever kind of discharge grille you want. That’s it!
Predictability: Without the clogging that always occurs in filter media, air-cleaning blowers will provide constant performance that can be relied on. Predictability makes the systems easier to design and size.
Constant airflow – Constant airflow is maintained due to the lack of a filter media or canister restricting airflow
Constant cost of electricity – The fan motor uses a constant amount of electricity since it never needs to push through a dirty filter or canister
Constant maintenance costs, since they rarely need maintenance
Constant level of air cleanliness and quality
Constant supply of clean air to equipment, processes and conditioned spaces
Configurations: We configure different models for different purposes. As an option, ACB’s can also be adapted to collect the particles separated out if they have a value, such as a dusty product that escapes from a conveyor or bag filler:
Cooling and air changes: These units push air from outside into the space being conditioned.
Purging and pressurization: These units work similarly to those for cooling and air changes, but they have additional controls to enable them to maintain a steady flow of air to provide a steady air pressure in the conditioned space and/or to greatly increase the flow temporarily into the space to purge it of unwanted gases or other contaminants.
Ventilation: These units pull air out of a space and discharge it to the outside. Generally, they are installed to exhaust air out of a space without the dirt inside escaping into the surrounding atmosphere. By creating a negative pressure (slight partial vacuum) in the space, they confine dust and other particles within the space so that they do not spread to other areas of the building. They also ventilate the space by pulling in air either through vents or through leaks around doors and other openings.
Feed Air: Generally adapted for the needs of a specific application or manufacturer, these types of blowers push cleaned air toward a specific application such as a combustion chamber in a furnace or oven. They can stand alone or be installed in a duct.
Pre-Cleaning Air: These units serve to greatly reduce the costs of providing clean air by pulling most of the mass of particles out of the airflow before they reach the expensive HEPA, activated carbon, and other special-application post-filters.
Spot-Cleaning Air: Spot cleaning air blowers stand-alone and serve to blow clean air into small portions of a facility or even outdoors. Typical applications include blowing clean air over work stations, individual people or pieces of equipment.
Important Concepts about Air-Cleaning Blowers
Will clean air with virtually no maintenance for months or even years in normal operations—even in dusty conditions. No pressurized air required for cleaning. Units do not shake or make excessive noise because they require no cleaning cycle.
Air Cleaning Blowers, as components in the products of manufacturers, install like other blowers in air curtains, pressurizers, pre-heating, and other systems, supplying cleaned air at a steady flow rate and static pressure. Air-cleaning ventilators install like other ventilation, pressurization and exhaust units, in, or onto, a wall. They remove particles that would accumulate on surfaces, or that regulators prohibit exhausting into the outside atmosphere.
Specially-designed stand-alone (free-standing) air-cleaners clean air within open areas or large indoor space such as dusty factory floors, construction sites or tunnels, usually to target a specific location (or people) with clean air.
ACB’s provide the clean air and air movement necessary to pressurize control rooms, operator cabs, electrical sub-stations, and other dust-sensitive enclosures located in sandy, dusty and other extreme environments
Sand and other particles removed from the air are ejected back into the environment or onto the ground. When the air cleaners eject the particles back into the surrounding air where they came from, the ACBs avoid the accumulation of waste that users would need to dispose of, especially if they collected quantities sufficiently large to qualify as “hazardous waste”.
- ACB’s are easier to design into systems than air filters because they provide steadier performance: airflow, air pressure and energy consumption all remain consistent
- To resist corrosion and abrasion, cabinets made with stainless steel (type 304L or 316L).
- Mechanical controls eliminate vulnerability of electronics and their high cost to repair
- Complete units meet NEMA 4X and IP56 standards. All controls provided protected in NEMA 4X (IP66) or NEMA 4/7/9 enclosures.
- Units available for hazardous locations (“explosion-proof”) — Divisions/Zones 1 or 2
- Energy efficient even under harsh conditions, because static pressure and energy does not increase over time
- Standard electrical configurations available: 115/60/1, 208-230/50-60/1, 208-230/50-60/3, 460/60/3 and 380/50/3