OK, stay with me for a minute. Any factory that produces dust needs some type of industrial factory dust control. Now, that dust from your factory processes may not eat all your leftover spaghetti or drive an obnoxiously loud car. But it does have some things in common with that guy your daughter keeps bringing around.
Without factory dust extraction, dust will settle and lay on every flat surface in your facility. Likewise, without a method for removal, the annoying boyfriend will find a flat surface, sprawl out on it, and stare at his phone. If you don’t capture dust at the source, it will escape into the factory and become a cleanup problem. In the same way, if you don’t deter the annoying boyfriend at the front door while attempting to enter, he will come inside, hog the Netflix, and mumble about memes he saw on Instagram.
See? They do have something in common.
Factory Dust Collection: Will It Remove Annoying Teenagers?
Unfortunately, an industrial dust collection system will not remove your daughter’s annoying boyfriend. It will, though, extract dust and fumes. In many factories, dust control comes down to basic housekeeping, like sweeping or vacuuming up dust.
Unfortunately, poking the annoying boyfriend with a broom will not get rid of him. Vacuuming his face with a shop vac seems to be frowned upon. Brooms and shop vacs in your factory will spread dust around, but not remove much of it. If you want to really control dust (or your daughter’s boyfriend), you can’t just move it around.
Unlike boyfriends, who usually settle on couches, airborne dust settles on beams, overhead lights, and other places almost impossible to reach with basic cleaning. In the event of an explosion, this dust can shake loose and disperse in the air. This can cause a deadly secondary explosion when this loose dust ignites.
(Side note: if you attempt to force your daughter’s boyfriend to become airborne, your daughter will probably create an emotional explosion, which you will then have to deal with.)
Dust Collection and Control
Once that boyfriend is in the door and sprawled in your living room eating your last blueberry muffin, you’re going to have a hard time getting rid of him. And once dust covers your factory, you’ll have an uphill battle trying to control it.
Fortunately, we can often identify where most of the dust originates. Many factories will have certain processes that put a lot of dust into the air. Examples include grinding, batch mixing, material transport, etc.
Source Capture
Installing an industrial dust collector allows you to capture dust or fumes at the source. This is called source capture and can use hoods, downdraft tables, or flexible fume arms.
Using source capture to control factory dust helps control worker exposure. This benefits people who work close to the machines. But it also benefits those in other areas of the factory from contaminants that can drift through the air.
Sadly, this method will not protect anyone from the horrific music that your daughter and her boyfriend contaminate your house with. The recommended solution for this problem is to use earplugs. If this method is not effective, covertly snipping a few wires and blaming it on mice can be useful.
Ambient Collection
Another option for industrial dust and fume collection in factories is an ambient system. This removes and cleans air from the entire facility. Many systems return the air to the facility after filtering it, which saves heating or cooling costs. For a factory that often has a haze of dust or fumes in the air, this type of system can clear things up effectively.
This type of system will not remove annoying teenage boyfriends. But it could be used to remove dirty t-shirt odor, smoke from over-microwaved pizza rolls, and teenage boy sneaker stench. An industrial dust and fume collection system wouldn’t be cost-effective for these purposes. So, you are probably stuck with air freshener and opening the windows.
A Safety and Health Issue
Factory workers may face serious health risks from exposure to dust and fumes. In addition, combustible dust creates an environment where a fire or explosion could occur. We won’t include any boyfriend jokes here, because combustible dust accidents cause fatalities every year in the United States alone.
If the boyfriend is inhaling some sort of harmful fumes, he’s probably doing it on purpose, but workers exposed to industrial dust and fumes don’t have a choice. A factory dust extraction system will remove those harmful materials from the work area.
Some factories use dust suppression, which usually means spraying a fine water mist to take the dust and fumes out of the air. This leaves damp dust accumulated around the facility that still needs to be cleaned up. While a sprinkler system can be a critical part of fire control, water misting doesn’t get dust out of the building.
(Side note: try misting the annoying boyfriend with water, which may be an effective deterrent, since it works on the cat.)
(Side side note: contact us at Imperial Systems to talk about a factory dust control system, and don’t shop vac your daughter’s boyfriend, as we will not be held liable for what happens if you do.)
(Side side side note: We do want to see a video of it on YouTube though)
