Wet Dust Collectors

Wet dust collectors are common for use with aluminum, titanium and other explosive metal dusts. Sanding, grinding, and polishing metals creates fine particulates that are most safely collected in a wet collector. Typical industries/applications for wet collectors are aircraft manufacturers, milling & refining, ceramics, foundries, and makers of electrical components. Filter-1 wet collectors are in use at Boeing, American Airlines, General Electric, Lockheed Martin, Dupont Corporation and Raytheon, to name a few. Wet collectors come in three configurations: ducted, downdraft table or collection booth. All 3 of which meet NFPA standard 484 for collection of metal dust

Cartridge collectors, bag house, shaker bags or cyclones have all been applied to metal dust collection, but all present some additional risk compared to wet collectors. Using these types of dust collectors also requires additional accessories like explosion vents, abort gates or grounded filters. These accessories add to the overall cost of the unit as well as additional maintenance requirements.

Choosing ducted, downdraft or booths for your wet collector is primarily based upon how your operators perform their processes. If they are working on stationary grinders then a ducted system is best, if they have smaller pieces that they move around then a downdraft table might be most efficient, however if the operator is using a hand grinder and working around a piece of material then a booth would make the most sense. Some optional equipment may include sludge conveyors, HEPA filters or explosion proof motors among many others. Although wet collectors offer slightly more maintenance hours versus cartridge collectors, they are innately safer due to the use of water and they offer peace of mind that explosion protection systems can’t give you as the goal of the wet collector is to avoid the explosion altogether rather than protect against it.