Dust and fume extraction

Citation

(2000), "Dust and fume extraction", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 72 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2000.12772aad.003

Dust and fume extraction

Keywords Nederman, Fume extractions, Aerospace industry

Nederman supplies dust and fume extraction equipment to a wide range of industries including chemical, pharmaceutical and fabrication. The company informs us that it is now finding an increasing market in supplying equipment to the aerospace industry.

With COSHH legislation and increasing awareness of Health and Safety issues, the company believes that the aerospace industry recognises the importance of capturing at source and extracting dust and fumes away from the workplace.

Contamination by foreign matter cannot be tolerated when working on aircraft due to the obvious safety aspects. To this end, aircraft and component manufacturers are said to be increasingly using high-vac systems from Nederman, including on-tool extraction, foreign object removal and general clean-up, mainly used when carrying out any machinery or maintenance work.

According to Nederman, the use of centralised high vacuum units enables one automatic unit to supply the extraction requirements of a complete aircraft hangar with up to 16 workstations. Vacuum valves form a key part of the system ensuring that only the required number of inlets are in use when required.

The company also reports that being fully automatic, the Nederman E-Pak system speeds up or slows down automatically to provide the same suction whether one workstation is being used or 16. Indeed, the microprocessor control is so sophisticated that the unit returns to stand-by mode if not used for a few minutes, giving greater energy saving capabilities.

Aerospace companies manufacturing and servicing military aircraft use the Nederman High Vac system for taking away aluminium and carbon swarf created during drilling and deburring. When using on-tool extraction the unwanted particles are removed at source; this is thought to be a major health and safety benefit as well as eliminating the chance of foreign matter contamination.

Another health and safety aspect of the centralised system is the elimination of trailing pipes and cables, the collection hose being plugged in only when required - sometimes up to 250m away from the vacuum unit.

Gary Keene, Business Manager at Nederman, speaking about a particular application at Shorts Aircraft, Belfast, stated:

They have 18 units presently installed on the Airbus production line extracting debris created whilst drilling carbon and aluminium fuselages including the engine air intake cowls. At the moment hand-held dust collectors are used. We are introducing them to on-tool dust extractors fitted on to the drill which will eliminate the need of a two-handed operation.

Details available from: Nederman Ltd. Tel: +44 (0)1772 334721; Fax: +44 (0)1772 315273.