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Machinery and Equipment MRO
BENEFITS OF DUST COLLECTOR PULSE VALVES
S Y S T E M S December 2020
Pulse valves are often used in dust collector systems for the grain, agriculture, and feed production industries.
Dust collector systems, like every product, have gone through technological upgrades and innovative changes to make them more valuable to the customer, by eliminating more dust and particulates from the air. BY MICHAEL RUSSO
MRO_Dec_2020_MAR.indd 14
Photos: Emerson
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usty environments in industries such as concrete, met- thereby lowering the cost of system operation. alworking, mining, steel mills, grain, agriculture, and Ideally, pulse valves should provide a high peak pressure feed are particularly susceptible to costly damage and blast of air, not only to achieve more effective dust collection downtime, due to particulates getting into machines. Dusty filter bag cleaning, but also to extend filter life. Insufficient air is a hazard to workers’ health; particularly in the food and peak pressure and slow valve response time result in poor filbeverage industries, where humans or animals must fight ter cleaning and wasted compressed air, an expensive consumpowder dust in the air. able, and a key element in market differentiation. Many of these industries use specific equipment for handling, storage, and drying operations. Cereal, protein powder, Pulse valve design and starch product industries are increasingly incorporating When considering pulse valve characteristics, key attributes aggressive anti-bacterial chemicals meant to help eliminate sought by OEMs, engineers, purchasing managers, and end-usthe risk of contamination of food that is in contact with these ers alike include robust performance, reliability and ease of machines — but these chemicals may also be damaging to use. Today’s more popular pulse valves offer users a simplified equipment over time. design that helps to maximize valve performance, translating It is easy to see why the industries meninto longer system uptimes. tioned above would use a dust collector sysThese valves are specifically developed for tem. However, consider other industries that filter cleaning of dust collectors and baghousmay not have much powder in the air, but es in reverse pulse jet systems. Those appliproduce a large volume of particulates, such cations require high peak pressure, high flow as automotive factories, chemical producers, rates, long life and extremely fast valve openand power plants. Frequently removing dust ing and closing for effective filter cleaning and particulates from the air of these autowhile minimizing compressed air waste. Some mated applications requires the use of specifpulse valves are specified to provide a long opic equipment that is resistant to a variety of erating life with over one million cycles. materials including aggressive agents. For the functional design of a pulse valve, It is imperative that companies incorpothere are multiple connection options, includrate highly efficient dust collector systems ing threaded, dresser and even a quick-mount to eliminate or reduce as many maintenance option that enables faster, easier, and more concerns as possible. Pulse valves are used secure installation. This is a major benefit to clean bag-type or cartridge-type filters in for initial installation and replacement situations. Further, it helps if the pulse valve can a dust collector system. These valves send a be mounted in any position without affecting high-energy pulse of air through the blow operation. Options for built-in silencers to retube creating a shock wave down the filters duce noise and prevent foreign particles from to remove dust. Higher air acceleration and Pulse valves are used to clean quicker valve response time helps clean filter bag-type or cartridge-type filters entering the valve are also important. bags better and consume less compressed air, in a dust collector system.
2021-01-13 8:48 AM
