Are you considering upgrading your old shaker or reverse air baghouse to a modern pulse jet style baghouse but are limited by budget, time, or square footage? If yes, then a baghouse conversion or rebuild might be right for your capital improvement project.
Outdated baghouse dust collectors, such as older shaker style or reverse air style collectors, can often be rebuilt or upgraded at a fraction of the cost of installing a new baghouse. Side walls, hoppers, and ductwork are reused in the conversion, and a new clean air plenum with bags and cages is supplied.
Signs That It’s Time to Upgrade, Rebuild, or Recondition Your Baghouse System
In the world of industrial operations, baghouses play a vital role in the collection of dust and other particulates for maintaining healthy indoor and outdoor clean air environments. However, to ensure their optimal performance, it's crucial to identify when a baghouse needs an upgrade. Here are several ways to tell:
Immediate Signs:
- Frequent Filter Replacement: If you are consistently replacing your baghouse filters before their typical service life, it's a clear indicator that your baghouse system may need an upgrade. Normal lifespans for filter bags can range from 12 to 36 months based on the industry and operating conditions.
- Excessive Emissions: Rising emission levels can signal deteriorating efficiency in your baghouse system. This could be due to wear and tear or outdated technology. Modern systems are designed to meet stringent emission standards.
- Frequent Shutdowns: The necessity for regular unplanned shutdowns to manage bag leaks, repairs, or replacements is a red flag. A well-functioning baghouse should operate consistently without causing disruptions.
Long-term Indicators:
- Outdated Design: If your baghouse is built on an old design, it may not efficiently handle today's environmental protection standards. Besides, it could lack modern features for effective dust collection, safety, and operational efficiency.
- Changes in Production Process: Changes in your operational process or an increase in production capacity can lead to your existing baghouse not being sufficient anymore. If you've recently scaled up your processes, it might be time to upgrade your baghouse.
- Too large of a baghouse system footprint for your plant.
If any of these issues apply to your industrial plant, then it might be time to consider cost-beneficial plans for re-designing or upgrading your baghouse system.
Want to learn more? Here are additional IAC resources about baghouse conversion projects:
Baghouse to Filter Receiver Conversion for a Woodworking Shop
Modernizing Old Baghouses Within the Original Housing
Baghouse Dust Collector Conversions, Refurbishments, and Rebuilds
Benefits of Upgrading to a Pulse Jet Baghouse Cleaning System
- Air flow could be increased by 2-3x, thus allowing optimum production efficiency.
- Reduced spare parts and filter inventory due to the commonality of modern pulse jet components and system design.
- Collection efficiency is improved with efficient pulse jet cleaning, typically increasing the amount of gas volume the baghouse can clean without increasing the collector size.
- Improving filter media and cleaning technology can help your baghouse meet or exceed indoor and outdoor clean air standards / EPA rules and regulations.
- The footprint of a baghouse with a pulse jet filter media cleaning system is often much smaller (by up to 1/3 the size) than that of older shaker style or reverse-air baghouses. So not only would your new system be more efficient, it would also create more open space in the plant. This is especially helpful when industrial plants have indoor baghouses and limited ceiling heights or other building obstructions.
- Cost savings from reduced maintenance inspections, repairs, improved uptime, and replacing parts or filters before their usual service life expectations.
As a full service manufacturer of baghouse dust collection systems, IAC has the staff to not only design the collector, but fabricate the unit, manage the project, and provide the installation service. We also offer complete baghouse maintenance services and a complete line of replacement parts and filters.