A pallet fabrication company called for help with their operation in Franklin IN. They process dimensional hardwood into heat treated pallets for domestic and international use. They had recently added some automation equipment and additional saws to their production operation. Their old dust collection system would plug and they could only run half of their equipment at a time. Not to mention several hours a day were spent cleaning sawdust off of the floor. The other issue was the PVC pipe they had used can cause a static electric buildup and potentially an ignition source for the combustible dust. The new saws had overwhelmed their old dust collection system.
We designed a new 10,000 cubic feet per minute dust collection system that collects and dumps 4,032 cubic feet of sawdust per shift. Two 5,000 CFM collectors were incorporated in the design as collectors over 5,000 CFM require expensive in-duct fire suppression systems. This saved the customer over $30,000 in additional project cost. The high efficiency cyclones pull the sawdust through the system, deposit the dust and expel 95% clean air. This increases the life of the fan as only 5% of the dust actually goes through the fan, drastically reducing wear on the fan impeller. The customer wanted the discharge to be 14’ off of the ground to eliminate contact with haul out trucks. Horner Fan and Fan designed a structure to eliminate torsional forces as the rotating mass of this collection system is 32’ in the air. The customer is very happy with their new system. They can now run all 15 saws, all day without any problems. This system will bring them savings in higher production rates, lower labor costs for cleanup and longer equipment life as well as a cleaner shop environment to work in.
