Weld Fume Management Guide: Finding the Right Weld Fume Extractor for Weld Training Facilities

How to Control Weld Fumes in a Training Environment

To counter the trend of a shrinking welder pool – as many as 400,000 operators by 2024, the industry is taking a three-pronged approach: training more operators, helping existing employees build skills, and educating existing manual welders to operate automated systems.

With the focus on education, weld training facilities must be prepared to balance safety concerns and the quality of instruction with an eye towards quick expansion to meet demand. Plus, up-and-coming welders are savvier than ever, demanding clean air environments and steady equipment. A weld fume extraction system for training applications must be able to ebb and flow with a fluctuating number of students while the capture of weld training fumes must not interfere with the teacher/student interaction.

This weld fume management guide, Finding the Right Weld Fume Extractor for Weld Training Facilities, will touch on a number of considerations to think about as training facilities decide on the appropriate clean air technology.

3 Weld Fume Extractor Considerations for Weld Training Facilities

When it comes to choosing the right weld fume extractor for training, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. Really, though, the considerations boil down to three main ideas. If you want to take a deeper dive into how to choose a source capture or ambient ventilation system, make sure to check out those Weld Fume Management Guides.

Self-Contained

Both self-contained weld stations and central-ducted systems can provide some flexibility, but the cost to expand a central ducted system to meet a growing class size could be prohibitive. For that reason, self-contained systems, integrating a workspace, capture technology and filtration equipment in a single unit, are an ideal solution for weld training facilities.

Additionally, self-contained systems do not rely on ducting, which could be an issue in facilities where overhead space is at a premium, and another welding station can be placed in space where a central ducted filtration cabinet might otherwise need to be.

Quick to Install (and, Potentially, Move)

As noted above, the demand for welders and the ability of the workforce to meet those demands will fluctuate over the next decade. For this reason, any training facility's weld fume extraction plan should be scalable to meet class size while maximizing profitability and available floor space.

The best weld fume extraction systems can be professionally installed and operational in as little as an hour to provide seamless results for the weld training facility. The benefit of such quick installation is flexibility, and flexibility is key for training facilities. Many units require little more than electricity and a compressed air hook-up to be functional, and these should be at the forefront of any weld training facilities extraction plans.

Allow for Interaction

Weld training would not be training at all without the valuable student-teacher interaction. To accommodate this collaboration, fume extraction equipment at weld training stations should be incorporated into the unit itself or positioned strategically overhead so as to not encumber the work space.

Downdraft or crossflow tables are a popular choice for weld training facilities since they are both self-contained and provide an easy-to-interact-in space for collaboration. An additional option includes a sturdy workstation with source capture equipment placed overhead. This second option may require a central ducted system, and that sometimes is not the ideal solution for weld training facilities for reasons listed earlier.

Controlling Weld Fumes with RoboVent

RoboVent are the leaders in clean air technology with decades of experience providing a variety of industrial ventilation solutions. More important, RoboVent is more than a supplier – they are a team of engineering professionals committed to delivering systems and products that improve the environment, process systems, and the health and safety of your workers.

RoboVent assumes total project responsibility for the systems it delivers meaning there is a single source of responsibility for you to rely on. While quality and construction and continued technological innovative are vital to the service RoboVent provides, it is the personalized customer care that sets our solutions apart.

Contact RoboVent today to learn more about our innovative systems, processes and approach.