WAMs Successful Fight Against Air Pollution

Case History on an Installation of TECU + RECOFIL™ + EASYFILL™ in Modena, Italy

In our factory we use five plasma cutting machines, six hydraulic presses and one striking shear. On average we work between twenty and thirty sheets per day, the equivalent of about thirty tons. This means that we produce a large amount of smoke and dust, so we have to suck fumes and we have to collect and dispose of the dust, which is obviously a big problem.

The problem of emissions in the environment is a serious one because with five plasma machines which generate a significant amount of smoke and dust, we need a good suction system including dust collectors. The big challenge is the disposal of the dust collected by the filters, keeping in mind that, on average, we collect about forty litres of dust from each filter twice a day. That dust is filled manually into sealed containers and then disposed of. This requires a lot of money and time. It's a problem of downtime too because disposal of the dust keeps the operators busy. They also complain about inhaling fumes and dust. Besides all that, the work environment is extremely dirty.

For the collection of the dust we accidentally discovered that when the dust stays in storage containers and takes rainwater it becomes very compact. So we were very interested in finding a system for conditioning and compacting the dust before transfer and disposal. On the other hand, this caused a huge problem of pollution and dirt in the yard and it was certainly not a very convenient and efficient way to operate.

At that point we were lucky enough to come across WAM® through one of our machinery suppliers. Together with WAM® we analysed the problem. WAM® has faced the issue with the right concept. They've developed a system which we have applied and tested with great enthusiasm. The dust is now automatically sucked from the filter hopper and collected in a bulk bag. And there is a double advantage. Not only does the dust no longer get into the atmosphere, but it is actually compacted automatically.

The RECOFIL™ recovery system is giving us some further advantages: There is no more dust on the floor, and no more dust washed into the drains by rain water. But the greatest advantage we've found is that the dust is now becoming automatically compacted. Before, we used an impressive number of closed containers for disposal at the landfill. Now, with only one bulk bag we do the same job that before we needed 50/60 containers for.

There is also WAM®'s TECU filter. Actually, it all started with our machine supplier informing us about WAM® when we had a filter problem. WAM® supplied us with a smaller filter. However, it is more efficient than the ones we've used so far. Obviously we are extremely satisfied about that. Then we've added this RECOFIL™ system which enables us to solve the dust pollution problem. So quite frankly, we are 100% satisfied.