Cyclone Separators and Dust-Collection Bag Filters

When you work with fine powders and materials that build up a lot of dust or other impurities in the air, it’s important that you take steps to filter the air in your work environment and keep the particulates from harming anybody or affecting productivity.

What Is a Cyclone Separator and How Does a Cyclone Filter Work?

Cyclone separators remove particulates from air streams to an extremely thorough degree so the air in your work environment remains pure and your workers can breathe easily no matter what materials they handle day to day. The separator uses an airflow rotating at high, predetermined speeds within an upside-down cone or cylinder container. Dirty air moves into the separator, and the two spiral vortexes inside — one pushing out coarse, larger particles while the other manages fine dust — work to remove particulates in the air down to 1 micron or less.

What Is a Bag Filter?

Dust-collection bag filters work to remove dust in the air created through industrial manufacturing and other commercial jobs. Filter bags for baghouses and dust-collection systems on the market today come in a wide variety of sizes, dust flows and fabrics like polyester, nylon, polypropylene and more to make sure you have the right bags with a strong resistance to dust and gas. These filters often have hoppers that direct contaminated air into its compartment, where the cleaning process takes place.

Cyclone Separator vs. Bag Filter

Each filtration option can be the right choice for a company, depending on products handled most frequently. Cyclone separators are more effective with large amounts of particulate matter in the air. These separators have the advantage on maintenance and operation costs, because they have no moving parts. They also take up little space. The matter removed from the air is collected dry, allowing for easy disposal. On the other hand, cyclone separators cannot collect extremely fine or small particulate matter, and they do not easily filter sticky material.

Dust-collection bag filters, sometimes referred to simply as baghouses, are ideal for industries that produce extremely small, submicron particulates. Many manufacturing industries like metalworking sometimes produce toxic fumes that can harm anyone breathing them. There are several options on the market, giving customers an appealing list of choices. A disadvantage to bag filters is that owners have to replace the bags periodically, with bag lifetime depending on a number of factors like size and material.

The decision between cyclone separators and dust-collection bag filters depends entirely on your industry and the type of material most often moving through your factory, warehouse or other location. Do you have more questions? Call us at Midwestern Bag & Supply to learn more about cyclone separators and dust-collection bag filters.