Many companies regard their filters as a necessary evil – and they just take it for granted that their installations will just keep on working. Lack of maintenance, however, is the most common cause of breakdowns, so we have asked Alexander Bornefalk, who heads Nordifa’s service operation, to give his best advice for avoiding problems with clogging, leakage and reduced service life, etc.
- Check operating temperature and flow. Where flue gas treatment is fitted, for example, it is common to have “spikes” in operating temperature, and this can damage the filter medium. Uneven airflow points to fan problems, problems with the filter medium or variations in the fuel.
- Check pressure drop. The first sign of a clogged filter medium is a rise in pressure drop. This can also be due to the air blasting not working in compressed air cleaned filters.
- Check dust hopper at regular intervals. Dust ejection must work effectively. Otherwise, parts of the installation can be brought to a stop. Failure of dust ejection has also led to fires.
- Select filter media with care. Development in the textile fibre area is rapid, which means that better filter materials may be available now than when the last replacement was carried out. Nordifa will be happy to bring you up-to-date – talk to our technicians.
- Planned servicing is a lot cheaper than emergencies. Don’t wait until you have a breakdown before you adopt planned preventive maintenance. Downtime due to a breakdown of the filter medium always costs more than a preventive replacement.
- Always keep a complete filter media set on hand. If the worst happens, this is cheap insurance that gets you back in operation fast.