The NSW Maintrain rail maintenance facility in Sydney, designed to handle up to 1500 locomotives and carriages a year were recently bedeviled with the problem of the air being choked with potentially harmful welding fumes in their work space.
Designed to make mechanical repairs on NSW State rail trains so as to keep the trains running as well as also removing the operating grime, grit and graffiti from State Rail trains and return them to service in pristine condition, the issue of welding fumes floating in the work areas was an important one that needed addressing.
According to Terry Burton, Line Manager, Private Rolling Stock Maintenance Company, they do a lot of welding MIG/Flux core welding mainly and for a long time they were not using any form of fume extraction. They looked around for extraction equipment available and found that Active Air had what they thought was best on the market.
The product Burton chose was the FF 120, mobile fume extractor, available from Active Air Rentals . The FF 120 is a self contained unit with a complex filter assembly that is able filter the harmful metals and chemicals out of the air. According to John Sweeny, the Business Operations Manager of Active Air, the FF 120 is the perfect choice for a company like Maintrain.
The FF120 has a robust and sturdy design, provides effective filtration, is energy efficient, runs from single phase power, requires no installation and is effective for both fine and large particle filtration. Now that Maintrain are using the Active Air fume extractors, the air is cleaner, the workers are happy with the new extractors and they are looking to get some more in future.The cost of not keeping the air clean for the workers is greater than the cost of any industrial air extraction system. Under the various state and territory OH&S laws, most companies do not have a choice but for choosing an air cleaner or fume extractor.