Design of a ventilation system for a steel welding operation

A manufacturing plant was experiencing difficulties managing fumes released by robotic and manual welding processes.

Synergetics staff were asked to provide recommendations for a ventilation system which could meet stringent occupational exposure limits without disrupting the production operations.

The problem was confounded by a complex set of flow and space constraints, and numerous and widely separated welding points.

The modeling demonstrated that by careful extraction hood design, satisfactory fume capture could be attained using minimal extraction flow under the full range of production operating conditions.