On-Demand Dust Collection
What is On-Demand Dust Collection?
Imagine a house where every light is controlled by one switch—wasteful and expensive. Traditional industrial ventilation works the same way: one "switch" for the whole system, regardless of actual need. It’s a significant waste of electricity and money.
Ecogate's On-Demand Control System simplifies this. It gives every workstation its own ‘switch’, ensuring targeted ventilation only when and where it's needed. This cuts energy use and costs dramatically, making your operation smarter and more efficient.
Traditional
Industrial Ventilation Systems
Traditionally, industrial ventilation systems run at full capacity, non-stop. It's a one-size-fits-all approach where each machine, active or not, is treated equally by the dust collection system, leading to constant energy consumption throughout the work shift, before and after shifts, and during breaks.
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This "always-on" method isn't just inefficient; it's costly. For industries like woodworking, dust collection can devour up to 30% of a factory's electricity bill, a significant expense for an operation running lean on margins.
If your factory operates like this, you're losing money.
Opt for an On-Demand Ecogate System, where savings meet efficiency.
This animation highlights this inefficiency vividly. Red arrows trace the airflow, and white particles mark the dust journey through the ducts. Notice the green glow around machines only when they're actually emitting dust? Despite that, the system doesn't adjust—operating at peak capacity, regardless of the real-time demand.
Industrial Ventilation Based on Workstation Active Utilization
A properly installed Ecogate system automates your dust (fume/mist) collection system, automatically opening/closing gates at each drop and adjusting your collector/fan in real-time to match only the exact needs of your workstations’ Active Utilization.
Workstation Active Utilization - is the percentage of the shift time when a particular workstation is producing dust (fume, mist) and therefore requires dust collecting. The rest of the time is when the material is loaded or unloaded to the machine, when the machine is programmed, cleaned, maintained or simply not used - which in our 25+ year experience is usually up to 50% of the shift even for the biggest, high-volume factories.
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We have data from long-term monitoring of production facilities of all sizes all over the world. While production managers assume their busiest workstations likely have an 80%+ Active Utilization, reality shows it’s at most, half of that. The good news is, this represents a huge opportunity for financial savings for you.
Ecogate On-Demand Control System Components
Installed at every workstation, these sensors are tailored to each machine, connecting to the circuit active just before dust extraction is needed. For instance, with a CNC saw, the sensor would link to the circuit triggering the material-holding arm—this action happens right before cutting begins, ensuring timely dust collecting.
Activated by the Workstation Activity Sensor, the Smart Gate receives a signal indicating the workstation is in use. It then processes this information and communicates with the greenBOX Control Unit.
The brain of the system, the greenBOX, processes data from all gates to calculate the exact air volume (in CFM, Cubic Feet per minute) required at each workstation. It determines the optimal fan speed and opens and closes gates efficiently based on real-time demand. All within milliseconds.
The Power Master Variable Frequency Drive controls the speed of your fan and the start and stop of your dust collector, based on the greenBOX’s calculations.