The German company Kemper GmbH, which has a UK subsidiary in Wellingborough (www.kemper.co.uk), has expanded its CleanAirTower series for air pollution control in welding (and other working) environments.

The CleanAirTower SF 5000 and SF 9000 are ventilation systems with storage filters and ‘Cloud connectivity’, allowing all machine parameters to be monitored from anywhere — at any time.

The SF 5000 has an extraction capacity of 5,000m³/hr, while the SF 9000 has a capacity of 9,000m3/hr; and because of their comparatively low height, they can be installed in facilities with low ceilings. They use replaceable storage filters.

The systems capture welding fumes in a 360deg radius at a height of 2.70 or 3.40m respectively; and operators can switch on a new TurboBoost mode if the concentration of ‘hazardous substances’ becomes particularly high.

This temporarily increases the extraction capacity by about 30%; and even at the highest power level, the noise level is only 76 dB(A).

By interfacing these units to the Kemper Connect portal, they can ‘network with the Cloud’ (in just seconds) via a mobile wireless-based connection.

All relevant data flows into the Cloud in real time. Users can intuitively put together individual dashboards and user interfaces.

The portal can control the CleanAirTower automatically, such as when the AirWatch air-monitoring system measures high concentrations of hazardous substances.

The permanent recording and evaluation of relevant process parameters also enables predictive maintenance — and even paves the way for ‘smart maintenance’.