The Bottom-Line Impact of Modular Industrial Air Filtration on Manufacturing Capabilities

Airborne particulates can be a constant challenge for manufacturers. These contaminants can increase wear rates, waste man-hours in clean-ups and rework, and cause potential health problems for employees.

Unfortunately, installing a permanent clean room to control airborne particulates is not a cost-effective option, due to footprint and potential productivity disruptions. For manufacturers with larger spaces, such as the aerospace industry, permanent enclosures can pose a significant cost burden.

This reality and other considerations have led many manufacturers to seek outside solutions for finishing processes, mainly in the form of outsourcing. After all, outsourcing minimizes capital expenditures, significant changes to shop floor space, and major impacts to HVAC systems. But what if there was an alternative to outsourcing that could improve in-house quality control, minimize impact to shop floor space, improve worker safety, and reduce the cost burden?

Let’s take a closer look at how modular air filtration can positively impact a manufacturer's bottom line while keeping the prospect of bringing finishing capabilities in-house more practical.

Production Lead Time

Packaging and transporting workpieces or large components offsite can add days or weeks to production lead time, which also extends delivery dates and increases inventory, transportation, and handling costs.

Alternatively, a modular solution offers a cost-effective option for establishing temporary, compliant environments for specialized processes by deploying the modular air filtration system around the product only when needed.

This flexible air filtration solution removes the disruption to existing production processes, reduces the cost burden for installation and setup of a permanent cleanroom or enclosure, and allows manufacturers to align air filtration with peaks and valleys in production to increase capacity.

Quality Control

Permanent spray booths traditionally feature downdraft or cross draft airflow technologies, both of which have limitations in improving dry times, controlling overspray, and preventing particulate contamination. Alternatively, Duroair retractable spray booths use patented taper draft airflow technology to create an airflow envelope around the workpiece rather than directing air into or across the paint.

This precise airflow management ensures more paint reaches the workpiece surface and can increase throughput, reduce lead time and inventory, and lower quality costs by reducing drying times, raising product quality, and eliminating cleaning steps. It also reduces the need for quick-dry agents that can negatively impact quality.

Optimized Material Handling

There is a growing lean manufacturing trend to bring equipment to the workpiece, which reduces the non-value adding aspect of material handling that can easily eat into profit. Rather than moving pieces into spray booths, prep areas or clean rooms, a modular solution surrounds the piece while in place, minimizing the potential for damage from over-handling and making material handling much more efficient.

This allows manufacturers to better utilize workspace for bringing key production processes in-house and enables them to take on larger projects with the additional overhead space created for crane access in key areas of the floor.

Better Workspace Utilization

Even when air filtration is used infrequently, a modular solution is easily deployed when you need it and out of the way when you don’t. As each process is completed, a retractable clean room or enclosure can be folded and stored so that factory floor space can be used for actual production vs. material handling.

Making expensive, permanent changes to workshop floor space is neither efficient nor cost-effective. For example, rearranging a manufacturing floor to accommodate large workpieces can drain capacity and increase material handling costs. It can also lead to downtime and OEE impact when workpieces have to be constantly relocated to a dedicated space for clean room or similar operations.

Instead of allocating floorspace for low-utilization operations or decreasing ROI due to space-consuming process conflicts, a modular solution can be cost-effectively deployed when and where it’s needed.

Capital Expenditure and Operating Cost

With Duroair’s non-vented retractable enclosures, manufacturers are already realizing a significant cost reduction in overall operating efficiency, including:

• Reduced installation and permitting expenses associated with permanent enclosures
• Eliminated construction costs associated with facility-wide HVAC systems, such as ductwork and structural supports
• Reduced HVAC maintenance and cleaning
• Limited materials handling expenses associated with floor space restructuring
• Increased floor space flexibility for potential productivity enhancements

Each Duroair retractable enclosure requires little setup time and can easily be stored until needed, without excessive downtime for deployment. Floor space is optimized for more efficient integration with production workflow. As a result, manufacturers see increased ROI and reduced capital expenditure.

Realize Your In-House Manufacturing Capabilities with Modular Industrial Air Filtration

Outsourcing specific manufacturing tasks can reduce short-term capital expenditure. But with industrial modular air filtration from Duroair, your operations can reap the long-term, ROI benefits of keeping sanding, blasting, coating, or painting tasks in-house.

These operational savings may include:

• Easier quality control and oversight of finishing procedures
• Fewer opportunities for project damage due to transport mishaps
• Reduced lead time for transporting pieces off-site
• Fewer project delays due to off-site setbacks
• Lower materials handling costs and reduced labor for transporting large pieces to subcontractors

With modular industrial air filtration, manufacturers can have more in-house manufacturing capability and increased floor space to accommodate larger projects such as airline engines or ship propulsion systems.

Duroair can customize a modular air filtration solution to help you expand your in-house manufacturing capabilities and improve safety for your valued employees. Contact our industrial clean air experts today for a free consultation on how we can help you improve in-house quality control, minimize impact to shop floor space, improve worker safety, and reduce the air filtration cost burden.