Industrial and Commercial Electrostatic Industry Terms

Industrial and Commercial Electrostatic Industry Terms

ACCELERATION LOSS: How much energy that is required to accelerate the air to induce airflow at the entry of a system.

ACFM: Actual Cubic Feet per Minute of gas volume at any point of a system. This is used as a basis in rating Fans.

ABSORPTION: The process by which one thing absorbs or is absorbed by another.

AIR CLEANER: A device for filtering airborne particles of dusts, gases, fumes and smoke.

AIR FLOW: The flow of air.

AIR QUALITY STANDARDS: The acceptable level of a concentrated pollutant that is permitted in an atmosphere to avoid detrimental effects.

AIR POLLUTION: The presence of a gas, fume or particulate matter either alone or in conjunction with each other in an atmosphere which has harmful or poisonous effects.

AIR VELOCITY: An airstreams rate of speed, normally measured by fpm (feet per minute).

AMBIENT: Immediate surroundings or vicinity, not ducted to the source. AKA FREE AIR.

AMCA: Air Movement and Control Association

BACKDRAFT DAMPER: Damper that is used in a system to relieve air pressure in a given direction.

BAROMETRIC PRESSURE: A measurement of the pressure of an atmosphere.

BLOW THROUGH: pollutants that pass through a collector as a result of heavy loading or high velocity.

CAKING: When a substance hardens to the surface of an object when dried.

CAPTURE VELOCITY: The amount of air velocity required to overcome opposing air currents and capture the contaminated air.

CARTRIDGE FILTER: A method of collecting air borne particulates by use of pleated cellulose, synthetic fibers or a combination of both in a cylindrical shape.

CENTRIFUGAL COLLECTOR: Any system that uses centrifugal force to remove particles from an air stream.

CFM: Cubic Feet per Minute.

COLLECTION: The removal of airborne pollutants from an atmosphere. A successful system must include both the capture and collection of airborne pollutants.

COLLECTION CELL: A metal cell within an electrostatic precipitator where the particle collection occurs. Both charged and grounded plates are required in the process.

COLLECTOR PLATE: A portion of the collection cell used to attract and retain a particle from the air.

CONTAMINANT: Any material or gas, fume, vapor or particle that pollutes an atmosphere.

DAMPER: A mechanism used to regulate airflow throughout a system.

DUST: Fine, dry powder consisting of tiny particles that are the result of operations or actions.

DUST COLLECTOR: A system that is used to extract airborne impurities that are a result of industrial and commercial processes.

DWELL TIME: The length of time the air takes to pass through an air cleaner.

EFFICIENCY: This term refers to the ability of an air cleaning system to remove airborne particles.

ELECTROSTATIC PRECIPITATOR: Electrostatic air cleaners (EAC) are a high-efficiency air cleaner that achieves up to 99.3% collection of particles at .3 µm. The air cleaner contains two elements. The ionization section and a collecting plate section.

EMISSION: Release of pollutants into the air from a source.

ENTRY LOSS: The loss of pressure in a system normally caused by air flowing into it.

EPA: Environmental Protection Agency.

FAN: A machine that moves a continuous volume of air.

FILTER COLLECTOR: A filtration system for removing particulate matter. Commonly referred to as a bag collector.

FPM: Feet per minute, typically about the movement of an air flow.

FUME: A gas consisting of dispersed liquids or solids which consist of particles smaller than 1 micron.

GAS: A state of matter that is an airlike fluid substance which expands freely to fill any space available.

GROUND ELECTRODES: Vertical plates separating ionizers forming the electrically grounded element for the ionizing field that also contain and direct air particles during the ionization process.

HEPA FILTER: High Efficiency Particulate Air Filter

HERTZ: Frequency measured in cycles per second

HOOD: A shaped inlet designed to capture contaminated air and transport it into the exhaust duct system.

HORSEPOWER: An index that refers to how much work a machine can perform in a given period of time.

INDICATOR LIGHT: The light on an electrostatic air cleaner that shows whether the ionizer and collection cell have the correct voltage. These can be red, orange or green but all mean that it is functioning correctly if lit.

IONIZER: The portion of an electrostatic air cleaner that places a positive or negative charge on a particle.

MAKE-UP AIR: The process of replacing exhausted air through a ventilation system.

MERV: Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value and is in accordance with the ASHRAE 52.2 test method.

MICRON: A unit of length equal to one-millionth of a meter.

MIST: Liquid droplets that are less than 10 microns in size and are suspended in the air.

NOISE CRITERIA: A method for the design architect to specify the maximum permissible sound power level.

NON – ATTAINMENT AREA: An area where the atmosphere hasn’t reached hasn’t yet reached the National Ambient Air Quality Standards as defined by the CAAA.

OSHA: Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

OZONE: A compound that consist of three oxygen atoms. This is the common compound behind smog and can be considered dangerous to the lungs and natural elements.

PARTICLE: A small, discrete mass of solid or liquid material.

PARTICULATE MATTER: Any solid or liquid material in the atmosphere.

PLENUM: An enclosure that is typically used as a pressure equalizing chamber.

PM10: This term refers to the amount of particulate matter under 10 micrometers in diameter that is suspended in the air.

PPM (PARTS PER MILLION): The number of parts of a given pollutant in a million parts of air.

PREFILTER: A filter in electrostatic precipitators that has two common uses. First is to capture large particles to avoid rapid loading and second to evenly distribute the air for proper collection.

POWER SUPPLY: An electrical device used in electrostatic precipitators that converts AC line power to high voltage DC Power for the Ionizer and collector cells.

SOURCE CAPTURE: A term used to when an air cleaning system is designed to capture pollutants directly from a process or machine.

SMOKE: An aerosol particle suspended in the air which can be solid or liquid. Typically, smaller than 1 micron in diameter.

TANDEM PASS: An air cleaner that has a second set of ionizer and collection cells, to in crease the efficiency when there is a heavy smoke load, also know as Double Pass.

VAPOR: A substance in gaseous form.

VENTILATION: A process of removing or adding additional air by natural or mechanical means from or to a space.

VOLT: A unit of electrical potential or pressure. 110 or 230, 460 volts are normally found in the US.