Ferruform AB (situated in Luleå) is one of Scania’s production units, based in Sweden. Scania is well-known for its trucks, buses and coaches, but also produces engines for industrial and marine applications and power generation. In Luleå they make, among others, the metal bodies for the trucks.

Challenge

The steel frames are mainly produced by robotic welding machines, although occasionally manual welding takes place. These welding activities generate a lot of fumes and dust. This pollution needed to be extracted effectively, to be code-compliant and to offer the employees of Scania a safe and healthy working environment.

Solution

Plymovent created an engineered solution for the production unit in Luleå, Sweden.

Various welding processes are taking place in this production unit of Scania, all at fixed workplaces. Plymovent developed an engineered solution and installed the following products:

Tailor-made extraction hoods to cover robotic installations
Multiple arm systems with various extraction arms to remove welding fumes at source
OilShield units to prevent the filter cartridges of the central filter unit from clogging.

The extraction hoods, arms and limestone feeders are connected to ductwork.The ductwork is connected to a central filter system, the MultiDust® Bank (MDB). Plymovent opted for two MDB-40 units, meeting the required capacity.

In the automotive industry many welding applications involve oil e.g. to lubricate workpieces or machine tools. Oil is often the main reason that filter cartridges get clogged. To prevent filter cartridges from clogging by oil, Plymovent developed the OilShield. The OilShield feeds limestone into the ductwork, where it mixes with oils/oily fumes.The mixed limestone and oil become a dry matter, where as it reaches the filter, falls down in the dustbin. Without the OilShield the filter cartridges were clogged constantly, which led to high maintenance and filter replacements costs.

Testimonial

“We have been in contact with Plymovent for many years.They supplied high-quality extraction arms in the past. This time, we were looking for a large system solution to remove welding fumes and dust in general. Plymovent developed a system solution which met our requirements. Our production unit in Luleå needed to be code compliant.”

“Now, we are building 2 new production facilities nearby. We are already looking into the new welding fume extraction system together with Plymovent, of course tailored to our needs.”

– Mr Jan-Olov Waara, Project Manager of DynaMate AB (part of Scania)

Removing welding fumes and dust from truck production

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