The Benefits Of A Latest-Generation Air Shower
Although the air shower is the safest decontamination solution for your workers, it must continually adapt to the industry’s increasingly exacting requirements. With that reality in mind, Airex worked for over a year on developing a new model with improved performance. Designed locally, this latest-generation air shower officially made its appearance in our catalogue. How does it differ from the previous version? Here is our comparison.
Three times more powerful
This completely redesigned decontamination device meets the expectations of companies concerned about the health and safety of their workers exposed to contaminated environments. This can involve hazardous materials such as crystalline silica, hexavalent chromium, lead, beryllium, strontium chromate or carcinogenic paint.
The experts at Airex started improving the unit on the basis of an earlier model of the air shower. Performance gains? They’re considerable! The airflow of this new version is greatly increased over the old one. For the previous version, fan performance was limited to 300 CFM versus 1,000 CFM for the most recent one. What does that mean? That the air velocity propelled through the nozzles is significantly increased from just under 5,000 FPM to 16,000 FPM!
Because of the increased airflow rate, dust is removed more quickly from the chamber where the worker stands. The air stream then directs the particles downward and extracts them through the filters. This speed of action enables more effective decontamination and provides safer working conditions for employees.
Incomparable filters
- Primary filter. Type G1 (Merv 1) filters are replaced with three MERV 16 cartridges. It’s the same type of filter media used for industrial dust collectors. In addition to filtering fine particles much more effectively, they have an exceptional lifespan. Combined with a self-cleaning system that removes dust before it clogs the filters, this improvement virtually eliminates the need to replace the filters – at least for a very long time.
- Secondary filter. Previously, the air shower’s second filter was 2 inches thick. We replaced it with a 12-inch HEPA filter. The advantage? Increasing the total filtering surface area of the HEPA filter provides an increased service life. Since you can never be too careful when it comes to workers' health, the secondary filter handles particles that may have escaped the primary filter section made up of MERV 16 cartridges.
Effectiveness with no concessions
When it comes to decontamination, the devil is often in the details. Hence the need for a fail-safe solution and for no parameters to be overlooked. This is the goal behind the design of our new air shower.
- Change in nozzle arrangement. The new model has 11 nozzles, like the old one. These are still orbital and can be adjusted 360 degrees. However, we repositioned them so that they more effectively clean the worker, from hard hat to boots.
- Reinforcement of the unit. The latest-generation air shower is manufactured with more solid and durable industrial-grade 12-gauge steel. Fully bolted, the unit is easily disassembled, providing better access to all the various compartments.
- The option that makes a difference. The secondary HEPA filter can now be replaced with an ULPA filter. This component of unequalled performance is used in places such as laboratories and the pharmaceutical sector for handling very fine particles. The ULPA filter has a filtration capacity of 99.9995% for 0.12 µm particles, whereas the HEPA filter – which is already very efficient – is 99.97% effective for 0.3 µm particles. Therefore, the ULPA filter performs well enough to purify air contaminated with particles as fine as viruses. For example, the size of the COVID-19 virus varies from 0.06 to 0.140 µm.
Are you ready to move to a new level in the decontamination solutions that you provide to your workers? Contact our experts to learn more about our latest-generation air shower.