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Welding and paint fumes are among the major health risks facing site workers today.
Fortunately, there are actions you can take to minimise the risks on your worksite, with RVT Group providing customised fume extraction system solutions to clients across Australia.
Fumes are harmful solid particles generated by chemical reactions such as oxidation and thermal breakdown and are one of the critical health risks facing site workers today.
Excessive exposure to welding fumes is carcinogenic, leading to lung cancer, but it can also immediately impact the eyes and the skin. When working in confined spaces, there is also a real risk of asphyxiation.
Likewise, paint fumes can cause a variety of skin and eye irritations. Longer term the health risks are also serious and include potential issues with the nervous system, liver and kidneys.
RVT Group’s industrial and welding fume extraction systems are available for long-term hire, protecting your workers’ health and helping to see your project through to completion.
Each project RVT Group tackles has unique challenges and risks.
It is therefore important we have both the technical expertise and industry leading equipment to keep your worksite safe. We lease Ravex fumes equipment, including welding fume filters, fume extraction kits, and fume filtration kits, as a bespoke solution that will improve and maintain high-quality air.
RVT Group provides a wide range of fume extraction equipment that is available for long-term hire for projects across Australia.
View Ravex Equipment
Ravex fume extraction units help to ensure that you remain well within Work Exposure Standard (WES) limits
Ravex units are durable and reliable, ensuring you don't have any downtime on site
A variety of filters available to suit different applications
Welding Filters enable you to remain compliant with state regulations
Capable of removing hot and volatile fumes when used in conjunction with our spark guard
Albeit paint fume, welding fume, vapours or other volatile substances, Ravex is the ideal fume control solution
From small welding filter units to full scale fume extraction and ventilation systems
All RVT products are fully approved to European standards and hold third party certification
There are many worksite tasks that can lead to dangerous fumes, including heavy equipment repairs, ship repairs, steel erection, and pipe fitting. Here, workers use different types of welding, such as the arc, MIG, and thermit varieties. Unfortunately, these welding jobs produce hazardous chemical process gases.
Solvent vapours, byproducts of industrial coating, degreasing, manufacturing, paint removal, and printing ink can also put on-site workers at risk.
To ensure your staff’s health is protected, consideration should be given to an effective fume extraction system to capture and filter fumes, mists, vapours, and gases whilst continuously bringing fresh air in.
The effect of fumes, mists, vapours, and gases can vary substantially depending on the exposure time, type, and concentration. Workers can experience headaches, dizziness, nausea, and fatigue in the short term when exposed to these hazards. Exposure to solvent vapours can also result in reddening and blistering of the skin, and poor coordination.
In the long term, inhaling dangerous fumes, mists, vapours, or gases can result in a range of health issues including lung disease, heart disease, brain and nerve damage, and decreased fertility. More volatile fumes, such as welding fumes, have also been classified as carcinogenic. These fumes can cause cancer of the lungs, kidney and bladder. Health experts have also linked solvent vapours to the development of dementia in later life.
Challenge
Each project is unique and has the potential to be challenging. An effective fume extraction system may include a variety of obstacles:
A fume extraction system design that considers these factors is crucial to the health of your workforce and the success of your project.
Risks
Choosing an inappropriate or ineffective fume extraction system can significantly affect workers’ health. Exposure time, contaminant quality, and concentration play a role in substandard air quality. If your project’s welding fume extraction system continues emitting hazardous contaminants, your workers could experience dizziness, heart disease, cancer, and even death.
AT RVT Group Australia, we manage fume control in three easy steps:
We provide leading industrial fume extraction systems to our clients. Our experienced technical consultants have worked with clients from a variety of project types, including:
Our work includes the following:
“RVT are our supplier of choice for our noise, dust & fume extraction equipment. We find that the service we receive, technical knowledge and understanding of the legislation is first class.”
At RVT Group Australia, we offer our clients long-term fume extraction system services. The benefits of working with us include:
Learn More About Fume Control
Fumes are generated by a variety of activities on site, for example; welding fumes, diesel fumes, fumes from solvents and many more.
Up to 1.2M workers in Australia are exposed to dangerous levels of diesel exhaust fumes each year. This is due to the use of diesel vehicles or equipment, such as construction site plant, forklifts, lorries and tractors, and fixed-power sources, including compressors, generators and power plants.
The concentration of toxins and duration of exposure can be the difference between feeling a little dizzy or dying within a few minutes, which is why it is so important to ensure that you have adequate ventilation and/ or extraction in place. Even if the concentration is low, excessive exposure over several years, can lead to the development of life threatening illness’s and diseases, such as cancer.
WELs stands for Workplace Exposure Limits. There are 500 substances individually listed within EH40 with a workplace exposure limit, therefore we would strongly recommend that you download a free copy of this document from the HSE website. Employers must implement adequate controls to ensure that exposure limits are not breached.
Carcinogenic substances are defined as either causing or helping cancer to grow.
Yes, however the type of machinery you can use will depend on the scenario. If the fan needs to be situated within an Atex-rated area, the extraction unit must carry the relevant class of certification. However, if the unit will not be situated in an Atex zone area, you could use (a) non-Atex rated centrifugal fan. Centrifugal fans are safe to use with volatile fumes, because the motor sits outside of the airflow.
Yes, metal-bladed centrifugal fans are suitable for extracting heat and sparks. A Spark arrestor should be fitted to the intake of the extraction system if there is the danger of these being drawn in.
A carbon air filter or an activated charcoal air filter consists of treated charcoal. These will remove airborne contamination through the process of adsorption, whereby molecules chemically react to the treated charcoal. They are often used to remove gases and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC’s).
At RVT Group, we are committed to keeping your workforce and environment safe for the long term. We offer exceptional noise control solutions, underground air ventilation system, exhaust fume extraction system, silica dust control systems , and climate control systems to clients spanning several industries across Australia.
Call us today at 1300 086 248 to discuss your hazard control requirements, one of our team members will be happy to assist you.
Please keep hold of a copy and give us a call should you need anything.
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