The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge effect on our personal and professional lives. The importance of indoor air quality is thereby on top of mind. Especially during these times, when dealing with machines that operate by using air and produce dust particles such as banknote sorting, destruction, and briquetting systems.
During the SARS outbreak in 2002 in Asia, we found ourselves in a similar situation. Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering then successfully connected a serious number of HEPA filters to existing systems to further purify the air of any viruses. Due to COVID-19, the need for this technology has risen again.
Overview of content
A short recap on standard air filtering in shred handling environments
Greatly enhance your air quality with our upgraded filter solution
6 benefits of the HEPA filter
A short recap on standard air filtering in shred handling environments
The Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering systems are already equipped with air filters to remove any dust. These standard filters fully comply with European legislation regarding the recirculation of process air. They catch the bulk of particles larger than 1 micron. Nevertheless, bacteria and virus particles have a smaller size than that and thus remain to exist in the 'cleaned' air.
As mentioned, all our shred and briquetting systems operate dust free. Shreds, dust and air from sorters and offline destruction systems are carefully extracted and, when needed, transported up to 300 meters with the help of ductwork, fans, and switch valves. Our on-line briquetting systems compress the dust and shreds together into briquettes, whereas our loose shred collection systems collect the loose shreds in (big) bags or containers.
Two of our on-line briquetting (OBS 500) and shred collection (DCS 20) models
For both solutions, the air is filtered. Depending on the application of the corresponding product, the filter bag will be cleaned through a self-cleaning air filter. To guarantee compliance with environmental legislation and excellent labour conditions, we strongly recommend the latter.
Also read: extracting, collecting and compacting the shreds of unfit banknotes
Greatly enhance your air quality with our upgraded filter solution
The filtered air will then be exhausted to the outside or back into the operating room. Since only particles larger than 1 micron are efficiently filtered out, the air can still contain submicron particles of, for instance, virus and bacteria. Royal Dutch Kusters Engineering, therefore, opts for adding an extra stage of filtering to refine the air cleaning process.
To effectively filter out viruses and bacteria from banknote processing areas, the air from briquetting or shred collecting systems can be exhausted to our HEPA filter before it is exhausted to the outside or back into the operating room. Due to the three-stage filtering process and diffusion technology, the HEPA filter collects efficiencies of more than 99,99% on all particles larger than 0.3 microns, noise-free. The air is now free of contaminants and thus no longer forms any health or environmental risks.
It will assure an optimal healthy and safe indoor working environment for employees and a safe air quality to the neighbourhood when the air is exhausted to the outside of the building.
6 benefits of the HEPA filter
In general, the HEPA filter will guarantee an air quality similar to airplanes, hospitals, laboratories, cleanrooms etc. for both your currency handling environments as the local environment. Furthermore, the HEPA filter provides:
- Medical level air purification into your cash operations areas
- Optimisation of working conditions for the operating staff
- Extracted air that is free of contaminants
- Easy installation
- Small space requirements
- Compatible with your Kusters (or other brand) shred handling systems
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