Dust collection is often overlooked or underestimated as an investment within the woodworking industry. This is largely due to a lack of understanding of its full impact and affects. Here is a list of reasons why it is important:

1. Improve Production Efficiency
Proper dust collection will help maintain cleaner facilities, provide healthier working conditions for employees and also will allow machinery to perform and operate at its maximum capacities.

2. Reduce Labor and Operation Expenses
Appropriately configured dust collectors offer reduced clean-up time, allowing operators to use their time more productively.

3 Increase Tool Life
Poor dust collection can spoil the life of a machine’s tooling due to premature dulling caused from dust build-up around the tool. These can significantly decrease cutting qualities, output and tolerances.

4. Increase Machine Life
A well-designed dust system also will expand machine life and allow maximum levels of output, utilizing the full machinery investment. Dust build-up within the electrical boxes and open ports is the result of a poorly designed system and will impair the equipment’s capability and production.

5. Reduce Risks of Fire Explosions
The largest concern with dust collection systems are the potential for fire explosions. These situations can be curbed and often prevented by following NFPA guidelines, particularly NFPA 664, and installing also some form of fire suppression system.

6. Improve Energy Efficiencies
More advanced collection systems allow companies to further improve their efficiency by controlling their energy costs. Various “green” dust collection components are available, such as automatic blast gates with pressure sensors and variable frequency drives.

7. Maintain the Quality of Finished Products
Suitable extraction systems can prevent dust particles (in the air) from affecting or damaging the quality of your finished product. This is a particularly important factor for finishing operations.

Chris Dolbow is a product manager for Stiles Dust Solutions. For more information, visit stilesmachinery.com, call (616) 698-7500 or email [email protected]