Established in 1957, Frederick Community College (FCC) is located in Frederick, Maryland. Today, FCC is home to over 16,000 students and offers over 85 degree and certificate programs, as well as workforce training and continuing education to meet the needs and interests of all members of the community.
As part of its Building Trades Technology program, FCC built a new Weld Training facility. To ensure the health and safety both students and staff, a proper air filtration system, with compliance to both state and federal clean air standards (OSHA), was required to capture dangerous fumes emitted from plasma cutting.
Part of the criteria for this air filtration system was the need to recycle air within the facility rather than exhaust air outside the building. This was a critical requirement in order to maintain heating within the building during the winter months while also ensuring energy efficiency.
The school submitted a public RFQ for the supply & turnkey installation of an 18-station welding fume extraction system.
Diversitech was awarded the bid after presenting the college the optimal solution to their problem. Diversitech supplied 18 state-of –the –art telescopic fume arms with interconnecting ductwork to an Air Hawk collector equipped with 18 of the highest efficiency Nanofiber MERV 15 filter cartridges and a compressed air-operating cleaning system that pulses one filter at a time.
The project was also sold with an on-demand airflow control system with a variable frequency drive and arc sensors and dampers which adjusts the blower/motor to the actual airflow required, depending on how much arms are functioning at the same time, resulting in energy savings.
The contract was purchased by DiversiTech as a turnkey; Diversitech’s qualified management team lead the project smoothly from A to Z, maintaining lead times for equipment and coordinating installation. The system complies with state & federal clean air standards (OSHA).
FCC was pleased with the end result. Diversitech’s Filterhawk Central Cartridge Collector was an ideal solution that addressed all of FCC’s needs. Fully compliant to OSHA and state regulations, the Filterhawk efficiently recycled contaminated air within the facility, replacing it with clean, breathable air. This solution also allowed FCC to keep their heating costs to a minimum, as heated air did not need to be vented outside the building.
Additionally, its silencer kept noise to a minimum – critical in a learning environment such as FCC!