Adrian Ogden, director of UK dust extraction firm APS UK, discusses how front-end engineering design (FEED) improves LEV system design and simplifies factory floor decisions when commissioning new equipment.
If you want to keep your team safe whilst working on the production line, it is important to have comprehensive dust control measures in place. However, some local exhaust ventilation (LEV) systems fall short of the performance required to manage hazardous airborne particulates effectively.
Inadequate design, poor specification or inconsistent maintenance can create vulnerabilities that could compromise the health of your employees or harm your product quality. But with so many factors to consider when commissioning a new LEV system, where do you begin with designing a new system or turning underperforming equipment into a reliable unit?
For a start, effective LEV system design begins long before installation. It starts with smart, bespoke design, tailored to your needs as a manufacturer. More specifically, it starts with front-end engineering design (FEED).
Bridging the gap between LEV system design and installation
You might have learnt from past experience that a dust extraction system can look great on paper but fail to operate sufficiently when installed on the factory floor, leaving you back at square one with inadequate dust control.
Often hugely frustrating, this highlights a disconnect between the intended performance of a designed system and its actual performance in the production environment, caused by practicalities and process nuances not being fully accounted for in the design process.
This is where FEED comes in. A crucial engineering design phase, it connects conceptualisation with execution and is used to develop a detailed plan for an effective LEV system. During this process, a qualified engineer will conduct the preliminary scoping, planning and design work of a dust extraction project, outlining technical considerations.
FEED’s purpose is to give you a detailed framework for decision-making, determining a project’s feasibility and providing an accurate cost estimate before a full investment commitment is made. It increases transparency, giving you clarity on system set-up and expected performance so you do not face redesign after redesign. It helps you make sure you are making the right decision.
This is particularly important when LEV projects so often involve external parties. Without clear, accurate information from the outset, assumptions creep in, requirements get misinterpreted and you often end up with a one-size-fits-all solution that suits your chosen supplier, but not you.
FEED addresses the pitfalls of incomplete data and standardised LEV system design by considering all your individual needs, covering how and where dust is generated, site layout, operator workflows and the compliance standards you must meet.
It should work as a collaborative process between you and your chosen supplier, starting with you articulating your expectations and culminating in a sizeable document detailing everything a dust extraction partner should consider when implementing a new system.
FEED as a foundation for LEV system design
When done properly, a FEED study will act as the blueprint for an LEV project, taking you from initial risk assessments through to the timelines for full system implementation.
It will establish a structured foundation by assessing regulatory compliance, identifying the hazards that necessitate the system’s implementation and evaluating any existing LEV provision to determine performance gaps.
As part of the study, an engineer will develop detailed design proposals and tender specifications, setting out system scope, performance criteria and configuration, while defining control measures and benchmarking their effectiveness in reducing exposure.
Good LEV system design will maximise effective dust control by considering four main areas. The first is source and contaminant cloud size: understanding the location, amount and rate of dust generation, which is essential for proper hood design.
The design should also set out both work process and operator requirements, looking at how production tasks are performed, how employees interact with areas that generate dust and how easy it is to operate the extraction system itself.
The wider FEED study will also address health and safety considerations in line with EH40/2005 Workplace Exposure Limits, DSEAR and ATEX requirements, and evaluate environmental impacts including energy consumption, emissions and waste generation.
Altogether, these steps ensure an LEV system is effective and efficient in capturing and removing dust at source, helping to keep your operational team and production line safe from harmful dust particles.
By making sure your system is designed properly from the outset, you will benefit from accurate cost estimates, smoother project timelines, better performance and stronger compliance. This protects you from overspending and keeps things on track so that you can get your full production line running again sooner.
It also avoids the headaches caused by poor design and execution.
LEV system design: FEED in action
Here at APS, we often use a FEED study to guide our clients and have recently applied the approach when working with a waste management firm that needed to control the emission of hazardous contaminants in its workplace. Our initial site assessments identified significant deficiencies in the existing extraction system, which contributed to operator exposure above safety limits.
Through the FEED study, our engineers evaluated the process environment, regulatory obligations and technical constraints, devising a proposed LEV redesign aimed at maximising employee safety and protecting waste processing equipment.
The FEED study gave the waste management firm a clear and practical plan for moving forward, with the eventual turnkey project resulting in a fully compliant, energy-efficient LEV system that is straightforward to maintain and built to support safe working conditions and reliable performance for the long term.
For organisations investing in improving their LEV systems and dust control processes, the message is straightforward: start with a FEED study. The structured design process takes out guesswork and makes sure your system is designed correctly from the beginning, not adjusted reactively once problems emerge. It brings clarity to complex projects, providing a defined design framework, realistic cost estimates and a clear understanding of performance expectations.
Ultimately, choosing FEED is about reducing risk and gaining confidence in your system’s performance and long-term safety compliance, delivering peace of mind as well as technical assurance.
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