TACKLING DUST PROBLEMS AT THE NEW DISTRIBUTION CENTRE OF COMPASS TRANSPORT

Compass Transport is a logistics service provider based in Hardenberg, The Netherlands. Every day more than 40 trucks travel hundreds of kilometers to distribute goods. The main business focus is on the distribution of B2B transport; from 1 pallet to full freight as well as length goods. Compass Transport has a storage capacity of 12,000 square meters, where both long-term pallet storage and order pickups take place. Since April 2019, the new storage centre in Hardenberg is in use. During the construction of this new centre, Compass Transport took the topic of dust and filtration into the engineering & implementation stage. In the past, Compass Transport has faced problems due to dust in high concentration in the previously used centre. Moving on, they were focused to solve these challenges and use modern air filtration technology in their application. 

The new centre is aimed to be dust-free. The source of the high dust concentrations can be traced back to the forklifts that travel many meters every day during the loading and unloading process. The dust problem is twofold; it affects the health of the employees in the centre, and the goods offered for storage used to get covered in layers of dust in a short time. In the case of prolonged pallet storage, the dust problem was even a greater challenge. Camfil normally starts projects by first conducting an air quality measurement analysis. However, as it was a new centre that was not yet in use, Camfil could only determine the challenges based on available knowledge, calculations, and experience. The crucial step is to calculate how many air cleaners would be needed to remove dust problems in the centre (with a capacity of 27,000 cubic meters). Another step was to determine what should be the ideal airflows to achieve a maximum quality result. Based on the analysis, five air cleaners type CC 6000 were put into action as this will completely resolve the challenges that occurred in the past due to heavy dust concentrations.

Preventing dust problems was one of the main challenges along with the limitation that solutions provided by Camfil should not obstruct the work in the centre. Therefore, it was preferred to attach the mobile air cleaners to the ceiling. The air cleaners are equipped with ePM1 55% pre-filters and H13 efficiency main filters. 

This is accompanied by an AirImage Sensor that hangs in the middle of the centre, where you can monitor online, real-time analytics regarding the dust concentration level in the centre and what is the status of the individual air cleaner. The air cleaners can be controlled online from the monitor. For example, a dust concentration level can be set at which the units must start to rotate in a higher or rather lower position. As a result, it is possible to obtain maximum efficiency from the air cleaner. When the filters need to be replaced, this will be notified as well through the AirImage Sensor. The result was more than satisfactory as the air cleaners successfully reduced the dust load by 80%. For activities in the centre, the substance concentration is on average 20 mg/m3. When there are no activities, this drops even further to 0.4 mg/m3.

BY INSTALLING AIR CLEANERS CC 6000, THE DUST LOAD IS REDUCED BY 80%. THIS PROVIDES A PLEASANT AND HEALTHY WORKING ENVIRONMENT FOR THE EMPLOYEES, besides, PROTECTING THE GOODS IN THE WAREHOUSE.

“One time we experienced a power outage, the air cleaners were shut and within hours, employees complained of sore eyes and a stuffy nose. When the power outage was repaired and the air cleaners started working, we could see the problems disappeared. This is the impact and effect of Camfil‘s air cleaners on our warehouse environment.“  Managing Director, Compass Transport
Created Monday, 21 June 2021