KVA Engineering

Bag Cleaning vs Bag Replacement

This is an issue that many maintenance people ask me about. The cost of bags is always an issue when they look at cleaning the bags and saving some of the maintenance budget.

Maintenance Tip

First off if bags are cleaned there should be no heat applied during washing or drying. After 20 years in this business I have gone both ways on this subject, but maybe this will shed some light on this issue.

When the bags are washed the pores in the bags will elongate. This will allow a washed cleaned bag to let dust penetrate far into the media. When the dust penetrates into the media it will not release out very easy by pulse cleaning.

This stretching of the bag pores is not visible to the naked eye. The bag will look clean and ready to install. The fact is a once cleaned set of bags will provide approximately half the life of a new set of bags. On a new bag the dust will surface load on the outside of the bag.

The dust will not penetrate far since the pores in the bag are much smaller on a new set then a used washed set. If you compare the cost to change the bags out in labor costs many times it will come out cheaper to replace the bags.

The type of dust does have an effect. The finer dust typically will work into the pores faster then larger particles. The best way to analyze the cost is assume about half as long life on a washed set and add in the labor cost and down time.

This is based on the most common bag type that is of 16oz polyester felt used on reverse air and pulse jet bag houses.

Industrial Vacuum

KVA Engineering and Ruwac have supplied vacuums for applications ranging from vacuum assist concrete grinding, to vacuum assist hair cutting, and process vacuums to extract 78 locations at the same time.

We have picked up materials ranging from powder paint, flour and toner, to abrasives, concrete and foundry sand. We have vacuums specifically for more explosive materials such as aluminum, titanium, and sodium azide.

We can pick up a separate material or discharge material back into the process line. The possibilities are endless so it is impossible to name every industry that we have or can possibly serve.

Contact us today with your application and if we can't do it we will tell you who can.

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