Soldering lab ventilation

[emalsyd]

A local tech academy we do some work for ask us to provide a rough budget price for a new soldering/brazing lab they are thinking of installing in the future. We're an HVAC contractor. They will end up hiring an engineer but were just looking for some rough numbers to get into their budget.

They will have 16 students with 16 areas that they will practice soldering.

Talking to the current instructor, they would set up some pipe and fittings on a metal bench and practice soldering. The soldering isn't constant. According to the instructor they may solder an hour or two in the room per day.

Was thinking of a roof mounted exhaust fan with exposed spiral to a small sheetmetal hood mounted above the 16 locations where the kids will solder.
Fan would be interlocked with a roof mounted 100% MUA unit. Unit would be undersized to keep the space in a negative pressure.
When the exhaust system is off, the space would be heat/cooled by either a packaged rooftop or a couple of ceiling suspended ductless heat pumps.
Not sure if this type of system would be fine or would they need a dust collection system instead?

Also, I couldn't find any ventilation requirements or heat loads for this type of room. Found things on welding labs but not sure if this would be the same.

 

[IRstuff]

You may need to specifically consider your approach in light of any hazardous fumes that be developed, particularly if fluxes are used. I would refer to:

https://law.resource.org/pub/us/cfr/ibr/002/ansi.z49.1.1967.pdf

and

https://www.osha.gov/pls/oshaweb/owadisp.show_document?p_id=9853&p_table=STANDARDS

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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[MintJulep]

 

[willard3]

Read American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists "Industrial Ventilation".

 

[BronYrAur]

"small sheetmetal hood mounted above the 16 locations where the kids will solder."

I assume you mean individual hoods above each of the 16 locations? You want to draw fumes away from the person, so "above" is not the best location. MintJulep's photo shows the hood above and off to the side so that fumes are pulled away from the user. The Industrial Ventilation manual that Willard3 mentions discusses capture velocities, etc. You will need to determine the distance from the soldering location to the intake hood. The capture velocity will depend on distance.

You mentioned that the system will be engineered and you just want a budget. I think your concept is good. Run exhaust to a "hood" at each of the 16 locations. provide makeup air. at least figure heating the makeup air. you may also need to cool it. When soldering is not ins use a rooftop and some other system can condition the space. of course you will need to follow local codes.

 

[itsmoked]

This could be done pretty cheaply with some good planning and detail. A single axial duct fan would work fine if the inlets are carefully designed. Solder smoke is easy to draw away and lots of moving air is not needed and will in fact cause soldering failures.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[xnuke]

Solder fume extractors are specifically designed for this type of application, and would probably cost much less than a custom HVAC system. I know they're often used for electronics labs; I don't know if they have the ability or capacity to be used in labs where plumbing soldering is occurring. They do require periodic filter changes, but for the volume of soldering you're describing, that would probably be infrequent. I recommend contacting some manufacturers to see if they have anything that could work.

xnuke
"Live and act within the limit of your knowledge and keep expanding it to the limit of your life." Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged.
Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[itsmoked]

A bunch of Sch-10 and a shop vac could work.

Keith Cress
kcress -

http://www.flaminsystems.com

 

[berkshire]

Check with

https://www.plymovent.com/

they specialize in this kind of fume removal.
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[berkshire]

You could also look at a downdraft table .
B.E.

You are judged not by what you know, but by what you can do.

 

[chicopee]

ACGIH recommended by Willard3 and ACGIH would also be recommended by your commercial insurance company. There are a lot of literature on industrial ventilation such as this book "Ventilation for Control of the Work environment" written by W.A. Burgess, M.J. Ellenbecker and R.D. Treitman.