General filtration systems ensure clean air at work

Nowadays Arginta Group is a group of six companies. Over 20 years its promising ideas have grown to market leadership. As the business grew, the facilities expanded as well. In 2012 Arginta Group has 12,600 m2 of production areas and offices. Arginta Group is a professional, certified and dedicated group to the ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 3834-2, OHSAS 18001 and DIN EN 15085-2 standards.

The challenge

UAB Arginta, located in Vilnius, has been leading the engineering industry in Lithuania since 1992. From 1991 they have been focusing on metal processing. Later, it launched water improvement and waste management activities. As of 2009 the company has undertaken another field of expertise: renewable energy. They manufacture –among others– advanced metalwork and supply complex metal components for the engineering industry.

Arginta Engineering takes the Occupational Health & Safety Requirements very seriously. There are many processes where personal protection equipment (PPE) alone is not sufficient enough to protect the workers. In 2012 Arginta Engineering decided that they needed extra protection against welding/ cutting fumes and grinding dust. They invested in several welding fume extraction systems to ensure a clean, safe and healthy working environment.

The solution

All companies in Lithuania –as a member of the European Union– need to make sure that the concentration level of welding fume does not exceed the permitted 5 mg of solid particles per cubic meter of air. Before the welding fume extraction systems were installed, the solid particle concentration level at the workshops of Arginta Engineering was around 5-7 mg/m³ . Taking into account that the requirements will become stricter in the future –as in some countries of the EU the requirements already are stricter– the company set an ambitious goal of achieving a concentration level of 3.5 mg/m³.

Two workshops needed extractions systems. Arginta Engineering wanted Plymovent products to achieve this ambitious goal. The engineered solution was designed by a local, authorized distributor: Stokker. Each workshop was looked at separately to ensure optimal extraction, thus result. Both workshops needed a flexible solution, as large pieces of metal are being fabricated and various processes are taking place, like welding, cutting, machining and grinding. Therefore Stokker supplied general ventilation and filtration systems. Those systems are especially designed to keep the concentration level within limits. Three Diluter systems were installed in one workshop and two parallel Push-Pull systems in the other workshop. Stokker installed the systems on site, to full satisfaction.

Main benefits

Testimonial

“The air circulation in our welding workshops is rather complex. Therefore a tailor-made engineered system solution was required. As we have had bad experience with another well-known manufacturer, this time we contacted Plymovent as the previous manufacturer was not able to meet our demands. The solid particle concentration level was too high. So in the beginning we were a bit sceptical about Plymovent. But in the end, we were pleasantly surprised by Plymovent! After some tests the solid particle concentration level in the larger workshop reduced to 1.8 mg/m³ and in the smaller workshop to 2.7 mg/m³. Well within the legal limits of 5 mg/m³ of Lithuania!"

Quote by: Gintautas Kvietkauskas, Director at Arginta Engineering