Cutting of materials such as metals, plastics and textiles are now commonly achieved using lasers.
This has great benefits such as fast, clean and accurate cuts that often don’t require any additional finishing. Laser cutting does however produce potentially hazardous contaminants. As with all laser applications, if the fume is not removed at the source using LEV (Local Exhaust Ventilation), the fume can blur the laser beam, which can affect its efficiency.
A variety of toxic fumes and particulates are generated when different substrates are being lasered. These contaminants are known within the industry as LGACs (Laser Generated Air Contaminants). LGACs of different makeup can react in the extreme within the filter separation process. In some instances having a high ratio of gases to particulates and vice versa. For example, fume from nylon when lasered is roughly 80% particulate to 20% gas, whereas fume from acrylic is 90% gas to 10% particulate.
Applying this knowledge we developed the ADVANTAGE range of portable fume extraction systems.