The world-class science supporting BOFA innovation
BOFA’s success in pushing the boundaries of fume and dust extraction innovation is set to accelerate over the coming years thanks to world-leading scientific resources now available to engineers.
The company’s strategic decision in 2018 to join Donaldson Company Inc, a global leader in the industrial air filtration market, is opening up access to research and development facilities that rival those in the world’s most prestigious universities.
As a result, the BOFA R&D team is tapping into a vast network of expert scientists, multi-disciplined engineers and state-of-the-art facilities to explore and test innovative solutions that anticipate and exceed the evolving requirements of a growing worldwide customer base.
Scientific and engineering research is vital in developing the systems and filtration technology of the future that will ensure manufacturing operations and process industries meet increasingly stretching workplace exposure levels governing airborne emissions.
As a result of the tie-up with Donaldson, BOFA customers will benefit from resources that can not only reveal how particulate and carbon filters perform at a molecular level through chemical analysis, but which can also model new filtration concepts to address specific requirements. It’s a capability perfectly matched to BOFA’s vast industry knowledge of extraction system design and control.
This ability to ‘prove’ performance down to nanoparticle levels through science is particularly valuable for emerging technologies, such as additive manufacturing, where there are specific requirements to manage the gas and particles that can be projected into breathing zones as a result of the high temperatures generated by some processes. Indeed, BOFA’s 3D PrintPRO models have been designed to maintain cleaner print areas and return ultra clean, filtered air to operator breathing zones, enabling businesses to enhance productivity while protecting the workplace environments.
Bringing together the resources of BOFA’s R&D centre in the UK with Donaldson’s facilities will also open up opportunities to explore new concepts in filtration and control technology and push still further the market leadership enjoyed by BOFA. This developmental advantage, as evidenced by the remote monitoring and diagnostic capabilities of the iQ2 next generation fume extraction operating platform, will help process system designers to leverage the benefits of a new era of automation envisioned by Industry 4.0.
In short, it’s a combined capability founded on world-leading resources, engineering expertise and a commitment to develop solutions that anticipate market requirements. Critically, this offer includes an ‘in-house’ capability unique in fume and dust extraction technology to prove effectiveness through irrefutable scientific analysis.
