Electronics sector looks to portable extraction for a more agile future

Flexibility and agility look set to become key business drivers around the world as and when countries begin easing lockdowns linked to the coronavirus pandemic.

Since the crisis started, BOFA’s fume and dust extraction technology has played an important role in ensuring continuity of supply for many essential products, for example enabling the electronics sector to deliver vital products for health care, safety systems and personal care. However, what remains uncertain is what the new normal will look like in the future.

Like many global industries, the electronics sector will likely need to adapt to different markets working at different speeds, and this will mean adopting a more flexible and agile approach to production.

Previously, some electronics companies invested heavily in large, fixed centralized exhaust systems to remove harmful airborne contaminants from the workplace and to reduce production line contamination. Any new process was routinely hooked up to the system, sometimes without fully considering the impact of the additional loading on the system as a whole.

Increasingly now, businesses are realizing that portable fume extraction technology can better support the more agile way of working that may be needed to meet fluctuating and variable levels of demand around the world in a post-COVID era.

In the case of electronics, portable fume and dust extraction systems provide flexibility to reconfigure process lines rapidly in response to variable customer requirements. This agility will be critical in optimizing output for the foreseeable future, whether this means setting up new production lines or flexing existing resources in response to changing order books.

Says David Thompson, Business Development Manager at BOFA:

There has been a trend towards automated processes in electronics over recent years, and in growing markets companies have tended to use their established central exhaust extraction systems to ‘bolt-on’ new processes, even though this comes with a risk of degrading overall extraction effectiveness.

Now though, the industry is recognising the value of high-performance portable extraction technology capable of supporting the more agile operating environment that will be critical for electronics companies as countries move out of lockdown at different speeds.

Portable technology can offer whole life cost advantages over fixed architecture. For example, BOFA’s integrated iQ operating platform offers significant performance enhancements, such as remote diagnostics, adjustable and regulated airflow control and independent filter status monitoring, to improve extraction efficiency, instigate condition-led maintenance and reduce the risk of unplanned downtime.

This helps lower the overall cost of ownership – and, of course, there is no need to account for the financial burden of replacing heated air continuously expelled externally from the workplace via a centralized system, or the cost and potential downtime of maintaining and repairing such systems.

All BOFA solutions for automated processes include multi-stage filtration, including patented pre-filter technology, HEPA filters that remove 99.997% of particles at 0.3 microns and specialist activated carbon filters.  This performance contributes toward compliant health protection while helping deliver the productivity gains that come from mobile technology and fume and dust free process lines.

To find out more about BOFA’s range of portable extraction units tailored to electronics processes, go to https://bofainternational.com/us/your-industry/electronics/