Industrial Cyclone Dust Collectors vs Pulse Jet Dust Collectors: What’s the Difference?

As with any dust collection system, industrial cyclone dust collectors and pulse jet dust collectors are used to separate harmful particles and gases from the airstream in work environments. Within plants and factories, the two dust collection systems act to protect the health of employees. Outside of facilities, the systems protect the general public and environment from exposure to pollution, further ensuring compliance with health and air emission standards.

In industrial environments, though both are used to filter harmful particles and gases from the air, cyclone dust collectors and pulse jet dust collectors serve different purposes. The former acts to remove larger particles from the airstream. The latter collects particles with sizes ranging from submicron to several hundred microns in diameter, with efficiencies in excess of 99 percent. And there are further differences.

Industrial Cyclone Dust Collectors

Industrial-grade cyclone dust collectors are mechanical collectors that are generally employed as pre-cleaners for other gas and particle cleaning devices. They are a type of auxiliary equipment, a first-stage collector commonly used in conjunction with larger, fabric filter dust collection systems. Though cyclones are part of multiple-stage dust collection systems, they are also used as a product separator in air conveying systems, in size reduction processes, or in product re-circulation systems.

The cyclone systems then, are designed to aid in increasing airflow within a plant or factory as it services dust from circulation. Once employed, cyclone dust collectors help reduce the dust load for other filter systems, typically larger baghouses, and cartridge collectors, which help save on associated maintenance and servicing costs. Cyclonic dust filtration systems benefit such facilities as furniture and ceramic factories, woodworking shops, mining operations, agricultural plants, and manufacturing operations that perform machining, grinding, or cutting processes—all of which generate large, coarse particles during production. As a side benefit, cyclones may also remove sparks and embers from a system ahead of a fabric filter baghouse.

Operationally, cyclone dust collectors are inertial separators, which further differentiates the system from a pulse jet collector. Cyclone collectors make use of centrifugal, gravitational, and-or inertial forces that separate dust from the airstream. Rapid cyclonic forces form a vortex within the dust collection chamber when air is pulled into the system. The motion targets larger, coarser particles, from the airstream, emptying them into the hopper at the base of the system.

Pulse Jet Dust Collectors

On the other hand, a pulse jet dust collector, also referred to as a pulse jet bag filter or pulse jet baghouse, is a type of fabric filter system that gets its name from the short bursts or “pulses” of compressed air that is used to clean the filter or baghouse. The periodic bursts and pulses of air on the fabric remove collected particles and dust from the surface of the filter media dropping it into the dust collector at the base of the hopper. A pulse jet system can be used in tandem with a cyclone dust collector or as a stand-alone collection system.

Pulse jet collection systems maximize system efficiency at a minimal operational cost. As dust is collected on the outside of the bag filters it forms into a cake of dust, which further serves to trap harmful particles from circulating. When a dust cake reaches an appropriate thickness, the pulse jet sensor activates bursts of compressed air on the bag, freeing the caked dust from the filter and dropping it into the hopper.

Pulse jet dust collection systems hold several advantages over other systems. The main one being that pulse jet dust collectors do not require a shutdown of the system to initiate a cleaning cycle, such as in shaker or reverse air type ducts collectors. Particles, dust and gases are constantly sieved, passing through and collecting on tightly woven or felted fabric media. Particles are collected there on a sub-micrometer scale, forming into dust cakes, which are released periodically with compressed air bursts. Another advantage of pulse jet dust collection is that the flow of dirty gas through the bags continues even during cleaning processes. Finally, a wide variety of filter elements and media are available, ranging from traditional fabric filter bags to spun-bonded pleated filter elements and synthetic blended and nano cartridges.

Consider Which System Better Serves Your Needs

Industrial cyclone dust collectors and pulse jet dust collectors are vital to ensure clean air and a safe, clean working environment. Each system design offers efficiency and cost savings for end-users. However, each system has different applications with different operating features. It’s not a matter of selecting one system over the other, but assessing the filtration needs of the facility to determine which dust collector solution better serves a company. It just may be that both systems are required.

To learn more about dust collection systems and which may be the best fit for your business’ industrial needs, please contact CPE Filters today.