12/07/2011 // Riverdale, NJ, USA // Camfil // Lynne Laake // (press release)
When it comes to commercial air filters, efficiency isn’t just important — it’s everything. Air filtration solutions operating at peak performance not only use less energy to keep air flowing but do a better job preventing dangerous particles — prime causes of infection and other dangerous health related conditions — from entering the indoor environment.
Not all air filters, however, deliver the efficiency customers need. Older designs using coarse fiber media may have high initial efficiency — as they are highly electrostatically-charged — but typically degrade quickly. Yet more sophisticated designs, built for sustainability and performance, can maintain their efficiency far longer, resulting in healthier environments, and lower energy bills.
That’s the lesson a global pharmaceutical and life science company recently learned. An industry leader — with operations in 8 countries and some 98,000 employees worldwide — it was concerned about indoor air quality in ‘non-cleanroom’ manufacturing areas at its western U.S. facility, where it produced critical vaccines. The air filters in place were, when first installed, doing an adequate job removing harmful particles from the air. But quickly, their performance — and the site’s air quality — diminished.
Working with Camfil, one of the world’s leading providers of commercial air filters — and the industry’s premier innovator in sustainable, efficient designs — the company took a closer look at its existing air filters. An on-site test was set up, in which the filter type the manufacturer was already using — an MERV 13 efficiency 8-pocket final filter with a charged synthetic media — was tested head-to-head against a Camfil Hi-Flo® 8-pocket bag filter with fine fiber media (at the same rated efficiency of MERV 13).
Using fine fiber media in place of coarse media, the Camfil filter is designed to maintain high efficiency, and high air quality, throughout the air filter’s service life. And that’s just what the testing revealed.
Once a bank of new filters — from both Camfil and the manufacturer’s current supplier — was installed, an initial test was run, noting initial efficiencies. Six months later, a follow-up test was conducted to measure efficiency after half a year of use. The result: The incumbent air filter saw a dramatic fall-off in performance, dropping from 64 percent efficiency to just 22 percent on critical respirable size particles. Meanwhile, the Camfil Hi-Flo filter actually saw a performance gain, going from an initial efficiency of 71 percent to an efficiency of 74 percent six months later.
By maintaining its efficiency, the Camfil air filter vividly outperformed the competition, delivering far superior particulate removal and indoor air quality. That’s a key benefit in any environment, but particularly within a manufacturing facility.
Top-flight air quality, however, is just one advantage of using fine fiber media. Leveraging cutting-edge air filter design, Camfil air filters work better and longer than more traditionally designed products — while requiring less maintenance, fewer change-outs, and far less energy. Indeed, many of the biotechnology companies, hospitals, schools, and other organizations that have implemented Camfil clean air solutions have been able to cut their HVAC energy costs by up to 40 percent a year.
For the pharmaceutical manufacturer, not only were the results of the test clear, but so, too, was the call to action. Its existing filters were quickly replaced with Camfil’s design, enabling it to reap the benefits — and clean air — of a groundbreaking, energy-efficient new take on commercial air filters.
The world leader in air filtration systems, Camfil provides clean air solutions for hospitals, hotels, office buildings, educational institutions, and pharmaceutical and biotech companies. We provide the tools to achieve sustainability, maintain high air quality, and reduce airborne infections — all while lowering total cost of ownership. Camfil customers go green without ever sacrificing performance. For more air filter information, visit us online at cleanair.camfil.us, or call us toll-free at 888.599.6620.
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