LEV Testing, Spray Booth Clearance Testing & Air Tracing

For many years, materials containing isocyanate have been the single biggest cause of occupational asthma in the UK. Vehicle paint sprayers are 80 times more likely to develop occupational asthma than workers in other industries. This is caused by the inhalation of the fine paint mist that is generated when paint spraying.

The Health and Safety Executive, the Health and Safety Laboratory (HSL), major insurers and inspection bodies routinely use Concept Colt 4 artificial smoke to “see” the air movement created by various processes and therefore highlight areas of concern around those activities.

For example, artificial smoke is commonly used to assess clearance times within spray booths or cabins so that employers can ensure that effective ventilation systems are in place and workers are aware of the importance of always wearing air-fed breathing apparatus.

For some of these applications, smoke can be passed through flexible hose, essentially giving the operator a wand out of which smoke can be produced.

It is normally beneficial to produce a highly persistent smoke (so that it movement can be traced over long distances or over a long period of time). Should the need arise however, quickly dispersing smoke fluid is available. This would normally be limited in use to highlight things such as the capture bubbles around LEV systems. It should not be used for clearance testing, as the fast evaporation of this sort of smoke can lead to false impressions as to the effectiveness of the ventilation system.

For more information about LEV testing, please visit the UK's Health and Safety Executive official website, feauturing several video clips using Colt 4 smoke :

http://www.hse.gov.uk/lev

Concept Recommends

For Persistent Smoke -

• Mini Colt 4
• Colt 4 /
• Colt 4 Turbo

For Quickly Dispersing Smoke -

• Concept AirTrace 12v system
• Flow Check 12v system
• Colt 3