Exhausting welding emissions to the outdoors

Date 05-27-2008 19:00

Not sure if this would be the correct spot for this topic, but hopefully I'll get some response's. I have been assigned to the job of overhauling our new weld shop. We weld mostly with GTAW so fume extraction is not a major issue, but we do weld with FCAW about 5 % of the time. I need to capture and remove the smoke for obvious reasons. My boss want's me to exhaust this through the wall to the outside with a fan/hood system, which I feel will work, but for the life of me I cannot find any info on what I can and cannot leagallydo. I've heard from people in the trade that exhausting welding fumes outdoors would be fine because it's no different that doing the welding outdoors and I've also heard from others that it's a big no no. Anybody have any info on this???????

By OBEWAN

Date 05-27-2008 19:06

If this is a problem it would shut down every shipyard in the world. I don't see that ever happening.

By Kix

Date 05-27-2008 20:05

I've heard that any new modification to old building or building new building, the exhaust has to be caught and filtered. If you have old builds with fans exhausting to the outside, it's still legal. We just went through this at our plant that was built back in the late 1800's. We decided to go with fume extractors, big boxes on the ceiling that filter the air inside the building.

By jrw159

Date 05-28-2008 02:33

Good question :-)

By jrw159

Date 05-29-2008 19:10

jsdwelder,
OSHA 29 CFR 1926.353-(a)(4) Contaminated air exhausted from a working space shall be discharged into the open air or otherwise clear of the source of intake air.

OSHA 29 CFR 1915.51 (b)(1)(iv) states the same thing.

FWIW

jrw159