Performance of composite polyester filter with magnetic NdFeB particles on filtering welding fume particles

Welding fume particles can pose serious health risks because of its nanoscaled size and pulmonary toxicity. The main components of welding fume particles are iron oxides, most of which are easily magnetized in a magnetic field and subject to magnetic attraction. According to this characteristic, we developed a magnetic composite filter composed of a polyester filter and neodymium iron boron (NdFeB) particles to improve the filtering effect on fume particles. The performance parameters of magnetic filter were studied experimentally. At 5 cm/s face velocity, the filtration efficiency and quality factor of magnetic filter #4 were 2.09 times and 1.55 times of those of filter #0 (no NdFeB particles coated), respectively. In the loading process, the particles accumulation did not weaken the magnetic attraction effect. The filtration efficiencies of magnetic and nonmagnetic filters for 600 nm particles increased by 10.53% at 14.65 g/m2 and 8.17% at 14.33 g/m2, respectively.