As seasons change and temperatures begin to vary from day to day (don’t you love British weather?), manufacturing facilities, processing plants and other manufacturers may notice their HVAC system alternating between heating and cooling, sometimes on an hourly basis. But even with the best in-house climate control system, temperature swings can create unique issues for manufacturing facilities in terms of humidity. In order to keep their plants working as normal and prevent delays, they need to control the humidity variables properly.
Common Issues Caused By Humidity
Manufacturing is a delicate process, often with a lot of tight specifications to work to. But depending on what is being manufactured, a lot of the issues faced will depend on their individual specialisms. For example:
- Machine shops will often suffer, particularly during big swings in outdoor humidity. The build-up on indoor moisture can cause condensation on equipment, wet floors and saturated electrical panels – all of which are an accident waiting to happen.
- Plastic injection moulding machinery is often water-cooled. Any moisture forming on the machines can result in product discolouration.
- Printing facilities can suffer from paper wrinkling, shrinking or expanding, all of which cause ink registration problems.
- Drying cycles, or more specifically any product that requires a specific drying cycle during the manufacturing process. Examples include plants that manufacture or store dry foods like spices, cereal and candy, or producers of recycled rubber mulch. If air moisture levels are too high, drying times can be longer than needed, slowing production, losing productivity and increasing energy consumption. Dry food packaging plants also risk compromising food quality if a consistent indoor environment is not properly maintained.
But overall, the main issue for manufacturing is keeping the excess moisture in the air at a minimum so that it doesn’t interfere with the final product. If it does, it can cost manufacturing companies thousands in ruined merchandise and work.
All of these small issues can quickly snowball into big problems for manufacturers on tight deadlines. So rather than wait for these issues to come about, they need to install a humidity solution to prevent them.
Solving Humidity Problems
So how can manufacturing plants ensure that their processes aren’t disturbed by fluctuations in humidity? First, ensuring the premises is properly sealed with a vapour barrier in the walls and ceilings. This step prevents moisture and humidity from seeping into your building.
The next, and perhaps most important step is to get a dehumidification system installed to control the humidity levels at all times. Depending on what is being manufactured, the level you need to keep the humidity at will vary, so an expert will be able to design a custom system to meet those requirements. They will also be able to ensure all air introduced into the manufacturing space is properly treated, with air run through the humidification system to remove excess moisture before it enters the building.
Ideal dehumidification solutions will allow for a perfect energy balance; by focusing on air extraction, heat transfer, maximum relative humidity in each season, temperature inside the building, and level of humidity caused by production, you can craft a customized dehumidification system for your unique needs.
At Humidity Solutions we offer a variety of humidification and dehumidification equipment and solutions, all tailor made to suit your company’s needs. We specialise in humidity solutions for industrial manufacturing, commercial, food & beverage, health & leisure, conservation, and even residential solutions. With our help, you can simply and effectively alter the air quality, temperature and humidity of your environment to achieve optimum comfort. For more information on our solutions, or to ask us about humidity control in your organisation, just get in touch with the team at Humidity Solutions today.