Quite often, a fume hood is the most expensive and heavy-duty piece of equipment that adorns a scientific laboratory. It’s also a non-negotiable necessity. It’s a safety tool meant to safeguard all researchers from the harmful effects of contaminated air and noxious gases. In industrial and research laboratory environments where regular work with dangerous substances is everyone’s bread and butter, you simply must have reliable and effective exhaust fume hoods to keep everyone safe.
Thus, from both a safety and financial angle, the decision to purchase laboratory exhaust fume hoods is a critically important one for lab managers.
RDM Industrial Products, with its over 40+ years of experience in manufacturing the finest laboratory hardware, stands at the ready to assist you and supply your needs.
But before you embark on your quest for laboratory exhaust fume hoods, here is some of what you need to know about these crucial machines and about how RDM designs them.
Fume Hood Styles
Fume hoods can be classified in a number of different ways. The first is by their functionality and the ways in which they treat the air that is sucked up into their systems. In this regard, there there are two types of fume hoods:
- Ducted:
Ducted fume hoods draw in air from the front side of the cabinet or workstation where scientists and lab technicians do their work. It then simply expels that air not only from the laboratory environment, but from the building more generally. In this way, any dangerous fumes that are expelled over the course of your lab work will be swiftly removed from the room. Protecting both you and any other researches or lab personnel from exposure. To do this, ducted fume hoods will need to be connected to the ventilation system that already exists in your facilities. RDM Industrial Products offers a number of factory-direct, industrial-quality ducted fume hoods, like the popular SB-MAX. Many of these can be built according to your personal size specifications and outfitted with a number of optional additional features. - Ductless (Recirculating):
By contrast, a ductless or recirculating fume hood works differently. It takes the potentially noxious or toxic gases that have been released into its system, runs them through a filtration mechanism until they are no longer harmful. And then releases the filtered air back into the laboratory room. As with ducted fume hoods, RDM manufactures a diverse selection of ductless models as well. Including the SB-MAX-A, which filters and recirculates your air while also bringing in more air from the outside. As with ducted models, all ductless fume hoods from RDM are manufactured direct. And if needed, they can be built according to your size specifications. It is also important to remember that ductless fume hoods typically have lower initial costs. And, depending on the environment, can provide greater benefits in the form of higher efficiency. As such, they are an excellent option for lab managers seeking to lower long-term costs.
In addition to this functional classification, fume hoods also vary by things like size and overall design style. Here, the major categories sold by RDM are as follows:
- Bench Top Hoods:
Bench top fume hoods are the most common, and therefore the standard, fume hood design style. In this case, the fume hood is attached to and surrounds a work counter, below which are storage cabinets that allow you to keep various laboratory chemicals close at hand. - Walk-In Hoods:
Walk-in fume hoods are typically large enough to allow a person to fit into them. They are generally separated into multiple compartments with an internal bypass that adjusts as the sash is either raised or lowered. Walk-in fume hoods are useful for laboratories which expect to have to deal with large volumes of toxic gases. RDM’s standard model here is the WB-MAX. - HEPA Workstations:
HEPA workstations are much like bench top fume hoods, except that they are generally smaller and more portable. Also, the come attached to a HEPA air filter which continuously bathes the surrounding work environment with freshly filtered air.
All RDM fume hoods are proudly manufactured in the USA. We encourage you to take a look at our many fume hood models and styles and choose the one(s) that are best fitted to your lab’s peculiar needs. Custom designs are available upon request.
Exhaust Fume Hood Options
Laboratory exhaust fume hoods – of all the types and styles mentioned above – come with a number of different optional design features. If there’s a feature you’d like to add, a member of the RDM Team would be happy to see if it fits in with your design. Many of these options concern the design and construction of the storage cabinets that come attached to certain fume hoods.
Typically, cabinets, associated workstations and fume hoods themselves are made of stainless steel. Though RDM can custom-design cabinets using other materials like laminated wood and melamine wood. We can also make the cabinets and overall fume hood flame resistant and/or chemical resistant. Which is an especially important feature for labs that are stocked with flammable or corrosive substances. Trespass base cabinets, which are also chemical-resistant, are available as well.
RDM can also build exhaust fume hoods in a wide variety of sizes. Generally ranging from 35 inches wide on the smaller end to as much as 96 inches wide on the larger end. The specific size options available will vary depending on the model that you have your eye on, however, so be sure to check out all of our industrial-quality fume hood models. Design options for base cabinet construction will also vary depending on the types of chemicals that you intend to store and use in your lab.
Fume Hood Accessories
RDM fume hoods also can come with a diverse set of technical accessories. Allowing you expand their capabilities and put them to laboratory-specific uses. RDM’s customization features only augment your power of choice and help you to assemble a better and more multi-purpose lab. Accessories, broadly speaking, fall into the following categories:
- Compatibility With Room Fixtures:
Depending on the nature of the room and ventilation system with which you’ll be using your fume hood, various accessories may be necessary. Fume hoods can be set up to work with standard air systems, with chilled water, natural gas, argon or other arrangements, as required. - Ventilation Control Styles:
RDM offers both analog and digital ventilation control systems with its variable air volume fume hoods. Digital systems generally offer more fine-grained control over air flow and air volume, but analog knobs are also available. Such hoods also come with alarms which go off if air flow is not kept within certain pre-set parameters. Moreover, we can build custom-made fume hoods which remove toxic gases by creating a vacuum. Sashes made of safety glass.
We encourage you to browse through the full range of our quality-designed fume hoods. Then give RDM Industrial Products a call at 1-877-483-5733. Let us build one for you that will let you push your lab to new heights.