Fume Cupboards

A fume cupboard (sometimes called a fume cabinet or fume hood) is a type of protective enclosure used in laboratories. Its function is to protect operators and other personnel by providing containment. It is designed to limit the escape of airborne contaminants such as hazardous, toxic and/or flammable fumes, gases, vapours, and aerosols while protecting the product or experiment.
 
Typically, a fume cupboard has a metal body, a chemically resistant chamber, and an adjustable front opening (sash) made from safety glass. An exhaust fan pulls air and airborne contaminants through connected ductwork to an external discharge point where they can be safely dispersed at low concentration.
 
If external discharge is not viable, recirculation filtration fume cupboards are available. They provide operator and environmental protection from contaminating fumes and a limited quantity of particles through filtration systems within the fume cupboard.
 
In the UK, fume cupboards should be designed to meet BS EN 14175 and tested at least every 14 months to comply with COSHH Regulations.
 
Clean Air has the widest range of fume cupboard designs available in the market – speak to our friendly team about your requirements.

A fume cupboard (sometimes called a fume cabinet or fume hood) is a type of protective enclosure used in laboratories. Its function is to protect operators and other personnel by providing containment. It is designed to limit the escape of airborne contaminants while protecting the product or experiment. These contaminants can include hazardous, toxic and/or flammable fumes, gases, and vapours/aerosols.

Typically, it has a metal body, a chemically resistant chamber, and an adjustable front opening (sash). The sash is made from safety glass. An exhaust fan pulls air and airborne contaminants through connected ductwork to an external discharge point where they can be safely dispersed at low concentration.

If external discharge is not viable, recirculation filtration fume cupboards are available. These provide operator and environmental protection from contaminating fumes and a limited quantity of particles through filtration systems within the fume cupboard.

In the UK, fume cupboards should be designed to meet BS EN 14175. They should undergo testing at least every 14 months to comply with COSSH Regulations.

Clean Air is a fume cupboard specialist and has the widest choice of designs available in the market. Speak to our friendly team about our Education and Industrial ranges.

A fume cupboard (sometimes called a fume cabinet or fume hood) is a protective enclosure used in laboratories. Its function is to protect operators and other personnel by providing containment.
It limits the escape of airborne contaminants such as hazardous, toxic and flammable fumes, gases, vapours, and aerosols while protecting the product or experiment. A fan draws these contaminants into ducting to be vented externally or into a filter, thereby also protecting the operator.
Fume cupboards are used for teaching, experiments, industrial processes, research and development, and scale-up. They can be found in schools, universities and commercial settings.
Fume cupboards are an integral piece of lab safety equipment in many industries. In safety-critical applications, they offer assurance that operators can work without fear of harm.
Using fume cupboards, scientists can accelerate research and reduce its time to develop new products.
They can commercialise materials and processes by developing low-cost, scalable manufacturing methods, with proof of concept safely undertaken in fume cupboards. An example would be the commercialisation of graphene and new applications for this pioneering 2D material.
In secondary schools and 6th Form colleges, fume cupboards are used for experiments needed to teach the GCSE and ‘A’ Level chemistry curriculum.
These fume cupboards will often have glass on all four sides to facilitate demonstrations to students.
Universities cross over between the education and commercial sectors, as their fume cupboards are used not only for teaching purposes but often in collaboration with industry to prove theories and conduct research. This can include research into the discovery of new materials and processing, organic materials, inorganic materials, nanomedicines and nano characterisation, sustainability, and genomic sequencing.
They are in widespread use in the pharmaceutical industry for drug development. They are helping researchers to develop responses for diseases with unmet needs.
Police forensics is another application requiring containment to protect operators from chemical materials.
The chemical industry also needs fume cupboard containment for speciality chemicals and research into sustainable technologies.
Many of these applications will require customisation of the fume cupboards to support each specialised application. For example, specially designed radio-isotope fume cupboards feature a seamless stainless steel monolithic chamber. These bespoke models support studies to reduce costs and increase productivity in nuclear programmes.
Fume cupboards are the workhorse of the laboratory. However, regular maintenance is critical to ensure that personnel remain safe and protected when operating them.

A fume cupboard is expensive to run. This is because fume cupboards are highly energy-intensive. One unit can consume more energy than three homes per year.
This is not due to the fume cupboard’s own running costs, which are minimal. It is calculated on the energy required to replace the fresh, conditioned air continuously pulled through the fume cupboard and discharged outside.
Integrating Variable Air Volume (VAV) controls can reduce energy costs by approximately 70%. VAV reduces the volume of air pulled through the fume cupboard. When combined with an auto sash controller (which automatically closes the sash when not in use) the savings are even greater. VAV controls can be retro-fitted to most fume cupboard units.
A simple way to reduce a fume cupboard’s energy consumption is to turn the unit off when not in use, if possible.
For more information on how to reduce the running costs of a fume cupboard, talk to Clean Air’s friendly team.

A docking station is a compact, lockable housing for mains supplies, providing a mobile fume cupboard with safe and secure access to services such as water, gas, drainage and power. Quick-release connections on the service hoses allow the fume cupboard to be relocated. 
 
The docking station can be locked when not in use and can be either panel mounted –mounted on a workstation or lab bench – or wall mounted.

Height adjustable fume cupboards are a variant of the walk-in fume cupboard. The enhanced access design allows the chamber and working level to be adjusted to different heights, accommodating wheelchair users.
 
Clean Air can supply standard and custom designed height adjustable fume cupboards to incorporate any modifications required. – speak to our team.

A fume cupboard can be energy efficient with the addition of a Variable Air Volume (VAV) system. A VAV system modulates the amount of air required by the fume cupboard’s sash opening height. Closing the sash reduces the volume of air required by approximately 70%.

A Low Volume fume cupboard is designed to operate and provide containment with face velocities as low as 0.3 m/s

A Constant Air Volume fume cupboard extracts a consistent amount of air irrespective of sash position.

CFM stands for cubic feet per minute. It can refer to the extract volume of a fume cupboard. For example, 1 m³/s = 2119 CFM

Radio-Isotope fume cupboards typically feature a seamless stainless steel monolithic chamber. The containment and shielding requirements for the unit should be assessed by the user to form part of an occupational risk prevention manual.

A fume cupboard is not designed to store chemicals and chemicals should only be kept in a fume cupboard while they are in use. Fume cupboards rely on airflow to protect operators from harmful fumes, and items, including chemicals, stored in the unit can interfere with this airflow, reducing the efficiency of the unit.
Clean Air can supply and fit vented cabinets suitable for chemical storage, ask our friendly team.

If you are unsure which chemicals are safe to use in your fume cupboard, check the Operation & Maintenance manual. If it is not listed here, check with the manufacturer.
Several factors will affect chemical usage, including airflow and the materials used to manufacture the fume cupboard’s internal chamber walls and the sash. For example, the chemical can etch glass, so a material sash is recommended. If in doubt, check.

A fume cupboard should be switched off when not in use if the control requirement allows.
 
When the fume cupboard is switched on it will continue to pull air through from the laboratory. This will use energy to run the fume cupboard and to replace the conditioned air within the lab.

Face Velocity is the measurement of the speed at which air enters a fume cupboard through the sash opening. 

If the face velocity is too high, air turbulence will occur between the sash and the operator. If the face velocity is too low, the fume cupboard will not effectively remove toxic fumes, vapours, gases, aerosols and particulates/dust. 

BS EN 14175 recommends that a fume cupboard should have a face velocity of between 0.3 m/s and 0.5 m/s. Different uses and conditions will determine the optimal face velocity for a given application.

What is the minimum face velocity for normal operation of a fume cupboard?

Low Volume fume cupboards are designed to contain fumes effectively at face velocities as low as 0.3 m/s.