Site Operatives Protected from Paint Fumes During Carriage Refurbishment Works

Case Study Overview

In 2020, Avanti West Coast partnered with Bombardier Transportation to carry out extensive internal refurbishments across their entire Voyager fleet. The fleet, made up of 20, 5-carriage trains, required moquette and decal replacement, new flooring throughout and an LED lighting upgrade. A major part of the refurbishment was re-paints of the interior bodyside and ceiling panels in the saloon, vestibules and bar/café areas across all carriages.

Challenge

The project was working to a tight timescale of 20 weeks. This meant that a total of 100 carriages had to be refurbished in this time. To achieve this, site operatives were required to complete the full programme of works for each train within 6 days. Due to these time constraints, it was not possible to transport the individual carriages to the paint shop, so refurbishment had to be carried out in the main maintenance facility at Bombardier’s Ilford depot.

Although those within the painting environment were provided with PPE, there was the potential risk of fume exposure for other operatives on site. To protect their workforce and keep the paint fumes contained and controlled, Bombardier approached RVT for a solution.

Solution

RVT suggested the use of our RAVEX® Fume Extraction Kit.

A WandaFilta® Capture Hood was positioned inside the carriage as close to the painting activities as possible, ensuring that fume was captured at source. The fume then passed through the filter media housed within the capture hood. Carbon panel filters were used, causing adsorption to occur and allowing the fume molecules to adhere to the large internal surface area of the carbon. Paper pre-filters were also used.

Intake ducting then connected the capture hood to a 300 CF Centrifugal Fan via a sealed doorway to prevent any fume escaping. The powerful 300 CF fan drew the fume into the capture hood before forcing it through the filter media. The now filtered air then passed through a stretch of outlet ducting attached to the 300 CF and was safely vented back into the main maintenance facility.

Where painting was taking place, two of these set ups were positioned beside the carriage for maximum filtration. There was also a small opening at the opposite end of the carriage to allow safe airflow.

Not only did this set up protect site operatives from hazardous fume, it also achieved 0.3m/s air speed through the carriages, allowing continuous work without breaks to let the paint mist clear, keeping the project on track.

Avanti West Coast Senior Project Manager, Adrian Bullock, said that the refurbishments had given the trains “a new lease of life”, predicting that they would “continue to serve our customers for the next two years with great distinction.”