Dust collector blast gates let you control a dust collection system vacuum pressure in order to achieve maximum suction at a desired tool station. Here is how they work:
- at each key tool station, a hose is attached to the tool and routed to the main dust collector vacuum
- for each hose run, a gate is installed that can be opened or closed. The gate is usually close to the power tool for easy access
- in older systems these gates were mechanical in nature and were activated manually, that is, each gate had to be opened or closed to maximize vacuum pressure at the desired tool station. Indeed, such manually operated gates still exist today.
- the blast gates are typically closed. When one gate is opened all vacuum pressure is made available to that tool station
With todays high efficiency dust collection systems, multiple blast gates can be opened at the same time. In some instances, its even recommended that more than one gate be opened to prevent a system from literally collapsing. So, how do you take account of all of these issues in a modern, well equipped workshop?
The iVAC Pro family of automated dust collector blast gates lets you control vacuum flows precisely and automatically. All of our blast gates are electrically driven and programmable. There are three methods of controlling an iVAC Pro Blast Gate:
Fully Automatic: when the power tool is turned on, the iVAC Tool Interface (Pro Tool Plus Auto Sensor) sends a wireless signal instructing the iVAC Pro Switch to turn on the Dust Collector, and this same signal is used to instruct the blast gate to open. When the power tool turns off it instructs the blast gate to close.
iVAC Pro Remote: in this mode an iVAC Pro Remote is used to send the Open and Close commands to the pro blast gate.
Remotely from a wired cable: in this mode the operation of a toggle switch on a wired cable will instruct the blast gate to open or close.
