Electric Air Supply Respirator

• Why Refineries Need PAPR and Multiple Types

  

  Jan 01, 2026

    In the petroleum refining industry, the high-temperature, high-pressure, and continuous reaction process characteristics mean that the operating environment is always surrounded by multiple occupational health risks. From cracking furnace decoking to hydroprocessing unit maintenance, from confined space operations to daily inspections, toxic and harmful substances such as hydrogen sulfide, benzene series, and heavy metal catalyst dust are ubiquitous. Respiratory protection has become the first and most important line of defense to ensure the life safety of workers. As an efficient respiratory protection equipment, full face papr respirator is no longer an optional "bonus item" but a "standard configuration" for safe production in refineries; more importantly, due to the great differences in hazards across operating scenarios, refineries must also adapt multiple types of PAPR to achieve precise protection and fully build a solid safety line of defense.   The respiratory hazards in refineries are complex and fatal, and traditional protective equipment is difficult to handle. During crude oil processing, highly toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and ammonia are produced. Hydrogen sulfide has the smell of rotten eggs at low concentrations, but at high concentrations, it can quickly paralyze the olfactory nerves, leading to "flash" coma or even death. At the same time, the "dust-toxin composite" pollution formed by the mixture of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) such as benzene and toluene with catalyst dust further increases the difficulty of protection. Traditional self-priming gas masks rely on passive adsorption and filtration, with limited protective capacity of the gas filter cartridge. They are prone to instantaneous penetration in high-concentration or complex mixture environments, and have high breathing resistance. Long-term wear can make workers exhausted, greatly reducing operational safety.   The active air supply and continuous positive pressure design of PAPR fundamentally improves protection reliability and lays the foundation for its adaptation to multiple scenarios. Different from traditional protective equipment, PAPR actively supplies air through a battery-driven fan, which can maintain a stable positive pressure environment inside the mask or hood—even if minor sealing gaps are caused by facial movements, clean air will overflow outward, completely blocking the infiltration path of toxic and harmful substances. A more core advantage lies in its modular filtration system: it is this design that allows positive airflow respirator to accurately select and match filter components according to the risk assessment results of different operations, thereby deriving multiple adaptive types and achieving precise protection of "one equipment for one scenario". This is also the key technical support for refineries to must use multiple types of PAPR.   The diversity of operating scenarios and the difference in hazards in refineries directly determine the need to use multiple types of PAPR. From the perspective of hazard types, there are highly toxic gases such as hydrogen sulfide and benzene series, particulate matter such as catalyst dust and asphalt fume, and more complex "dust-toxin composite" pollution; from the perspective of environmental characteristics, there are both ordinary inspection areas and flammable and explosive hazardous areas such as confined spaces and storage tank areas. Taking confined space operations (such as inside waste heat boilers and reactors) as an example, intrinsic safety type PAPR that meets ATEX or IECEx international explosion-proof certification must be used to avoid electric sparks from the motor causing explosions; decoking workers in catalytic cracking units face "dust-toxin composite" pollution and need to be equipped with PAPR with "high-efficiency dust filtration + composite gas filtration"; while inspection workers on oil transfer trestles only need to prevent crude oil impurity dust and can choose simple dust-filtering PAPR. If only a single type of PAPR is used, it will either lead to safety accidents due to insufficient protection or increase use costs and operational burden due to functional redundancy.   From the perspective of industry practice, the popularization of personal air respirator and the adaptation of multiple types have become a safety consensus among advanced refining enterprises. Whether it is hydroprocessing unit maintenance workers and storage tank cleaning workers who need explosion-proof PAPR, catalytic cracking decoking workers and sulfur recovery operators who need composite dust and gas filtering PAPR, or boiler ash cleaning workers and warehouse handlers who need simple dust-filtering PAPR, various types of PAPR are accurately matching the protective needs of different jobs. In today's high-quality development of the refining industry, safety is an insurmountable red line. Using PAPR is the basic premise to resist respiratory hazards, and adapting multiple types of PAPR is the core requirement to achieve comprehensive and precise protection—only the combination of the two can truly protect the respiratory safety of front-line workers and reflect the enterprise's intrinsic safety level.If you want know more, please click www.newairsafety.com.

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• Differences Between TH3 and TM3 in PAPRs

  

  Nov 11, 2025

     Among the protection level designations of PAPRs (Powered Air-Purifying Respirators), TH3 and TM3 are two categories that are easily confused. Many practitioners may wonder when selecting products: if both are "Level 3" protection, why is there a distinction between "TH" and "TM"? In fact, these two designations are not randomly assigned, but are specialized protection levels defined based on internationally accepted classification standards for respiratory protective equipment, targeting different environmental risks, pollutant types, and usage requirements. Clarifying the core differences between them is crucial for accurately matching PAPRs to work scenarios.   To understand the difference between the two, it is first necessary to clarify the core definition of the designations: the "3" in TH3 and TM3 represents the intensity of the protection level (usually corresponding to protection requirements for high-concentration or long-term exposure scenarios), while the prefixes "TH" and "TM" directly point to the core risks of the protection scenarios. "TH" is the abbreviation of "Thermal/High-humidity", which is mainly suitable for high-temperature, high-humidity scenarios accompanied by particulate pollution; "TM" is the abbreviation of "Toxic/Mist", focusing on environments with toxic gases, vapors, or misty pollutants. In simple terms, the essential difference between the two lies in "different core risks of the protection scenarios", which in turn leads to differences in key performances such as design, filtration system, and materials.    In terms of applicable scenarios and protection objects, the boundaries between TH3 and TM3 are clear and highly targeted. The core application scenarios of TH3-type PAPRs are concentrated in fields with high-temperature, high-humidity and particulate pollution, such as blast furnace maintenance in the metallurgical industry, boiler maintenance, and ceramic firing workshops. In these scenarios, the ambient temperature often exceeds 40°C, the relative humidity is over 80%, and there are a large amount of metal dust and slag particles. Therefore, the protection focus of TH3 is "high-temperature resistance + damp-heat protection + particulate filtration", which needs to ensure that the motor does not shut down at high temperatures, the mask does not fog up, and the filter cotton does not fail due to moisture absorption. The TM3-type air papr, on the other hand, are mainly used in scenarios with toxic and harmful gases/vapors or misty pollutants, such as solvent volatilization operations in the chemical industry, paint spraying, and pesticide production. The pollutants are mostly organic vapors (such as toluene and xylene) and acidic droplets (such as sulfuric acid mist). Its protection core is "efficient toxin filtration + anti-leakage". The filtration system needs to be equipped with a special toxic gas filter canister (instead of a simple filter cotton), and the mask has higher requirements for sealing performance to prevent toxic substances from infiltrating.   Differences in design processes and core performances are the technical support for TH3 and TM3 to adapt to different scenarios. TH3-type papr respirators focus on "environmental stability resistance" in key components: the motor uses high-temperature resistant materials (such as insulation coatings resistant to 120°C), the mask is equipped with an anti-fog coating and a ventilation and diversion structure, the filter cotton uses hydrophobic materials to avoid clogging due to moisture absorption, and some models also add heat dissipation holes. The design focus of TM3-type PAPRs is "toxicity prevention and sealing": the toxic gas filter canister adopts a layered adsorption structure (such as a combination of activated carbon and chemical adsorbents), and the adsorption materials are customized for different toxic substances; the fitting part of the mask and the face uses high-elastic silica gel to reduce gap leakage; some high-end models also integrate a gas concentration alarm function to monitor the failure risk of the toxic gas filter canister in real time. In addition, the certification standards for the two are also different - TH3 needs to pass the particulate filtration efficiency test in high-temperature and high-humidity environments, while TM3 needs to pass the penetration rate test of specific toxic gases.   Confusing TH3 and TM3 during selection may lead to "protection failure" or "excessive investment". If a TH3-type PAPR is incorrectly used in a chemical spraying scenario, it can only filter paint mist particles but cannot adsorb organic vapors, leading to inhalation of toxic substances. If a TM3-type PAPR is selected for boiler maintenance scenarios, although it can filter dust, the motor is prone to overload in high-temperature environments, and the toxic gas prevention function of the filter canister is completely redundant, increasing equipment costs. Therefore, the core principle for selection is to "target the core risks of the scenario": first determine whether the environment is "high-temperature and high-humidity + particulate matter" or "toxic gas/mist + particulate matter", then select TH3 or TM3 accordingly. In short, the difference between TH3 and TM3 is not "level height", but "scenario adaptation". Accurate matching is the key to respiratory protection.If you want know more，please click www.newairsafety.com.

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