The Ultimate Guide to Commercial Ductwork Parts

Having the right commercial and industrial ductwork in place ensures a healthy and efficient work environment for employees. Many different types of ductwork components come together to form an intricate system for improving air quality, keeping people healthy, and ensuring equipment works at optimum performance levels. Continue reading the ultimate guide to commercial ductwork parts to discover more about the components that make up these industrial HVAC systems.

What Is HVAC and Commercial Ductwork?

HVAC is an acronym that stands for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. Commercial HVAC systems help cool and warm air inside buildings and move air between indoor and outdoor environments during a workday. These systems can help you feel cool inside on a sweltering summer day or warm you up after you escape the cold on a winter's day. They also control humidity levels and filter and cleanse the interior air of airborne contaminants that can spread in the air.

Types of Commercial Ductwork

Many factors influence the effectiveness of your HVAC system, and the type of ductwork is one of the most important of these. Commercial HVAC ducts come in various shapes and sizes, typically tailored to specific systems. Factors like costs, available capacity for ducting, and performance may impact the varied materials you select for commercial ductwork.

Stainless Steel

Stainless steel sheet metal is one of the most common materials people use for industrial and commercial duct systems. They typically make these systems out of steel sheet metal and sometimes galvanized steel or aluminum, which they bend and mold to produce rectangular or round forms. This material is incredibly robust and dependable, making it an easy choice for designing HVAC systems.

Flexible Nonmetallic

Plastic or other nonmetallic materials can wrap around uninterrupted lengths of metallic spring. The resulting structures are flexible nonmetallic ducts. Such ducts are incredibly lightweight and flex easily into any form or pattern. They're beneficial in situations when more substantial ductwork isn't practicable, there's restricted space, or the ducts must follow an odd path or weave around obstructions.

Fiberglass

Fiberglass ductwork includes compacted fiberglass with an exterior sheet covering that acts as a moisture and air buffer. This type has a sleek interior with no airflow obstruction and has a lining to keep any fiberglass particles from falling out. You'll frequently find these duct materials in trunk-and-branch duct constructions, where the large trunk lines guide airflow into smaller branches. Fiberglass duct board is a very affordable option for commercial use.

Types of Ductwork Parts

Each type of part in a ductwork system has a particularly vital role to play. These roles include helping bend systems around tight corners or bringing cooling and heating to distant areas. Below are many of the essential ductwork parts you will find in commercial HVAC systems.

Pipes

The most important features of commercial ductwork are pipes. They act as conduits for air to travel across buildings and between the interior and exterior environments. These are typically round pieces made of materials like stainless steel or galvanized metal. The pipes need to be wide enough to prevent airflow restriction.

Bends and Elbows

Duct elbows, also known as bends, allow airflow direction changes in a duct line. They’re perfect when you need to move the line around tight corners to continue piping. Typically, these bends will be at or around 90 degrees, but you'll also find types that curve at different angles, such as 60, 45, or 30 degrees.

Branches

While they may come in many different shapes and sizes, branches' primary function is to act as legs that come off the central line to support multiple piping paths. As the new line reaches the main line, single and double branches often narrow down. That's because the new line draws in much more air. As a result, the branch's outlet section is larger to handle the increased airflow.

T-branches have a secondary line meeting the primary line at a 90-degree angle, forming the shape of the letter T. With Y-branches, two inlets diverge from the centerline, and each one is generally the same size.

Clamps

Quick-fit duct clamps open and close fast, resulting in the creation of tight seals. Just one connecting clamp is necessary to connect two components. These parts make it easy to move and install duct components without the need for rivets, screws, or welding.

Mounting

You need to be able to attach piping to a wide variety of surfaces. With the proper mounting, you can safely anchor ducting in place. Some examples of mounting equipment include strut hangers, pipe hangers, gripple hangers, and clamp hangers.

Adapters

You need duct adapters for extending or expanding your ventilation system. These components can help in the transition from one form of connection to another. There are many adapter types. Angle flange adapters, machine adapters, end caps, end caps with bird screens, and hose adapters are examples. They can all help match ends that have different diameters, sizes, or shapes.

Blast Gates

A blast gate is a gate valve that directs the vacuum pressure of a dust collecting system to the appropriate area for optimum dust and contaminant removal. You'll find blast gates near separate pieces of equipment. They remain closed by default, preventing air movement. Whenever one of the blast gates opens, all the current suction concentrates into one point, allowing it to gather a massive amount of material.

Hoods

Having hoods installed on vents helps with ventilation, and distinct hood types have different purposes. For instance, router hoods remove dust and debris from the area around your routing equipment, ensuring safe and efficient operation. Bell mouth hoods have flared ends to enhance air, dust, and smoke collection ratios while increasing laminar airflow.

Hoses

You use duct hoses to blow, suction, or vent things. These can include airflow, fumes, dust, particles, and liquid waste. At the same time, hoses are more flexible than typical duct piping. Hoses are light and have the same material on the interior and exterior. The narrower the bend radius of the hose, the more flexible it is.

Valves

You use valves to help with variations in airflow rates. By adding ambient air, bleed-in valves modify airflow to balance the system. Butterfly valves employ conventional locking quadrant handles to control air volumes in clean air applications. Diverter valves are high-efficiency, low-cost components capable of redirecting materials or airflow.

Hopefully, you can use the ultimate guide to commercial ductwork parts as a reference when designing your ductwork systems. Monkey Industrial Supply is an authorized dealer of Nordfab’s Quick-Fit ductwork. This allows for fast installations of high-quality components, such as stainless-steel duct pipes and much more, without the need for tools. Feel free to contact us with any questions about our products.