Cleanliness holds a very important stand in every fragment of the society. Hygiene and cleanliness play an important role in avoiding diseases. So we need an efficient functioning cleaning system that can keep germs and bacteria at bay. This has led to the development of cleanliness equipments like cyclones and is also known as vortex separators. A cyclone is used in the proper functioning of a vacuum cleaner which is widely used in domestic households and work places. The dirt is collected by a filtering system or a cyclone for later disposal. Vacuum cleaners employing this method are also bagless. It causes intake air to be cycled or spun so fast that the dust is forced out of the air and falls into a storage bin. The operation is similar to that of a centrifuge. Cyclonic separation- cyclonic separation is a method of removing particulates from an air, gas or water stream, without the use of filters, through vortex separation. Rotational effects and gravity are used to separate mixtures of solids and fluids. A high speed rotating (air) flow is established within a cylindrical or conical container called a cyclone. Air flows in a spiral pattern, beginning at the top (wide end) of the cyclone and ending at the bottom (narrow) end before exiting the cyclone in a straight stream through the center of the cyclone and out the top. Larger (denser) particles in the rotating stream have too much inertia to follow the tight curve of the stream and strike the outside wall, falling then to the bottom of the cyclone where they can be removed. In a conical system, as the rotating flow moves towards the narrow end of the cyclone the rotational radius of the stream is reduced, separating smaller and smaller particles. The cyclone geometry, together with flow rate, defines the cut point of the cyclone. This is the size of particle that will be removed from the stream with 50% efficiency. Particles larger than the cut point will be removed with a greater efficiency and smaller particles with a lower efficiency.
Large scale cyclones are used in saw mills to remove sawdust from extracted air. Cyclones are also used in oil refineries to separate oils and gas and in the cement industry as components of kiln preheaters. Smaller cyclones are used to separate airborne particles for analysis. Some are small enough to be worn clipped to clothing and are used to separate respirable particles for later analysis. Analogous devices for separating particles or solids from liquids are called hydro cyclones or hydro clones. These may be used to separate solid waste from water in wastewater and sewage treatment.
