Grimm EMD Catalogue - ExIS

The Future of Dust and
Particle Monitoring
Dear readers,
I am delighted to find you interested in our Enviro Product Line.
Measuring and assessing particulate matter within the
ambient air is of prime importance: Limit values set by the
World Health Organization (WHO) for human health
protection are exceeded worldwide every single day.
In highly congested urban areas in particular, the degree of
contamination is clearly above those limit values with a serious
impact on all those many people subjected to it. In contrast to
gaseous airborne pollutants, no minimum threshold can be
scientifically defined for fine dust beneath the size of which
such dust does not have any further relevance to health. As a
consequence, it is our duty and responsibility to reduce
particulate matter contamination within the ambient air to a
level that is both technically feasible and cost-efficient at the
same time.
For more than 20 years my work at the Institute for
Environmental Protection of the Berlin Technical University
focused on measuring and assessing airborne pollutants.
Today, different measuring principles and techniques for the
determination of atmospheric dust are used in research and in
applications: gravimetric sampling (high-volume and lowvolume
sampling), beta dust monitors, nephelometers,
thermographic, electrostatic and optical methods. Each of
these technologies has its advantages and disadvantages, as
well as its specific range of applications.
Over time, however, a lot has changed: The measuring tasks
have become more demanding and consequently the
requirements on the necessary measuring technology as well.
If in the past monitoring was mainly about staying within dustrelated
limit values; today, root cause analyses and finding the
sources of fine dust contamination have become the primary
targets. Only by being able to properly identify the source of a
specific particulate matter contamination, appropriate, costefficient,
and long-lasting, effective initiatives can be started in
politics.
It is not sufficient to learn tomorrow about today´s fine dust
contamination values; people are entitled to get real-time
information about the current fine dust contamination. In
addition, mean values on a 24-hour basis do not offer enough
information for a precise identification of the contamination
sources.
Atmospheric processes, such as vertical and horizontal
transport and compound processes that have a fundamental
influence on the fine dust contamination within the ambient
air, obviously show lower time scales (minutes to seconds). As a
consequence, measuring technologies with the following
characteristics have become indispensible for today's
measuring tasks:
Dr. Markus Pesch
Technical Director
GRIMM Aerosol Technik GmbH
Continuous measurements with a high temporal
resolution (a few seconds up to 30 minutes)
Information on the particle mass fractions PM10, PM2.5
and PM1 (to monitor the current and future limit values).
Determination of the particle size distribution (to judge its
relevance to health and precisely identify the source).
Maintenance-free, reliable measuring technologies
involving little labor (cost-efficiency).
High sensitivity and low levels of detection (reliable
determination even at low dust contamination of but a few
µg/m³).
Our GRIMM optical fine dust measuring equipment was
designed to meet all the above mentioned requirements.
All our Enviro systems are equipped with the same optical
chamber permitting a precise and reliable single particle
determination. This optical chamber is currently operating in
more than 3,000 devices worldwide and has proven its
quality and superiority by successfully passing the European
directives for PM10 and PM2.5. With the ability to
simultaneously measure dust mass fractions PM10, PM2.5
and PM1 as well as the particle size distribution in up to 31
size channels (simply by switching measuring modes), the
operator is well-prepared for all present and future dust
measurement tasks and specific root cause analyses.
In my capacity as Technical Director of the GRIMM company, I
will strive for a continuous development of measurement
technologies meeting the highest technical standards and
setting the benchmark for what is possible today. Rest
assured that through the combined know-how of our
engineers and scientists - from the service department to the
product development department to R&D - we will provide
top quality in all aspects of our product range and services.
Our line of Enviro products is currently employed in various
fields of application worldwide. I look forward to welcoming
you as a new future GRIMM customer.
Yours truly,