Industry Experts With Over 160 Years Experience
We are a group of independent fume hood and laboratory ventilation experts. Our focus is making fume hoods safer for those using them. We come from various backgrounds in the industry. In addition to our permanent staff, we have access to a wide array of experts on an as-needed basis.
To give you an indication of the abilities of the permanent team, here are a few members:
Chip Albright
Chip Albright started his journey with fume hoods 40 years ago. In working with a number of industry leaders he has designed a number of fume hoods and been involved in the manufacturing and installing of tens of thousands of fume hoods.
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He has been in countless labs and seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. The last decade he has focused his efforts on those who use hoods. What he saw in those labs he visited caused him to become a user advocate.
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Without taking a holistic approach, fume hoods will never provide the intended performance and safety.
Victor Neuman PE
Victor Neuman started as a research engineer for the US Navy and continued in research with the University of Cambridge in England.
He made the switch to HVAC design and in 1983 was hired as a senior mechanical engineer with the famous lab design firm of Earl Walls Associates.
While at Walls, Victor designed HVAC systems for over 108 laboratory buildings
David Weber
David Weber has been in the industry for more than 30 years, representing fume hood manufacturers both domestically and internationally. He has worked alongside lab planners, architects and engineers in specifying and designing applications for fume hoods for nearly every type of laboratory environment.
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Rest assured that if you come to us for help, we have the talent to solve your problems.
We educate and train fume hood stakeholders
The only way fume hoods will operate at the intended level of performance and provide the safety that the users expect and deserve, is if all the parties understand enough to ensure that the proper things are being done.
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Unless we treat the entire laboratory ventilation system in a holistic way, we cannot achieve performance that is both safe and energy efficient. The hybrid nature of the fume hood, both as a PPE and an engineering control, blur the lines of functional responsibility. The complexity of the mechanical systems makes managing room conditions challenging. Yet, the best fume hood in the world will not function until it is connected to a properly designed, installed and maintained laboratory ventilation system, which includes both supply and exhaust air and has the controls to keep everything in balance.
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The introduction of the concepts of ECD, Exposure Control Devices, which a fume hood is and the Classification of Laboratory Design Levels which consider the risks of exposure in setting performance levels have made a holistic approach even more important.
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People working in the lab deserve a safe work environment and safe indoor air quality. Unless we all work together the odds of achieving that are not great.
For well over one hundred years, we have been involved in the fume hood and ventilation business. In that capacity, we have had the opportunity to visit thousands of labs. What we have seen has spanned the spectrum from great to horrible. We have seen many labs with fume hoods that did not provide the intended level of safety for a whole range of issues.
We have witnessed, all too often, that the very people the fume hoods were supposed to be protecting were under trained, never trained and often left out of the process that would determine the fume hood’s application and performance level.​We have spent most of our time with architects, lab planners, engineers and an occasional owner or lab manager, but rarely are we in front of the users; those who could benefit the most from our experience and knowledge.​We began to understand that the fume hood was the most misunderstood and misused safety device in the lab. We also recognized that the User wasn’t well represented in the process of selecting and acquiring fume hoods.
So as independent consultants, we decided to become User advocates. Independently, we have been working for years conducting in-person training, seminars and workshops. From those labors, we decided to band together. Banding together enables us to make a much greater impact, then accessing on-line learning platforms allows us to reach far greater numbers of people.​Fume Hood Certified has put together a comprehensive package of services and delivery methods to address anything fume hood related.
From informational videos on YouTube to on-site troubleshooting, we have something for every stakeholder when it involves fume hoods and laboratory ventilation.