Where the gas carries dust, inlet filtration is the first line of protection for the chamber. Without it, or with a failed element, dust reaches the chamber directly and accelerates vane and cylinder wear, showing up as lost capacity and higher noise.
Mount the filter as close to the inlet as practical to shorten the dusty section ahead of the pump. Choose the rating from particle size and permitted carry-over: too fine adds significant resistance and lowers effective pumping speed, too coarse gives no protection. A two-stage arrangement — a cleanable coarse element plus a finer replaceable one — is often the better answer.
Trigger replacement on differential pressure rather than a fixed number of days: fit a gauge across the filter and change it when the reading rises to a set multiple of the clean value. Shorten inspection intervals at powder conveying and weighing stations.
Dusty duty also justifies a tighter daily walk-round, logging capacity and pressure trends as the basis for maintenance decisions.