Industrial Fire Prevention

From: Chemical Engineering Online    MITIGATE DUST HAZARDS WITH GOOD EQUIPMENT AND SYSTEM DESIGN By Chuck Kerwin and Gus Carrington, AZO Inc. |  November 1, 2020 By carefully considering equipment and plant design in processes involving powdered materials, fugitive dust issues can be reduced significantly. Powdered ingredients that unintentionally leak from equipment in a manufacturing plant are known as fugitive dust. The risks associated with fugitive dust are very real.  The three major risk factors are: 1) combustion risk  2) operator exposure (inhalation and contact) risk and  3) product hygiene risk.  It is difficult, if not impossible, to eliminate all dust from a manufacturing plant, but controlling fugitive dust starts with equipment design. Minimizing dust in and around bulk-material-handling systems is most effective when less dust is allowed to escape from your material-handling system.  This article provides information on design stra...

 From our Friends at: Occupational Health and Safety Arresting Fugitive Dusts The use of vacuum conveyors to transfer materials between processes improves indoor air quality while increasing efficiency and the bottom line.   By Doan Pendleton Oct 01, 2021 Most often when hearing the term fugitive dust, one thinks of combustible fugitive dust. However, fugitive dust is simply a particulate matter that becomes entrained in ambient air (usually by wind or human interaction). Respirable dust particles are invisible to the naked eye and universally considered to be 10 microns or less in size. Of all the harmful respirable dusts, silica gets the most attention, perhaps because it is present in so many products and nearly all industries, and it can lead to incurable lung disease and death. Silica is an anti-caking agent in food, pharmaceutical and supplement products in metal powders, paint and coatings formulations and in a host of other materials. Respirable dust hazards in these indus...