Dust control and risk mitigation go hand-in-hand for manufacturers who processes dry powders and other bulk materials.
NFPA 654 Standard for the Prevention of Fire and Dust Explosions from the Manufacturing, Processing, and Handling of Combustible Particulate Solid made changes to the code to help reduce the number of accidents associated with dusting in manufacturing.
These changes are particularly important because incident history and statistics clearly indicate that secondary dust explosions, caused by inadequate housekeeping and excessive dust accumulations, have been responsible for much of the damage and casualties experienced in major industrial dust explosions. Steven J. Luzik. “Dust Explosion Standard Gets Significant Revisions.” ChemicalProcessing.com
Central dust collection systems are the obvious answer to capturing and removing particulate from plant air. However, these large, central systems are not cost effective for small facilities or cannot always adequately capture areas of concentrated dust in far corners of the plant. These units are best suited for minor ingredient additions to a larger process or for smaller operations where small, 20 to 50 lb bags of material or ingredients are typically purchased. When these bags are emptied the airborne particulate travels everywhere and over time can become hazardous. In these instances, a point-of-use dust collection unit might be the answer to avoiding health and safety risks from accumulated dust. A point-of-use dust collector is assembled on a hood which can fit on an existing hopper or can be designed with a new integral hopper. When minor ingredient bags are emptied into the hopper the integral dust collector immediately captures the airborne particulate and pulls it into the 1 micron filter. The system uses a regenerative blower to generate a vacuum and pulls the airborne material into the filter. When the hood is closed, a reverse-pulse-jet feature uses a pulse of air to blow the collected material from the filter putting it back into the hopper for use.
The point-of-use dust collectors can be designed for wash-down duty, explosion proof service, and with glove box arrangement for hazardous material. Visit Hapman’s Dust Collection to learn more about the efficient operating technology and custom options.
