How Safe Is Your Dust Collector?
Camfil says that common safety issues with dust collectors include:
- Collector Housing – Housing is continually fed oxygen and there are possible ignition sources from the process side that could cause deflagration.
- Collector Hopper – Large volumes of dust are directed to the open spaces in the hopper, filters and housing along with the combination of oxygen and ignition sources from housing could result in an explosion. Do not use the hopper to store combustible dust.
- Inlet Ducting – Improper installation of inlet ducts can cause buildup of dust to result in deflagration.
- Outlet & Return Air Ducts – Air must be clean when returned to the facility. Without proper safety monitoring and filters, an explosion in the dust collector will travel into the facility through the outlet/return ducts and quickly spread throughout the entirety of the facility. Needless to say, there will be fatalities.
Dust collectors only capture 80% of the dust and dirt on the walls, floor, ceiling, rafters and machinery etc. Our SonicAire fans finish the job of eliminating the other 20% of dust that inhibits compliance with the NFPA and OSHA. With the use of BarrierAire proprietary technology, SonicAire fans create an overhead barrier in the facility.
The dust is forced to the floor and upward currents are stopped, thus preventing all further accumulation of dust in overhead and hard-to-reach places. Stagnant air that keeps dust in suspension is inhibited by the overhead barrier and manual cleaning is replaced by the continuous cleaning of SonicAire fans.
Not only does this save time, but it saves labor costs and loss production costs for many years to come. Often times the ROI for our customers is less than 12 months.
We are in the business of saving lives, reducing energy consumption and eliminating fugitive dusts. With our customers, we always recommend that they make sure that their dust collector is in safe working order before we move forward with an engineered design for each facility.
