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How Industrial Dust Control Is An Important Safety Measure

Industrial dust control is one of the most important safety measures processing plants need to consider. In the mining, agriculture, food processing and pharmaceutical industries, combustible particles are expelled during normal processing methods. These particles, if allowed to gather and suspend in the air, can result in a massive explosion if ignited. To prevent this, processing facilities normally employ some form of particle filtering and removal that suppresses the threat of an explosion. These systems are also important for safeguarding worker health against breathing hazards.

Even materials that are normally inert can be highly combustible when reduced to only a few microns in size
. Over time, these particles get suspended in the air and become a source of fuel for any exposed flame or electrical discharge. The sudden combustion, or deflagration, causes a sudden and extreme increase in pressure. If deflagration occurs in a confined area, the resulting pressure wave can tear through the building and cause an explosion. The primary explosion may release more fuel, which may result in secondary explosions greater in magnitude. In addition, suspended particles can cause a range of health problems in the workers that inhale them, including cancer or fibrosis of the lungs. For these reasons, it is important for every processing plant to consider installing industrial dust control.

Every industrial dust control system includes a collector
. The collector is where the particles are funneled to and kept until disposed of. These collectors may come in the form of giant silos lined with fabric (known as bag collectors), cartridge collectors or cyclone collectors. A cartridge collector normally comes with filters that contain disposable media. This media picks up harmful particles out of the area and holds onto them. While cartridge collectors are fairly rare, they are ideal for smaller particle sizes. Cyclone collectors are large cylinders that taper at the bottom in to a funnel. Contaminated air is pushed into the top of the cyclone collector and forced toward the bottom of the shaft. The particles in the air possess too much inertia to maintain suspension and strike the sides of the shaft, where they fall out the bottom of the collector and into containers.

In addition to a collector, an industrial dust control system needs a way to funnel the air into the collector to begin with
. The basic setup includes a large-scale ventilation system that uses negative pressure (a vacuum) to direct contaminated air into a series of air ducts. These ducts are channeled toward the collectors. The contaminated air arrives at the collector, is filtered and is then returned to the processing facility.

Setting up a series of ducts and collection devices requires a customized solution
. Every processing plant operates differently and in varying spaces, so an industrial dust control system is normally installed by a consulting firm. This firm calculates the needs of the factory and recommends a setup that would work best. Some of these companies may also build and install the system. In addition to setting up the system, the builder and installer must verify that the collector will contain an explosion, should there be a sudden deflagration.

Safety should be a top priority at every processing plant, and with a dust collection and suppression system, this safety can be achieved.




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