• • • SAFETY IN ENGINEERING • • •
How to maintain a healthy and efficient workplace in ATEX
Strenuous workloads and taxing pressures to produce high-quality products are creating an increased demand for cleaner production facilities, yet, the intensity seems to make this need tougher to attain than ever before, writes James Miller, director at Dustcontrol UK
A
irborne dust and particulate waste from manufacturing processes are increasingly unacceptable in today’s facilities when
trying to achieve a competent working environment. If physical concerns over product quality and environmental health are already difficult enough to achieve, then external pressures from COSHH and ATEX regulations only increase the mounting pressure of having to maintain clean and healthy workplaces.
The dangers posed by dust The decision to overlook dust in ATEX environments can have severely detrimental consequences, with one of the worst-case scenarios being an explosion. Dust explosions transpire when combustible dust is mixed with air or oxygen and is ignited. For this to occur, the dust must be prevalent in sufficiently large concentrations. Virtually all flammable substances that arise due to, or that are used during industrial manufacturing, are combustible and can cause explosions under certain conditions. Examples of such substances include coal, flour, cereals, wood, cotton, and certain plastics. It is important to reflect, however, that material
does not have to be flammable in normal conditions to become explosive as dust. In fact, it is not just organic material such as flour or wood dust that can pose hazards, but also aluminium, stainless steel, titanium, and certain plastics. Created in the manufacturing process, these inorganic clouds of dust can be tremendously dangerous in the right/ wrong circumstances. The association between dust and explosions
isn’t exactly well documented, either. Fuels, wood and solvents, for example, are universally known for the dangers they pose if exposed to certain conditions. Everyone knows to put adequate procedures in place if handling clearly explosive materials – you wouldn’t wave an open flame near a can of petrol, for instance. With dust, though, the major issue is the fact that most people subordinate it as merely a household nuisance. This harmless image, though, is one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to changing people’s perceptions. The unpredictable nature of dust lies in its
large surface area. With gases and liquids, both only burn at the surface when the substance reacts with oxygen. It’s a common fallacy that despite its relative size, dust has a particularly large surface area, too. A large spherical object would have a surface area limited to its size. However, if this spherical object were then
20 ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING • OCTOBER 2021
broken down into dust particles, the surface area would be multiplied many times over. This increased surface area combined with the small mass of a dust particle means that the substance burns remarkably fast and with minimal energy required. When in a confined space, with dust suspended in the air, this explosive mix can even be detrimental enough to annihilate buildings and pose a serious threat to the health of anyone nearby. Another major risk posed by dust is
that of secondary explosions, which is where an initial blast disturbs accumulated dust in a plant, forcing it
into the air, igniting it, and creating a more potent explosion. It is this risk, though, that often leads to greater damage as secondary dust explosions can tear through buildings with ease.
Prevention So, how can the accumulation of dust and particulate waste be prevented in ATEX environments? Well, whilst it may seem that air cleaning through large-scale ventilation is a primary option, many businesses could significantly improve their facilities through on-tool extraction directly at the source of the problem. This involves the utilisation of high-vac systems to transport the waste to a centralised location for easy disposal or to intermediate pre- separators for potential recycling.
A major benefit of a good high vac system is
that it can also be used for general clean up as an ‘in-house’ vacuum, negating the obligation for both sweeping (which creates an enormous amount of hazardous airborne dust in itself) and mobile vacuums. Whilst mobile units can work in certain situations, they can easily fall foul of poor maintenance, are often fitted with unsuitable filtration quality, and can cause trip hazards or manual handling issues. With COSHH stating that the primary method of dust removal should be at its source and the fact that a proper in-house cleaning schedule could reduce or
eliminate the requirement for ATEX zoning, it is no wonder, then, that leading companies in many industries are now implementing high
vac solutions. Typical industry sectors using high vac systems
include aircraft manufacturers, automotive manufacturers, body shop repair firms, wind turbine manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, electronics manufacturers, and the food industry. Overall, it’s clear to see that people are
increasingly coming to realise that, rather than being a capital cost problem, an integrated dust extraction system can benefit and support their business to move forward unhindered through the reduction of health, working practice and quality issues. A clean work environment and healthy staff, after all, will reap benefits of reduced sickness costs and project a better
profile to customers.
https://dustcontroluk.co.uk/.
electricalengineeringmagazine.co.uk
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
