Explosion-Proof Dust Collection and Extraction Equipment
Prevent combustible dust explosions with industrial-grade dust collectors and extraction systems. These ATEX-approved devices remove gases and fine particulates from manufacturing and commercial spaces, changing the tainted air into clean, fresh, breathable air.
Start by assessing your dust and process to determine if it’s combustible. This will help you choose the right explosion-proof vacuum for your hazardous environment.
Dust Removing Equipment
Dust collectors are commonly used by industries like coal handling, metal fabrication, woodworking, agriculture and electronic manufacturing to safely remove pollutants from industrial processes and improve air quality in factories and explosion-proof dustremoval equipment plants. They are typically equipped with wet scrubbers, fabric filters, baghouses or cyclones to separate, collect and filter dust from the air in a facility. These devices help reduce employee respiratory problems and extend equipment functionality, productivity and longevity by removing impurities that may clog or damage motors.
Almost all industrial operations generate dust particulates. While they often go unnoticed, they can be a fire or explosion risk. Despite the fact that it is impossible to completely eliminate dust, keeping facilities clean can significantly lower the probability of an accident. Moreover, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) enforces regulations regarding combustible dust, including its storage and disposal.
As such, companies must install a safe dust collection system to keep the premises clean. The equipment must be efficient and effective enough to remove as much dust as possible without exposing employees to combustible particulates. While some facilities use traditional cleaning methods such as sweeping and blowing with compressed air, these can actually increase the likelihood of a dust explosion because they cause the combustible material to become airborne. Specialized vacuums are generally considered the best choice for removing combustible dust and other hazardous material from plant surfaces. However, to ensure worker safety, these vacuums should be NFPA-compliant and equipped with explosion isolation flap valves.
Industrial Dust Collectors
Dust collectors remove pollutants from industrial plants, manufacturing facilities and other commercial and industrial spaces that require high levels of cleanliness. They can extract a wide range of airborne contaminants, including gases, solvent fumes, and fine dust particles. Some are designed to collect combustible dust. Others are specifically designed to protect against explosions. This type of equipment is equipped with explosion-proof blowers or fans, ductwork that meets the required dimensions and specifications, filters, cleaning systems and systems for managing explosive materials.
Most of these systems are regulated by OSHA and other industry regulations. The equipment is also certified by Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratories (NRTL).
Many processes generate combustible dust as a side effect, including agricultural products like flour and powdered milk, carbonaceous dusts, coal and coke, metallic dusts, and plastics. It’s important to determine whether your process produces combustible dust and, if so, to identify its ignitability characteristics. This could include determining its Kst value and Pmax (maximum explosive pressure).
If a combustible dust explosion is likely, your mitigation system must be able to prevent damage to equipment, personnel and facility space. Depending on the type of work you do, you may choose to use passive or active systems to mitigate your risk. Passive systems include explosion relief vents, which allow expanding gasses to escape a combustible dust cloud before it can reach destructive pressures. Active systems use sensors that detect the initial pressure excursion from an incipient explosion, then deploy suppression systems to control the fireball and prevent flashback upstream to interconnected process equipment.
Explosion Proof Duct Collectors
When dust accumulates in a baghouse or other combustible dust collection system, it can build to dangerous levels of pressure and deflagration. Protecting these systems is essential to prevent damage and injuries. In addition to NFPA 68 standards on venting, isolation and explosion protection for the dirty air side of ductwork, it’s important to ensure that the explosion isolation devices or flameless vents that protect the dust collector vessel itself are correctly positioned to release gases and pressures from a deflagration in a safe area.
Dust collectors are used in manufacturing, woodworking, metalworking and many other processes that produce combustible dust. To avoid explosive blasts, dust collectors are designed with ductwork that is NFPA rated for Class I and II hazardous locations. The ductwork is carefully planned to guarantee that an explosion can’t propagate from one vessel to another through multiple ducts connected in the same way.
For the dust collector vessel, a variety of options are available. Depending on the process and the level of combustible dust present, a back flap valve or chemical isolation device can be installed to protect the hopper or baghouse. When the inside of the dust collector reaches a certain pressure, explosion-proof dustremoval equipment an explosion vent opens to release the excess pressure and flame front in a safe area.
Explosion Proof Vacuums
Vacuum cleaners that are explosion-proof help facility workers remove dangerous dust and other hazardous materials without creating fire hazards or triggering an explosive reaction. These models are especially useful for cleaning food processing facilities and chemical plants that can be at risk for combustible dust explosions.
Explosion-proof industrial vacuums are available in electric and air-operated models. They use a network of filters, separators and inner chambers to clean contaminated air and replace it with fresh, clean air. They can also capture and contain liquids like oil or fuel spilled in an accident.
These explosion-proof machines are built with special materials and construction techniques to prevent the buildup of static electricity, which can ignite flammable particles. They also feature conductive, antistatic wires and switches that are completely grounded to discharge any excess static. An immersion separator found on some models reduces the chance of combustible metal dust (such as magnesium and aluminum) from igniting inside equipment by collecting it in a non-reactive, secure fluid bath.
When shopping for a certified explosion-proof vacuum, look for the NFPA or UL mark of approval. This certification indicates that every component of the vacuum cleaner has been independently tested and approved for use in a designated hazardous environment. This certification also protects buyers from buying a poser vacuum that may have faulty electrical parts, sparking motors or other potentially explosive components.
