Blending Dust Collection
Blending Dust Collection
As the economy continues to recover from the Great Recession, domestic manufacturing is enjoying steady growth. Industries such as homebuilding and telecommunications are growing and supporting long supply chains. At one end of these supply chains are countless manufacturers who produce the materials that go into final products. These manufacturers—many of which are in the chemical industry—create the plastics, foams, adhesives and other raw materials that eventually become our complex consumable or durable goods. A common process in many of these operations creates a well-known manufacturing challenge: dust and fumes from batch mixing.
As manufacturers know all too well, the step in batch mixing that becomes a challenge is when workers have to handle the raw materials. No matter how high-tech a mixer or blender is, the process of dumping in the raw materials is often messy and results in dust coming out of the mixer. The problem with dust goes beyond housekeeping: often these dusts contain hazardous substances that threaten workers’ health. The dusts might also be subject to specific air quality regulations, some of which have gotten much more stringent in recent years. In other words, batch mixing operations should reconsider their air quality and how they can improve it.
Dust and Fume Collection Challenges
A good example of the pressing need for batch mixing operations to look at their air quality is the current shakeup in crystalline silica regulations. In 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued rules to tighten regulation of this dust in the workplace. For years, the evidence had been growing that previous limits on crystalline silica dust were not keeping workers safe. This dust has been implicated in numerous respiratory problems, from chronic bronchitis to lung cancer. Since batch mixing often includes raw materials that contain crystalline silica, manufacturers need to be aware of the new standards.
OSHA’s new limit on crystalline silica dust cuts the permissible exposure limit (PEL) by half. The new limit is 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air. As with most PEL’s, this limit is measured as an 8-hour time-weighted average. Due to the dangers of crystalline silica dust, batch mixing operations can’t settle for filtering out 80% of so of the dust from the air, as they might with other dusts. With crystalline silica, an operation needs to aim for capturing and controlling at least 99.9% of the dust.
Batch mixing often includes other potentially dangerous chemicals, as well. As workers pour raw materials into a mixer, the fine dust coming out travels through the workers’ breathing zone and into the rest of the facility. A chemical in that dust—even in trace amounts—could pose a hazard to workers. Also, it is possible OSHA has specific regulations controlling exposure to that chemical. Exposure to metallic elements, such as cadmium, can cause neurological, gastrointestinal and reproductive harm. Researchers have linked many chemical dusts to health damage, including arsenic, chromium and lead.
Solutions for Abrasive Blasting Dust
Napcen has decades of experience controlling dusts of all kinds, from high volumes of nuisance dusts to the finest particulates of highly dangerous metallic dusts. Napcen’s Fusion Series of dust collectors are ideal for abrasive blasting applications due to their rugged cabinet design and powerful dust collection capabilities. Engineered from the ground up using state-of-the-art CFD simulation technology, Fusion Series collectors provide the flexibility, efficiency and performance you need to protect workers.
If your operation is changing or filled with confusing variables, Napcen’s Mapping process can help you identify your specific needs and the best solution available. Whether you need a source capture solution to clean up a specific location or process, or an ambient capture system to clean the air across an entire facility, Napcen has the expertise and equipment options to solve the problem.