Article: How Well Do You Know Your Dust?

In my last post we explored an OSHA bulletin that highlighted the hazards associated with combustible dust. This week I would like to expand on how to determine the explosibility and physical properties of the actual dust. It is one thing to collect the dust but what exactly are you collecting?

While knowing your dust has always been good practice, it is rapidly becoming a necessity in today's regulatory climate. OSHA has identified and contacted 30,000 companies considered to be at risk of explosion from combustible dusts. The importance of dust testing has changed and the implications have become even more significant over the past few years.

Full article can be read here: How Well Do You Know Your Dust?

Video: Containment Dust Collectors for Pharmaceutical or Hazardous Dusts

For safety, some dust collection applications require isolation of the collected dust from contact with workers. This may be from processes involving pharmaceutical dust like table presses, table coating, fluid bed drying, spray drying, blending, granulation and especially general room ventilation. Containment dust collectors have special features and methods to replace the dirty filter cartridges and dispose of the collected, potent/hazardous dust being discharged. This video demonstrates these safe-change methods:

As you see, the cartridge filters are safely replaced by a two-person crew with the bag-in/bag-out (BIBO) safe-change replacement system. At the discharge of the colletor, the dust is contained within a continuous liner. For more information go to Dust Collection for Pharmaceutical Solid Dosage Manufacturing.