Foundries and Their Contaminants: What Do You Need to Know?

In foundries, the castings give off toxic fumes, and very hazardous heavy metal particles can be released by the tanks. Since your processes are not always used continuously, this intermittent operation facilitates the capture of harmful substances. A number of risk factors also come into play:

• Are your facilities tailored to the deflagration risk associated with certain explosive metals, like aluminum?
• What types of particles do your processes release? Do they produce zinc or aluminum dust, which is especially harmful to health?
• Do you have adequate containment and suctioning solutions in place?

Are you aware of the risks associated with your processes?

In addition to the issues of cooling the fumes that enter the dust collector and controlling sparks, the system’s cleanliness is a major challenge in a smelter, especially for the dust collector’s hopper. Particles tend to agglomerate on its walls and can block the passage of materials.

If the outlets are blocked, dust can be pushed in the opposite direction into the dust collector, and even reach the outer walls of the filters. Particles that manage to get through the fabric of the filter media can cause unexpected pressure differences. And that fine situation can cause the dust collector to malfunction, and even emission plumes to escape during the self-cleaning cycles.

One way to remedy this problem is to establish a systematic maintenance program and, if necessary, add suitable attachments.

How can the risks be reduced in foundries?

Your industry must control the particles generated by its operations, for example by capturing the fumes and heavy metal dust with an adequate suctioning system. To reduce the risks of fire or explosion, you must also manage sparks and prevent them from being drawn into the dust collection system, in addition to ensure that the fumes cool down. Whether it’s a steel mill, aluminum smelter or steel smelter, our experts can advise you on choosing a dust collector and put preventative measures in place tailored to your operations and to the health and safety standards.

What is the Best Dust Collector for foundries?

Since every smelter has its specific characteristics, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. A number of options are available to you: cyclone dust collectors can capture raw particles as well as act as a spark arrester. Wet scrubbers, instead, collect fine, very explosive particles. For collecting and handling dry materials, baghouse or vertical cartridge dust collectors are also good solutions. You should also have an effective containment system above the crucible containing the molten metal.

We believe that the best dust collector is the one that perfectly meets your needs. The system must also enable you to save money! Our experts can suggest some sustainable options for you that are well thought out to minimize repairs and energy consumption. Here’s an overview of what we can offer you:

• Innovative solutions with an excellent service life, such as our system that handles variable volumes.
• Integrated solutions for recovering the energy used by your drying and pre-drying systems, your steam boilers, and other machines.
• Diluting solutions to cool the air captured above your processes.
• Equipment approved by the NFPA standard for preventing incidents.
• A team consisting of engineers and specialists is available to you for breakdowns and preventive maintenance.

Risks associated with pulp and paper: what do you need to know?

From paper or cardboard strips to clouds of fine volatile particles, you know as well as we do that your processes generate a great deal of dust. What about the hazards associated with your operations and the standards to be met? Examine your facilities and ask yourself:

• Is there a risk of deflagration associated with the particles emitted? Since paper and cardboard are organic compounds, they are highly explosive. Do you have the necessary measures in place to contain an explosion and protect your workforce?
• What types of dust are produced by your operations? Do their various shapes and fibres impact how they are captured?
• You have to manage a large volume of fast-paced production. Do you have dust collection solutions in place to prevent service disruptions due to paper clogging up your processes?

Pulp and Paper: Protect Your Workers’ Health

Whether you operate a paper plant, a sorting facility or a printing company, your dust collector is your best ally. In addition to your high production volume issues and the competitiveness of your industry, there is also the health and safety of your workforce. Breathing dusts from fine papers, sanitary tissue products, and cardboard over an extended period poses a health risk to the workers.

If these particles are not controlled through adequate ventilation, they can cause respiratory health problems. For example, your workforce may develop allergies to cellulose dust (main component of paper), asthma and other lung diseases. The Canadian federal regulations and the RSST in Quebec have set occupational exposure limits (OELs) for dust; cellulose has an OEL of 10 mg/m³ of respirable dust. A limit to keep an eye on!

Paper and cardboard: how can you reduce the risk of explosion?

Did you know that cellulose dust is highly explosive? All it takes is a spark, a static discharge, or friction between moving particles to cause a deflagration. You must therefore ensure that you meet the NFPA standards pertaining to the risks of fire and explosion. To comply with them and help you protect your workers, our experts can help you choose a dust collector tailored to your needs.

What is the Best Dust Collector for Pulp and Paper?

Your dust collection system depends on your facilities: based on your processes and the size of the company, a number of options are available to you. The larger the work environment, the greater the volume of air to be managed, which influences the choice of dust collector. Your system must also provide good source capture in order to prevent the formation of harmful and explosive dust clouds. It must also be well thought out in order to prevent pieces of paper or cardboard from getting caught in your processes.

We believe that the best dust collector must perfectly meet your needs. It’s also the one that enables you to save money. Our experts can suggest some sustainable options for you that are well thought out to minimize production shutdowns, repairs and energy consumption. Here’s an overview of what we can offer you:

• Centralized control system making it possible to optimize operating costs at the process level.
• Integrated paper trim capture solutions for the milling and pneumatic conveying systems.
• Equipment approved by the NFPA standard for preventing incidents.
• A team consisting of engineers and specialists is available to you for breakdowns and preventive maintenance.

Plastics, resins and their contaminants: what do you need to know?

As you know, handling, conveyor-transporting and manufacturing resins and plastics generates toxic airborne particles. Examine your processes and ask yourself:

• What types of components and dust are involved? The residues of petrochemical compounds, polymers and other additives (such as plasticizers, stabilizers, pigments) are risk items. Flame retardants, catalysts and lubricants are included on that list!
• Are there any fire hazards? For some of these materials, just a spark of static electricity is all it takes to cause an explosion.
• Do you have an adequate system to manage odour problems relating to the processing of certain resins and volatile organic compounds (VOC)?

Are you aware of the risks associated with your processes?

Whether you manufacture pipes, cables, containers, fuel tanks or coatings, your processes generate harmful and flammable dust. Did you know that 15 substances used in manufacturing plastics are also carcinogens or mutagens? Breathing these airborne contaminants can be extremely harmful to your workers’ health. The risk factors don’t stop there:

• The abrasiveness of the particles in the ductwork of the dust collection system increases the risk of spontaneous ignition.
• The flow of powdered plastics from storage bins, containers, pneumatic or mechanical conveyors can raise clouds of contaminants.
• During the resin blend hardening stage, their residues can cause an exothermic reaction in the dust collector, which can lead to a fire or explosion!

How can you reduce the health and explosion hazards?

In your industry, dust collection must be carefully planned: you have to capture the vapours and particles when the plastic parts are formed and collect the dust associated with the end-to-end process for manufacturing them. Also, your ducts, processes and dust collectors should be grounded in order to limit electrostatic discharge and explosion hazards. To help you set up a system that meets the standards, protects the workers’ health, and reduces the risk of deflagration, our dust collectors can recommend appropriate solutions for you.

What is the best dust collector for plastics and resins?

Every industry has its own characteristics, and yours is no exception! Given these many variables, a dust collector must be chosen by looking closely at the type of particles generated by your activities, their hazards, your processing methods, and the characteristics of your operations. For example, if your activities involve resin and VOCs, your system must meet the environmental standards pertaining to air emissions and adequately exhaust the air in order to manage odour problems.

We believe that, in all cases, the best dust collector is the one that perfectly meets your needs. It’s also a system that enables you to save money. Our experts can suggest some sustainable options for you that are well thought out to minimize production shutdowns, repairs and energy consumption. Here is a quick look at what we can offer you:

• Innovative solutions with an excellent service life, such as our system for capturing volatile organic compounds (VOC) that uses activated carbon filters.
• Integrated energy-recovery solutions combined with a fresh air unit and a dust collector in order to pre-condition the fresh air.
• Equipment approved by the CNESST standards to prevent incidents.
• A team consisting of engineers and specialists is available to you for breakdowns and preventive maintenance.