Dust Safety Science is an organization dedicated to promoting awareness of combustible dust hazards and safety within the bulk solids handling industry. We’re a proud member of this organization, and we’ve learned incredibly helpful information from leaders and members within the group that helps us ensure the safety of our customers.
The old reliable tape measure. A simple and essential tool that has been the staple of workers from blue collar to white collar. Tape measures have been used not only by the home handy man, but also by professional engineers across the globe to aid them in designing the newest innovations and technology for their customers … until now. In the engineering world, the tape measure is starting to be phased out – you can, almost literally, measure its untimely end in the engineering consulting world with a tape measure.
Everything seems fine. Your systems are running smoothly, nothing looks broken or out of the ordinary. But lurking beyond eyesight, things like combustible dusts and condensates could be building up within your system. And when that happens, safety is jeopardized and employees’ lives are endangered. From flash fires to explosions, several deadly but preventable incidents have occurred across multiple industries due to dust accumulation (for a list of examples, check out this article from Nilfisk). Understanding the combination and characteristics of materials moving through your system and the necessary conveying velocities can help mitigate these risks and help you meet NFPA standards and OSHA regulations.
Working for years as an engineer in the traditional design-bid-build process taught me a valuable lesson: bringing contractors and the construction team in after the design is finished could be very costly to my clients. Over time, I learned to bring more people into the beginning of the process – the clients and contractors from the fabrication and installation side were now able to add valuable input into the design. I soon realized that I was moving away from traditional design processes and toward the design-build methodology, which benefits both the client and the team responsible for design and construction.