Dust Doctor: The good, the bad, and the ugly
Three cases from my dust control consulting experiences exemplify the good, the bad, and the ugly in the ways bulk solids companies approach dust control problems.
Case one: In a bulk solids processing plant, a small grinding mill for cosmetic powder needed dust control during operation and maintenance. A local sheet metal contractor had fabricated and installed an overhead canopy-type hood designed by the plant's engineering department to capture the dust and send it to the plant's dust control system. The hood didn't work. Only about 300 cfm of the dust control system's exhaust airflow was available to the hood, and the hood was too far above the mill to capture dust with this amount of airflow. As a result, dust escaped into the room during mill operation. Mill operators also kept hitting their heads on the hood. A pulley system lifted the hood out of the way when maintenance workers cleaned the mill, but this meant that the workers then inhaled the uncontrolled dust.