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10 Reasons How a Dust Collector
Will Help Your Business!
Exposure to wood dust has long been associated with a variety of adverse
health effects, including dermatitis, allergic respiratory effects, mucosal
and non-allergic respiratory effects, and cancer. Contact with the irritant
compounds in wood sap can cause dermatitis and other allergic reactions. The
respiratory effects of wood dust exposure include asthma, hypersensitivity
pneumonitis, and chronic bronchitis.
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Both the skin and respiratory system can become
sensitized to wood dust. When a worker becomes sensitized to wood dust,
he or she can suffer a severe allergic reaction (such as asthma) after
repeated exposure or exposure to lower concentrations of the dust.
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Other common symptoms associated with wood dust exposure
include eye irritation, nasal dryness and obstruction, prolonged colds,
and frequent headaches.
Certain species of
hardwood - such as oak, mahogany, beech, walnut, birch, elm, and ash - have
been reported to cause nasal cancer in wood-workers. This is particularly
true when exposures are high. According to the American Conference of
Governmental Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), most species are "not
classifiable as a human carcinogen", while others may be considered a
suspected human carcinogen."* ACGIH recommends a limit of 1 milligram per
cubic meter (mg/m3) for hardwoods and 5 mg/m3 for
softwoods. At this time, OSHA regulates wood dust as a nuisance dust;
however, OSHA strongly encourages employers to keep exposures to a minimum
and to adopt the ACGIH levels. The maximum permissible exposure for nuisance
dust is 15 mg/m3, total dust (5 mg/m3, respirable
fraction). *ACGIH Threshold Limit Values for Chemical
Substances and Physical Agents & Biological Exposure Indices, 2003
There are numerous
advantages to dust collection.
1. Health
Why buy dust collection? In a word:
Lungs.
Airborne particles will cause lung and
throat cancer somewhere down the road if they aren’t eliminated. Numerous
medical studies have deemed dust a major respiratory hazard. Aside from the
ever-looming possibility of lung cancer, many woodworkers are haunted by
nagging side effects such as continuous coughing and sneezing attacks,
throat phlegm, asthma, and eye irritation. Health dangers from dust don't
cease when the saw is stopped and the chips stop flying. Fine wood dust can
stay suspended in the air for hours. If the immediate and long- term
well-being of employees doesn't strike a goodwill chord of concern, the
monetary obligations of failed health might be a stronger influence.
Negligence can lead to workers compensation claims and even lawsuits.
2. Legal Obligations
Beyond workers compensation, other legal
ramifications exist as well. OSHA is getting more and more involved with
wood dust collection. Rules have to be followed, and that includes dust
collection.
It doesn't just stop at OSHA, though. A
host of local and national agencies all flex their muscle to some degree
regarding keeping shops dust free. OSHA can come after you, the fire marshal
can come after you, and the Labor Department and the Department of the
Environment can come after you if you don't have proper dust collection
systems in place.
3. Insurance Rates
Not every basis for dust collection
involves the threat of negative repercussions. Many people credit the
installation of dust collectors with lowering insurance rates. When
insurance companies rate a shop, they are concerned with maintaining safety
and preventing fires. Shops that are clean are less susceptible to such
hazards, which can lower insurance premiums.
4. Fire Hazards
One of the biggest concerns for insurance
companies, not to mention shop owners, is the threat of fire. Fine dusts are
a fire safety concern. Controlling this dust will reduce the risk of fire.
In central dust collector systems, sparks
created during machining can travel through the duct work with the dust. A
spark detection system extinguishes the spark, via water or some other
medium, thus preventing fires. However, even without spark detection, a dust
collector can at least minimize fire damage.
One customer was using a router when it
hit a piece of metal, causing a spark. The spark traveled through the dust
collector and into the storage bag off to the side of the shop. The
resulting fire triggered a sprinkler nozzle in that isolated section of the
building, which extinguished the fire. Had that not happened, the fire might
have engaged a sprinkler over the brand new $200,000 router and destroyed
it. Instead, it localized the fire to one segregated section of the shop.
The risks don't end with fires, though.
Dust suspended in the air also is combustible. While a fire will severely
damage a plant, an explosion can destroy it. In his September 1996 FDM
article, "How to Prevent Dust Fires," Thomas Frank, chief engineer in the
Seattle district office of Factory Mutual Engineering, spells out the recipe
for tragedy. All you need is layers of combustible dust, add something as
commonplace as a process-initiated spark, and an explosion can occur.
The offshoot of the first explosion will
not only rupture expensive equipment, but the pressure wave created will
stir more dust into the air. Airborne dust is surrounded by oxygen, the very
fuel it needs for combustion. With new fuel abound, a chain reaction of
explosions will result. The second explosion will probably collapse the
walls of the facility.
Research conducted by Factory Mutual shows
that a particle size of 0.02 inches (500 microns) or less is all it takes
for an explosion.
The rising popularity of MDF is added
reason for adequate dust collection. MDF creates a finer dust than
traditional wood materials.
5. Finishing Quality
An abundance of dust in the shop also can
create problems in the finishing department. A high concentration of wood
dust in the air can be drawn into paint booths, creating a defective finish
on the product. That either results in rework -- and lost production time --
or lower product quality.
6. Positive Image
Clearly your work serves as an indicator
of your quality to clients, but so does the atmosphere that work is created
in.
Plain and simple, customers like to visit
the shop and they will feel your products are better made if you have a
clean shop. However, if they come in and see a sloppy operation, it reflects
on the product's image. They think if you're sloppy in keeping the shop, you
also won't be too fussy with the product you're selling.
A dirty shop doesn't make money! You walk
into a dirty shop and it isn't only that the shop is dirty -- there are
other things wrong in that place. It may be a barometer of what's below,
behind, or beneath the surface. The dirtiness on the surface is just the
indicator.
7. Employee Morale
Beyond the impression a dirty shop gives
to customers, it also sends a message to the workers. Housekeeping is a main
item. If the area is clean and there are better working conditions, people
are happier and more productive.
One reseller states that he’s been in a
lot of plants that are really dirty. You know, they're stepping over big
piles of sawdust. And those plants tend to have a big turnover with
employees.
8. Increased Production
The hardest part about selling a dust
collection system can be that shops typically don't want to allot any
portion of their capital budget to something that isn't revenue-building, at
least not in a measurable format. However, he points out that a clean
working atmosphere does increase worker productivity.
Ever tried working or driving in the
middle of a blizzard, unable to see what's in front of you? With vision
impaired by clouds of sawdust, making accurate cuts, measurements, or
assemblies is difficult and dangerous.
Uncontrolled dust settles onto workers'
safety glasses. With effective dust control, workers stop to clean their
safety glasses and work areas less often. By reducing the amount of dust in
the working environment, workers are free to spend more of their time
producing more, higher-quality parts.
9. Equipment Maintenance
A key to improved production, beyond the
workers themselves, is the machines they are working on. And machines'
performance and longevity are hindered by dust.
A lot of machinery tends to operate better
if the dust is getting carried out of the machine. It just tends to make a
longer life for the machine and the tooling. If waste gets left in a machine
that has an effect on the cut.
Minimizing wood dust through the use of
dust collection devices reduces maintenance and expenses. Bearings and
other parts that wear due to the presence of dust must be replaced more
often, and to maintain product quality, the equipment must be cleaned often.
Dust collection extends tool life because
of the constant removal of wood waste due to a consistent pressure drop
across the dust collector. Not only does dust collection simply allow
cleaner operation of machines, it also prevents defective work. Wood chips
lying on boards can create indentations when the material is planed.
10. Custodial Cost
Even if a dust collection system isn't in
effect, something still has to be done about the sawdust that piles up. Up
to 60 percent of the raw stock is removed by machining and sanding to obtain
a finished product. That adds up to a considerable amount of waste ranging
in size from large pieces of wood to submicron particles. And, something has
to be done with the waste.
Using a dust collector is the only
realistic way to keep a sizable shop at a workable level of cleanliness.
It's really the only way to get rid of waste unless you sweep it up!
In fact, anytime there's waste that's
generated that you don't have to handle, there's a payback of labor savings.
In the end, it's up to the individual
shops to determine if they're generating enough waste to warrant an
investment in dust collection, either in portable dust collectors or, if
they're generating enough waste, a central system.
Smart management doesn't wait for losses
to happen, but instead works at strategies that are tailored to the unique
needs of a facility.
Call our Omaha office
for more information!
800-873-3458
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