Reasons for Compliance
Ten Reasons for Compliance with Law
Wood Dust collectors are available as single units that attach directly to individual machines, or central systems that, when properly configured, provide coverage for all the machines in the workshop working simultaneously.
A Wood Dust collection system consists of a collection hood, ductwork, header duct, rotary airlock or slide gate, primary collector, and secondary collector. On most wood applications the dust collector will serve as both the primary and secondary collector.
Some businesses although recognizing a dust problem are hesitant to invest in Wood Dust collection because the return isn't immediately apparent. But that doesn't mean it's not a good investment. There are numerous advantages to dust collection such as some of the options below;-.
1. Health
Why buy dust collection? The Human Lungs are a pair of filters and are extremely fragile.
Airborne particles will cause lung and throat cancer somewhere down the road if you don't eliminate it at source. 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.
The 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 and sweeping up only makes the problem worse.
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
The Coshh Regulations and Guidance Notes
http://www.hse.gov.uk/coshh/index.htm
Time to clear the Air - A workers guide. Click on the link below
3. Insurance Premiums
When insurance companies rate a workshop, they are concerned with maintaining safety and preventing fires. Workshops that are clean and tidy are less susceptible to such hazards, which can ultimately lower insurance premiums.
4. Fire hazards
One of the biggest concerns for insurance companies is the threat of fire. Fine dusts are a fire safety concern & controlling this dust will reduce the risk of fire.In a central wood 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.
A 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," he notes, "the fire might have engaged a sprinkler over the brand new £200,000 router and destroyed it. Instead, it localised 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. 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 building!
Research 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, explains Corum. That either results in rework and lost production time or lower product quality.
6. Positive image
Clearly your workshop serves as an indicator of a customers quality to clients, but so does the atmosphere that work is created in. Customers like to visit the shop and they will feel your products are better made if you have a clean shop, if they come in and see a sloppy operation, it reflects on the product's image.
7. Employee morale
Beyond the impression a dirty shop gives to customers, it also sends a message to the workers. If the area is clean and there are better working conditions, people are happier and more productive."
If you visit a workshop is really dirty and your stepping over big piles of sawdust then this wouldindicate that such workshops 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.
If you have ever tried working or driving in the middle of a blizzard, unable to see what's in front of you? Working in an environment without dust collection. With vision impaired by clouds of sawdust, making accurate cuts, measurements, or assemblies is difficult and dangerous.
Uncontrolled dust settles onto workers’ safety glasses and 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 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."
Wood 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 laying 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. As Stevenson points out, 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 effectively.
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.
Most people investigate dust collectors asking the wrong questions, such as "What's the unit's horsepower?" or "I need a three-bag unit. Thats a big mistake as the key is the cfm requirement.
If you don't know your cfm requirement, you need to provide enough information as to the size of the space, the number of machines that will be served by the unit, the size of the inlets, and how many machines will be running at any given time. From this, the manufacturer should be able to calculate the cfm requirement.
Calculating the cfm requirement for a shop is a basic process. Every woodworking machine that is sold comes from the factory with a cfm requirement. "All you do is add up the cfm requirement for the number of machines that you have and you come up with the overall cfm requirement. It's a cumulative figure,
But it's not quite that simple. You also have to make deductions for static pressure. For example, if a shop's overall cfm requirement for all of its machines amounts to 10,000 cfm, and the static pressure "deduction" is 3,000, the company needs to purchase a 13,000 cfm unit to get the 10,000 cfm they require. And, of course, that's a minimum figure. In the case of central systems, it's recommended that customers buy more cfm than is currently needed to accommodate any possible future machinery purchases.
"If the machine is designed for a certain cfm requirement and you don't provide it, then some of that dust will stay in that machine. It will affect the accuracy, the workings, and the electrical system of the machine," he warns.
Three Reasons to Invest in Spark Detection in flammable dust areas.
Spark detection systems have proven to be a very important defence to the fire and explosions that can occur from everyday processes. Such systems are generally approved by the professional loss control community as a sensible means to combat fires and prevent the potential for explosions.
There are three primary reasons to consider adding a spark detection system to a central dust collector: safety, lower insurance rates, and legal regulations.
When a spark occurs in a shop that has a central dust collection system, the dust system will transport it right along with the dust the machine generates. The system will do what it's supposed to do and will evacuate those hazards right into the filter."
Without a prevention system in place, the filter is in jeopardy. With spark detection, the ember is extinguished and fire, explosion, and costly facility and mechanical damage is prevented, as is employee injury but the main objective is to protect that filter!