Explosion Protection >> Easy Steps

Find Your Nearest Fike Associate Fike's Complete Line of Explosion Protection Solutions What are the Effects of Mounting Pressure?

Protecting your people, production, and profits begins with 3 easy steps.   Understand or characterize the hazard - something Fike's worldwide network of factory-certified distributors and team of engineers, application specialists, and technical support specialists can assist you in. Where can an explosion occur in my plant? Common processes at risk include: Separation:  dust collectors, cyclones, sifters, precipitators Drying:  fluid bed dryers, spray dryers Storage:  bins, cyclones, flammable liquid storage areas, hoppers, tanks Conveyance:  bucket elevators, pneumatic ducts, screw conveyors Vapor destruction Processing:  blenders, coaters, cookers, flavoring cylinders, formers, hydrocarbon mixing and fill rooms, ink toning, mixers, powder paint booths, pipe coating, ring dryers, sanders, transformer cooling Pulverizing:  ball mills, cage mills, flakers, granulators, grinders, hammer mills, separators, shredders What are the likely fuels? Dusts account for the majority of explosions. These include agricultural, polymers, pharmaceutical, coal, in-organics, as well as others. Gas / Vapor, or hybrid combinations of dusts and gases can also cause explosions, including methane, ethane, propylene, alcohols, ethers, esters, hydrogen. Up to 50% moisture content can be explosible for dust/air mixtures. Typical lower explosible concentration is 0.02 oz per cubic foot. What are the oxidants? - Oxygen naturally occurring in the air is the most common oxidant. What are the ignition sources? Sources range from very hot flames to simple electrostatic sparks. Other ignition sources include welding hot works, arc, hot surface, compression, shock wave, self-heating, overheated bearing, sparks and electrostatic sources. Interestingly, an increase in temperature of 200 deg. F can decrease, by a factor of 10, the level of energy required to ignite an explosion. A recently extinguished match's temperature is 500 deg. C, however, many fuels ignite at temperatures less than 400 deg. C.   Define your safety goals - There are several options. Often managers will combine prevention and protection strategies to safeguard their facility. Although prevention strategies may reduce some of the risks of explosions, they cannot eliminate them. Explosion Prevention - Includes removing one of the causes of explosions. For example removing oxygen through inerting, removing ignition sources or increasing moisture levels of the product being processed with oils. Explosion Protection Control Pressure and Flame Control Pressure Control Propagation (or the flame and pressure wave spreading throughout the facility) Find out more about guidelines and regulations affecting your plant.   Design and install explosion prevention and protection strategies to mitigate the hazards. - When considering explosion protection for your process, Fike is uniquely qualified as the only single-source manufacturer that can offer total explosion protection. To locate your nearest Fike Explosion Protection specialist, click here...