Greetings from the "Frozen Eastern Wilderness",

The big thing you have to worry about is having adequate dust control and you must make sure that your operators wear dust masks or powered filtered air respirator hoods as the possiblity of contracting hard metals disease is and will always be present, always require them to wear disposable gloves when doing this job as well as contamination through the skin will also happen from cuts and or sweating. so be sure to wash hands often.

If the metal dust is at all conductive you will have a big problem on your hands as you will develope huge amounts of static electricy also. in any event you should make provisions for grounding the system from the nozzle back to the waste tank-

As long as were on the subject of the waste tank you should also have a system that has a water basin to capture all the dust and hold it until it needs to be dumped. this is easily accomplished in the design stage.

The other big question is what type of vacuum generator are you using.

:Rotary lobe blower or regenerative turbine?

rotary lobe blowers are more sensitive to dust contamination than regenerative turbine but the

rotary lobe blowers create more suction power- do not forget to install a relief valve as well

There are many good portable vacuum systems already on the market that have prove them selves so you may just as well solve your problems by purchasing a self contained unit that can be wheeled about easily, Thorne pnuematics in Toronto has a good line of products.- look at thier line

through <www.pnuetrans.net>

A vacumm injury will occur if the person using the vacuum is checking the inlet with his or her palm to see if it is creating suction. You can also get pretty bruised up from a vacuum systen as well trying to extricate a finger etc.

Rubber hoses will wear at elbows or at the vacuum nozzle itself due to the hose wanting to follow gravity just like your vacuum cleaner hose at home and create a airborne dust hazard as well.

Handling the vacuum waste will always be a concern for the reasons mentioned above. Is it possible to send me a flow sheet or diagram for your vacuum system? Please contact me off the board with this information if you would like a learned opinion- its much easier to solve a problem like this in th e beginning than to deal with the results of hard metals disease later on in life- Put Hard metals disease in your search engine within parenthesis and also Vulcan metals/syracuse ny and you will learn a world of information- just remember that containment is the key for any carbide, carborundum or metals dust.

lzaharis

The Safety Triangle:



AWARE

ALERT ALIVE

If one part of the triagle is ignored an accident or fatality is sure to happen to persons or property.

@lightlink.com> ■

The major hazard you have to consider is that fine metal powders can be explosive. Consult AS/NZS4745:2004 and 6124:2005.

Michael Reid. ■

That is the one part I forgot to mention, He told me it is nickle his is working with-unsure if it is smelted or virgin ore.

thanks for the reminder, I am always thinking of rock dust and silica from the mine I worked for.

lzaharis ■