Flammable dust

No hazard of high voltage, simplifying maintenance and repair and permitting collection of flammable dusts... 

Ignition of a flammable dust-air mixture is more difficult than with flammable vapour-air mixtures. A larger source of heat is required, and a larger volume of fuel must be heated to the ignition point. The same range of potential ignition sources is applicable as for air-vapour mixtures. 

Flammable Dust Explosion Conference (Nov. 1988) at St. Louis, Missouri, Plant Operations Progress, Vol. 8, No. 3, July 1989. 

Increasing the surface area of a combustible solid enhances the ease of ignition. Solid particles less than about 10 pm in diameter settle slowly in air and comprise float dust . Such particles behave, in some ways, similarly to gas and, if the solid is combustible, a flammable dust—air mixture containing a distribution of particle sizes can form within certain limits. 

Ignition of a flammable dust—air mixture is more difficult than with air—vapour... 

Nature of the solid flammability (dust explosion hazard), toxicity. 

Charging solids with a nongrounded and conductive chute can result in a buildup of a charge on the chute. This charge can accumulate and finally produce a spark that may ignite a dispersed and flammable dust. 

Suspensions of finely divided combustible solids (flammable dusts) can explode in much the same fashion as flammable gases. It is significant that, in a dust suspension in air, small concentrations of flammable gas, even well below the lower flammable limit of the gas, can contribute to a more severe explosion than that of the dust alone. Such mixtures are called hybrid mixtures. 

From the foregoing it can be clearly seen that the handling of flammable liquids, flammable dust or molten salt baths are the three chief... 

A further loss-limiting device which is useful where flammable dusts and vapors are used is the explosion vent. It is important to install explosion vents in areas where flammable liquids or dusts are used because of the possibility of great damage due to explosive ignition of such mixtures and air. Therefore, on a practical basis,... 

Noncombustible. Materials their packa ng which will neither igpite nor support combustion AO combustible materials are dangerous in a fire and/or expin, both because heat will cause them to catch fire and add to the smoke fume hazard, and because small explosions are known to scatter clouds of flammable dusts which in turn cause still greater explns than the original ones(Ref 3)... 

Did you know that dust can explode Any flammable dust—for example, flour, sawdust, or grain dust—can explode under the correct conditions. The first recorded flour explosion occurred in an Italian flourmill in 1785. There were probably earlier explosions, but this is the first one ever recorded. In this case, a lamp in a bakery supposedly ignited the flour dust. Luckily, no one died in the explosion. 

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