I love learning about manufacturing, which is why I am always checking out those shows that describe how different things are made. However, a friend of mine mentioned that it could be really helpful to actually do a little more research to find out how products are made in different places as well. I started focusing on learning, and it was cool to see just how many different options there were out there. As I explored the world of manufacturing, a friend of mine also got interested in the process, and encouraged me to make this blog. Find out more about making better products each and every day.
Employers have a duty to keep their workers safe, and safe workers are productive workers. While most employers have safety protocols in place to help their workers stay unharmed as they perform their duties, some jobs have extra hazards that require safety infrastructure as well. Some of the most common safety installations are air filtration systems. These systems keep air moving and remove and contain contaminants from the air before workers can breathe them in. If your work puts your employees at risk of breathing in any of the following fumes, you likely need to install an air filtration system in your building.
Kitchen Fumes
If your business manufactures food or employs kitchen workers, you need to protect them from kitchen fumes. Kitchen fumes can come from cooking processes or from the fuel used to heat food. As workers heat oil for frying, for instance, fumes from unburned natural gas or propane can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning, and vaporized cooking oil can cause lung irritation. Smoke from burnt food and flour dust from a baking operation can also cause lung and eye irritation. Although these concerns are minor in the short term, over long periods of time, workers can begin to develop chronic lung conditions. Unburned fuel and an excess of flour in the air can also be fire hazards. All of these concerns can be effectively mitigated with an air filtration system that removes large and small particles from the air.
Welding Fumes
Welding is notorious for producing harmful fumes. Metal dust and vaporized metal, along with gasses like argon and nitrogen oxide, can cause a wide range of health issues for workers who breathe them in regularly. Some of the short-term effects of breathing in welding fumes include nausea, shortness of breath, edema, pneumonitis, coughing fits, and bronchitis. The long-term effects of chronic exposure to welding fumes are worse. They include lung cancer, Parkinson's disease, infertility, kidney damage, and heart disease. If welding takes place at any time in your facility, your workers need to be protected with air filtration systems.
EDM Mist
Electrical discharge machining (EDM) or spark machining is used to shape metal. EDM machines remove metal from metal sheets to create shapes through rapid electrical discharges or sparks. As the metal is removed, some of it vaporizes into the air, creating EDM mist. This mist often contains copper-beryllium fumes and vaporized oil from coatings on the metal sheets, both of which can cause lung irritation and eventual lung disease if workers inhale them regularly. Any industrial facility with EDM machines should have air filtration systems in place to protect workers from EDM mist.