[Jewelry making - Article 00495] - Re: [Orchid] Dust and static electricity explosions

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     I am just totally freaked out that sugar can blow up a huge factory
>     badly burning over 30 people and killing 8. 

    People don't think of sugar as being flammable. But for the human
    body, sugar is our gasoline. it's energy storage ability is quite
    respectable, and we can burn it for energy in our cells because it's
    a relatively reactive chemical. This is also why those of us with
    diabetes have a problem with high blood sugar. it's very reactive
    stuff, and normally the body tries to keep levels of sugar floating
    around to the minimum needed to keep the body fueled. More than
    that, and the stuff causes serious damage. 

    With that background in the biochemistry of the stuff, it becomes
    less a surprise that it's not quite the same simple chemical it
    seems. Now, it's not so easy to ignite as gasoline, and catching fire
    isn't usually a problem when it's in it's normally seen form. But a
    dry dust? Might as well have a nice mix of acetylene and oxygen
    floating around. 

    the stuff in your polishing machine, however, is not in that
    catagory. The flammable part is mostly the cotton fluff from the
    buffs, and that part is indeed potentially flammable. The rest is
    pretty heavy grease or wax binders, which while potentially
    flammable, isn't a dust, but rather caked onto stuff. harder to
    ignite. And it's full of the polishing compounds themselves, which
    are generally oxides or silicates already, and not flammable. Try
    lighting a match to a small pile of the stuff, and you'll find that
    while it can burn some, it's hardly an aggressively flammable
    material. And since it quickly settles out of the air, not forming an
    airborne dust cloud, the risk is usually minimal, especially since
    buffing doesn't generally lead to an ignition source for the stuff. 

    One related thing to watch out for, however, is grinders and
    grinding wheels, especially if used with steels or titanium. Sparks
    flying off the wheel are white hot, and if they hit a pile of the
    grindings already produced, THAT can flare into a fire surprisingly
    well. Similarly, mounting grinding wheels in your polishing machine
    and sending hot sparks into the dust collectors is probably not a
    bright idea. it's one thing to say the polishing waste is not easily
    ignited (such as with a static spark), but asking it to not light up
    when spraying white hot burning steel sparks into it, well, that's
    another thing altogether. 

Peter
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