Dust Explosions

Çağatay KAYA                 Chemical Engineer

In our country and in the world, a wide range of powder materials from wood industry to metal industry are handled or formed due to process conditions. Powder material used or released within the enterprise may cause a severe explosion if the necessary precautions are not taken and may result in the loss of employees’ lives and material losses. Flammable powders are generally defined as flammable solid particles of 420 420m (U.S. No. 40, material passing through a 40 mesh standard sieve) or smaller. However, in order to comply with the IEC 60079-10-2 standard in force in our country, 500 µm is evaluated as a size criteria (material passing through U.S. No. 35, 35 mesh standard sieve).

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Keywords: Dust explosions, ATEX, Explosive parameters, Primary explosion, Secondary explosion, Ignition sources