A facility’s finest dust is often found within its dust collectors, meaning a rogue spark or flame has the ability to cause a violent deflagration. Connecting pipes and ducts laden with fuel may act as fuses that carry the deflagration into other areas of the facility, causing secondary downstream explosions. Whether selling into food and beverage, chemical or other industries, OEMs can trust Fike to design explosion vents and active explosion protection solutions to the specs of the individual customer’s dust collectors.

Using centrifugal force, a cyclone separates and collects large volumes of dust at its base. If the dust is combustible, this creates a dust explosion hazard. Secondly, a deflagration from downstream or upstream equipment, such as a dust collector, may reach the cyclone’s combustible dust. For food and beverage or pharmaceutical applications, hygienic explosion vents may be placed on the top of cyclones or connecting pipes and ducts to redirect the resulting pressure and flame.

Often positioned upstream from cyclones and dust collectors, flash dryers remove moisture from dust until particles are fine enough to rise into the air stream. The flash drying process creates a combustible dust hazard risk, as it propels dry particles into a dust cloud. Therefore, the risk is often located toward the top of the flash dryer, where explosions vents may be installed to protect against deflagrations within the flash dryer or from other connected equipment. Isolation valves and chemical suppressants also may be recommended to protect accompanying vessels from deflagrations originating within flash dryers, and vice versa.

Industrial grinders, crushers and shredders are used to break down a variety of materials, including food, coal, wood, plastic and electronics. A combustible dust risk is created from both the dust projected into the air and in the fine particles collected in the hopper. Explosion vents may be placed on the inlet hopper to safely redirect deflagrations, and suppressors and detectors may be used to isolate the deflagration and protect connected vessels.

Because of their varying sizes and volumes, silos and bucket elevators often require unique designs to ensure protection from combustible dust hazards. Fike has the experts, capabilities and experience to efficiently design explosion vents or an active system to protect OEM customers from a combustible dust explosion. Furthermore, our cost-effective EleQuench explosion vents are engineered specifically for these applications.