DSS029: Changes in the Dust Collection Equipment Landscape with Jeremiah Wann

In this episode of the DustSafetyScience Podcast, we interview Jeremiah Wann, President of Imperial Systems, Inc., in Mercer, Pennsylvania, about changes in the dust collection equipment landscape.

Imperial Systems, Inc. is a manufacturer of dust collection equipment and related safety systems. In his position as president of the company, Jeremiah has seen a lot of changes in the field over the past couple of decades, so he talks about:

How the landscape has changed for dust collectors and other dust-related safety equipment
How awareness has increased among his clients
The importance of getting your equipment tested as a manufacturer
Difficult situations where the customer is hesitant about installing combustible dust safety equipment

Jeremiah’s discussion has immense value because he brings a different perspective to the combustible dust safety issue. He is not a consultant, and he doesn’t serve on any NFPA boards. He is representative of a group that includes facility managers, equipment operators, equipment manufacturers, and insurance companies, and has an experience-based understanding that has enabled him to write several blog posts about combustible dust standards and measurement systems.

Safety in the DNA

Jeremiah’s background is unique in that he has been in the dust and fume collection business his entire life. His grandfather had a sheet metal shop in Texas, so he grew up around cyclones, ductwork, and other components he sees in facilities today. After college, he worked for the family business selling dust collection equipment. In 2001, he founded Imperial Systems, Inc., which supplies dust safety equipment to multiple industries.

“One day I’m in a drink mix factory and the next day I’m in a steel mill and or maybe in a coffee plant,” he says. “You just never really know what you’re going to get into.”

How Has the Landscape Changed?

Jeremiah said that as early as five years ago, people weren’t talking a lot about dust hazards. At that time, approximately 50% of the jobs being done by Imperial Systems, Inc. involved combustible dust, which he described as anything with a KST greater than one. Today, it’s 95 to 98%.

The company also designed stronger and more effective dust collection equipment to meet this need. When designing the cartridges for its flagship CMaxx equipment, it focused on low internal velocities and longer filter life. It also turned the unit’s primary filters into isolation devices, so that if an explosion occurred in the dust collector, the flame front would be stopped from going back to the filters and back to the plant.

Lessons in the Safety Testing Process

Jeremiah acknowledged that for manufacturers like Imperial Systems, Inc., equipment testing is expensive and time-consuming, but worth it.

He described early testing with the CMaxx units. The company was seeking a way to apply smaller explosion vents and save money while maintaining a high safety standard. The testing team wanted to determine the Pred of the collector and the maximum amount of pressure it could withstand.

The CMaxx they were testing was designed to withstand up to 4 PSI, so the team was confident that it would pass with flying colours. However, during the very first test, the door blew open, which shocked everyone. With help from engineering consultants at Fike, they identified a problem in the dust collector’s latch system, which made it a manufacturing problem instead of an engineering one.

“I would have never guessed that it was our manufacturing process,” Jeremiah said. “We didn’t have fixtures set in place to (ensure that) the latch was welded on the exact same way every time. So while one door failed, the next one that came along would have passed. So it really pushed us as a company to take things to a new level. And since then, we’ve just kind of went crazy with the fixturing and process controls.”

What if Customers Don’t Comply?

Jeremiah addressed an issue that equipment manufacturers often face: customers who don’t want to invest in combustible dust safety. He said that employees are popping into his office on a daily basis, saying things like, “So-and-so company is saying that their aluminum dust is non-combustible. What do we do about it? They’re doing food processing, and there’s sugar in there. They’re saying zero KST.”

“I mean it’s tough too,” he said. “Even on plasma tables where there’s aluminum dust, or they’re doing aluminum chips, while those chips might not be combustible, over the years of production the particles of aluminum dust does build up on the ledges and eventually could cause a problem.”

“If you read NFPA, it ultimately says (compliance is) the customer’s responsibility. We know there’s some truth to that because we realize that the customer knows their process more than anybody. But we’re always also reminded that if you’re sitting across the table from a bunch of attorneys, it’s all of our responsibility, right? It’s the right thing.”

It’s a Universal Responsibility

Six months after the Imperial Sugar Refinery explosion, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board issued a report on the incident. Before the incident occurred, the facility was covered in dust and dust collector fires were happening, but it passed audits by a food association and an insurance company. Shouldn’t someone have said something?

The CSB report recommended that insurance companies train their people more on combustible dust hazards and require their inspectors to communicate what they find. The more education that’s provided, the more fires and explosions can be prevented and, by extension, lives saved.

Conclusion

“People want to do what’s right,” Jeremiah agrees. “So I think if we’re talking to the general manager of another company and we show him that this is the right thing to do even if the owner says they don’t want to spend the money on it, we feel like that education is key. And he (the general manager) is probably going to encourage his owner to do the right thing. So I feel like it starts with us.”

If you would like to discuss further, leave your thoughts in the comments section below. You can also reach Jeremiah Wann directly:
Email: [email protected]
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremiah-wann-58430111/

If you have questions about the contents of this or any other podcast episode, you can go to our ‘Questions from the Community’ page and submit a text message or video recording. We will then bring someone on to answer these questions in a future episode.

Resources Mentioned

The resources mentioned in this episode are listed below.

DustSafetyScience
Combustible Dust Incident Database
DustSafetyScience Podcast
Questions from the Community

Companies
Imperial Systems
Fike

Blog Posts
KST, PMAX, MIE… What Does It All Mean For Your Combustible Dust?
Combustible Dust Regulations Off OSHA’s Agenda, But Danger Remains
Combustible Dust Standard: A Stalemate

Organizations
NFPA
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board

Incidents
Imperial Sugar Refinery

Previous Episodes
DSS024: Understanding Chinese National Standards for Explosion Safety with Niklas Kitzhöfer