Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
(OP)
Help, please – lab to sort wood dust by size
There is a company called Dylos (http://www.dylosproducts.com/) that has a cool little particle counter for airborne particles. Mine measures .5 and 5 micron sizes. What I would like to do is find a lab that can analyze dry wood dust (dry is important) and give me some idea of particle size distribution either by particle count or weight.
The idea is to take the two readings and be able to relate them to OSHA and ACGIH standards using weight per cubic meter.
My usual labs can’t do it so I am looking for a referral to a lab.
Thank you,
Tom
There is a company called Dylos (http://www.dylosproducts.com/) that has a cool little particle counter for airborne particles. Mine measures .5 and 5 micron sizes. What I would like to do is find a lab that can analyze dry wood dust (dry is important) and give me some idea of particle size distribution either by particle count or weight.
The idea is to take the two readings and be able to relate them to OSHA and ACGIH standards using weight per cubic meter.
My usual labs can’t do it so I am looking for a referral to a lab.
Thank you,
Tom
Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com





RE: Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
In any case, the answer to your question is not so much technical as legal. You are dealing with safety regulations and test methods will be specified by the regulations. Taking the sample correctly is the first step. OSHA does not care about the size of your dust, but the size of the dust in the air that an employee is exposed to. So you will probably have to put a sample pump on a worker and it will draw air though a filter for 15 minutes or 8 hours and then the filter is analyzed by a lab certified to that particular test method.
RE: Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
You are correct, of course, and did a beautiful job explaining the situation.
However the meters exist and are being used. I suppose it could be compared to using a CMM to measure a part versus using a Go / No Go gauge.
With your expertise I would appreciate any advice you cared to offer on developing a simple rule of thumb based on available information.
Thank you,
tom
Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com
RE: Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
RE: Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
One of the folks on Sawmill Creek (woodworkers’ forum) bought one and started this whole thing. Now a couple hundred have them and no one is sure what the results mean.
We do a newsletter for the saw and tool industry and I thought this might make a good article.
I thought about selling the instruments but they want a really large investment in inventory for a small discount so it doesn’t make sense financially.
I agree with you on the industrial market. We have a grain elevator here in town that had a dust explosion a few years ago as just one example.
There is a test in the saw industry. When you braze up a saw with new tips you hold it in one hand and use an 18” stick to beat on the tips with the other hand. It is a very crude test but has turned out to be surprising helpful as a go / no go test.
We give away really cheap eye droppers to use as a water break test. The wider the drop, the cleaner the surface is. Again a really crude test but considerably better than no test at all.
I hope to come up with some sort of simple metric for the Dylos meter.
Tom
Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com
RE: Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
Dunno about a lab providing the service, everywhere I've been that needed to do particulate counting (for cleanliness spec. compliance, typ. aerospace fuel and hydraulics systems) we did it ourselves using Millipore filters, vacuum pumps, microscopes, etc.. FED-STD-209 I believe was the old spec. for cleanrooms (particulate counts of air), of course that spec. is now obsolete (replaced by ISO 14644?), you could try searching for labs that test for compliance to those standards, they will at least have the right equipment.
RE: Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
http://www.particletechlabs.com/Services/size.htm
RE: Help, please û lab to sort wood dust by size
Tom
Thomas J. Walz
Carbide Processors, Inc.
www.carbideprocessors.com