Are Vacuum Conveyors Panacea for Safety Hazards?
Automating manual material handling tasks with vacuum conveyors can be the remedy.
- By Doan Pendleton
- May 01, 2022
Vacuum conveyors won’t solve every safety hazard, but they do eliminate a great number of hazards inherent during manual transfer of powders and bulk solids, such as work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSD), fall, respiratory and dust explosions.
Until fairly recently, safety improvements often fell into the intangible financial category of cost avoidance—reducing the potential for direct and indirect costs of injury and the resultant increase of insurance rates—relegating them to the bottom of the list of capital expenditures.
That model of thinking has shifted to one that bonds automation to safety. Automation increases safety by eliminating tasks that can cause injury, and Liberty Mutual asserts, “an environment of increased safety due to automation can also boost the bottom line.”
Manpower and labor costs are eternally hot topics across all industries, and the acute manpower shortage plaguing manufacturing today exacerbates manufacturing’s already shrinking workforce. This acute shortage increases the likelihood of worker injury due to new and untrained workers being more prone to accidents and injury, according to Liberty Mutual, “leading to absences, sick days, and workers compensation claims.
Automating materials transfer with vacuum conveyors regularly produces savings through reduced manpower, reduced materials costs, increased uptime, improved product quality and a healthier, cleaner environment.
Available in a variety of sizes, types and materials of construction, including carbon steel, 304 or 316 stainless, basic vacuum conveying systems consist of a single pick-up point, a vacuum receiver, a vacuum producer, convey tubing and a control panel.
Vacuum conveying systems are fully enclosed, protecting materials from air, dirt and waste. Because product does not escape from vacuum conveying systems, particulates that can endanger workers respiratory health or settle on equipment and surfaces posing an explosion hazard are prevented from entering the environment.
Air-operated venturi powered vacuum producers are by far the safest vacuum source for vacuum conveyors as they are intrinsically safe by design, generating no heat or sparks. Where compressed air is not sufficient, or when conveying materials at higher rates and longer distances, positive displacement pumps are the preferred vacuum source for vacuum conveying.
This article originally appeared in the May 2022 issue of Occupational Health & Safety.