Welding and Plasma Fumes Health Hazard

by Imperial Systems | Jan 4, 2017 | Uncategorized

We get a lot of questions about fumes from welding or laser and plasma cutting. People are aware that there are health risks. Further, many of them have heard about hexavalent chromium. It is a good reason to be careful when working around plasma fumes, but it’s not the only reason. “Hex chrome” is just one of the hazards involved.

What is Hex Chrome?

You may have heard that hexavalent chromium, often called hex chrome, is mainly a problem for people working with stainless steel. Stainless steel does contain much more chromium than other types of steel. However, many metals are either alloyed or electroplated with chromium to protect them from corrosion.

Metals don’t usually contain hexavalent chromium. Instead, when the metal is heated to a high temperature, the chromium reacts with oxygen to form compounds. Specifically, hexavalent chromium is one of them. This compound, when inhaled as in plasma fumes, is known to increase the risk of lung cancer and other cancers. When in contact with the skin, it can cause irritation and skin sores.

What are the other Risks?

Other common metals that people may encounter in welding smoke or plasma cutting fumes include iron, copper, zinc, nickel, manganese, aluminum, tin, beryllium, cadmium, lead, and titanium. Most of these can certainly irritate your eyes, nose, and throat. Others, like cadmium, are cancer-causing agents. Some, such as lead and manganese, damage your nerves and brain. Beryllium can be even more hazardous and cause fatal lung disease. Components of metal fumes can also cause kidney damage.

No plasma fume or smoke from cutting or welding is safe to inhale. Even iron, which is not toxic, can accumulate in the lungs and cause long-term damage. The lungs are very sensitive to damage, and welding or cutting produces metal particles small enough to be easily inhaled. Whether it’s referred to as fumes, smoke, gases, or dust, it’s an airborne cloud of tiny particles that can make their way deep into your lungs. They can be as small as 0.3 microns, which is 250 times smaller than human hair and about 15 times smaller than a red blood cell.

Other metals, including nickel, zinc, and copper, cause “metal fume fever”, a flu-like response to chemicals released by damaged cells in the lungs. The symptoms resemble the flu, with headaches, fever and chills, muscle aches, and coughing. Welding is the occupation most likely to result in this condition, but plasma fumes and laser cutting fumes can also cause it.

It’s often reported that drinking milk can help prevent this condition, and many people swear by it. Either way, it doesn’t prevent the long-term lung damage that occurs when metal dust is inhaled. Drinking milk won’t hurt, but avoiding the toxic effects of exposure altogether is a safer bet.

What can I do about the welding and plasma fumes?

Fortunately, there’s no reason to put your health in danger to do your job. OSHA regulations set safe exposure levels for almost all plasma and other metal fumes. They recommend several methods to prevent over-exposure. A CMAXX™ dust and fume collection system (CMAXX Dust and Fume Collector) is efficient and effective. It can reduce or eliminate the need for uncomfortable and often improperly used respirators. Our team can advise you on the best ways to keep people safe when they’re welding or working around laser or plasma cutting.

We hope this information is helpful for the people who have asked us questions in the past about welding and plasma fumes and who come to us with questions in the future!

If you need more information, please click the CHAT NOW box during normal business hours for immediate help. You can also contact us to request more information.

Reference Articles

• Facts about Plasma Cutting and Plasma Technology. Penrose: BOC, n.d. BOC. Web.
• Gibson, Hugh. “Plasma Cutting Using A Hand Held Machine.” Plasma Cutting Fumes Danger! N.p., 19 Mar. 2013. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
• Plasma Cutter Safety Guide | Longevity-inc.com.” Plasma Cutter Safety Guide. Longevity-inc.com, n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
• Sheahan, Kyra. “OSHA Safety Standard for Plasma Dust.” EHow. Demand Media, 28 Nov. 2010. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
• Stone, Joe. “OSHA Safety Standard for Plasma Dust and Fumes.” Work. Demand Media, n.d. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.
• Zlotnicki, Steve. “Does Plasma Cutting Produce Hex Chrome?” Plasma Arc Cutting of Stainless Steel Will Produce Hexavalent Chromium. Esab-cutting, 12 May 2013. Web. 08 Jan. 2014.

THANK YOU, BRUCE JOHNSON

by Imperial Systems | Nov 17, 2016 | Uncategorized

This November, with best wishes and some sadness, we celebrate the retirement of a man who didn’t just work here at Imperial Systems: Bruce Johnson helped to build it.

When you ask Bruce to tell you about his accomplishments, he seems a little confused as to why you’d even ask him. He is quiet and humble, and I’m not sure he realizes how deeply he is respected or how deeply he will be missed.

Bruce came to Imperial Systems in January of 2008. On his first day, he was helping design a ductwork system. There were no offices, just a shop with dividers, and every project was a team project. These were early days for Imperial Systems as a company stepping into larger projects and new industries, and Bruce will tell you, with a smile, “It was definitely a team effort. We were all in it together.” Whether it was Jeremiah doing some welding or Joe Moore programming the plasma table or Charlie bringing his vast experience as a draftsman, everyone took whatever role was necessary to move forward.

It was nice to get offices, Bruce says, because then the engineers didn’t have to yell at each other. From small local jobs, he has moved to working on bigger systems, bigger and more elaborate ductwork, and new industries, like coal processing, grain, rubber, and wood dust. Bruce particularly remembers the Methuen project. “There were multiple floors in the building, really complex ductwork. It was a really great project to work on. Great learning experience.”

When you listen to Bruce talk about his time at Imperial Systems, two things stand out. One is his commitment to and love of learning: “If you don’t learn something new every day here, you must have been sleeping.” The other is a powerful sense of teamwork and sharing accomplishments with others. “We complement and balance each other,” he says. “As time went on we became more and more of a team. We depended on each other.” Bruce talks about his time at Imperial Systems as a time of team building, learning to build on each person’s skills, teaching each other, and becoming more skilled and more capable together than they could ever be on their own.

Bruce doesn’t talk about his own accomplishments as much as he talks, with great pride and affection, about how he and those around him grew together and built something great. He talks about the problems they solved, jobs that just kept growing, jobs that turned out to be more complicated than expected. He talks about how the company constantly moves forward, but what he doesn’t talk about is how necessary he was in making that happen. In his small, meticulously kept records, he counts 131 jobs he has worked on since 2013.

Jeremiah Wann doesn’t hold back when he talks about what Bruce has meant to the company and to him personally:

“Guys like Bruce are truly a dying breed. Good work ethic, pride in quality and workmanship today is really hard to come by. I have mixed feelings about his retirement. There is a part of me that wants to celebrate with him over his retirement but there is a huge part of me that wishes we could keep him forever. It’s a real life lesson for me in that, we have to train not only in skill but in work ethic and principles. Bruce has been one of my best all-time team members and I am really going to miss him. My biggest fear is that it’s going to be impossible to completely replace him.”

No matter how humble he is or how much credit he gives to those around him, Bruce has been a critical part of making Imperial Systems what it is and set an amazing example for all those who will take up his work after him. His work ethic and his willingness to celebrate the achievements of others makes Bruce a truly special person and he will be deeply missed.

All of us at Imperial Systems wish Bruce a wonderful, happy retirement. It is certainly earned and well-deserved.

FABTECH 2016 Las Vegas Preview

by Imperial Systems | Nov 11, 2016 | Uncategorized

For some of us, FABTECH 2016 in Las Vegas is one of the biggest events of the year! Here’s a quick preview of the things you’ll see at our booth this year.

A CMAXX^TM model CMoo8, fully operational and running, demonstrating a push-pull system:

A Spark Arrestor, one of the simplest and most important components of a fire safety system:

Spark Arrestor

Two CMAXX^TM models (CM004), featuring our explosion venting and new FireTrace fire extinguishing system.

The official debut of our new portable dust and fume collector, the SHADOW:

FABTECH 2016 Debut

Imperial’s superior MERV 15 nanofiber DeltaMAXX^TM filters:

DeltaMAXX cartridge filters

FREE STUFF! Stop by and get a stylish Imperial Systems hat!

What happens in Las Vegas doesn’t have to stay in Vegas!  We have 4 show specials that you can take with you!

Our three CMAXX^TM Demos and the SHADOW Portable Collector are available for sale at the show.  Stop by our booth and talk to an Imperial Representative to get the full details at the FABTECH 2016 show!

Visit us at booth N1825 and see why everybody at FABTECH 2016 is going to be talking about us!

OSHA Guidelines For Hazard Prevention

by Imperial Systems | Oct 26, 2016 | Uncategorized

OSHA just released the first guidelines and recommended practices list in more than twenty years. Is it something you need to know about? Probably. But you probably don’t have a few hours to spend browsing their website for information. Save yourself some time. Here’s a summary of the important parts, and links to get you to the ones you want to know more about.

OSHA Guidelines and Recommended Practices

Getting Started

First off, here’s a quick guide to the process of implementing recommended practices:

There are two areas of focus here: preparing and training people, and inspecting and improving facilities, equipment, and practices. If you need some more details, head to this link: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/ten-easy-things.html

Getting Management to Work With You

You’re going to have a hard time getting a safety program off the ground if management isn’t buying in. The OSHA guidelines recommend four basic steps below to make sure they’re with you:

If you need more details about things you should do to get management and leadership engaged, this is your place to look: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/management-leadership.html

Getting Workers Involved

If getting your workers to be involved and serious about your safety program is a concern, here are suggested steps in the OSHA guidelines to make sure you have genuine worker investment:

So what does it take to get workers to care about and want to participate in your safety program? And what are some of the barriers to their participation? If this is a topic you’re interested in, here’s the place to go: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/worker-participation.html

Hazard Identification, Control, and Prevention

Before you can do anything about hazards in your workplace, you have to find them. Not just the obvious ones, either: there may be hazards that only people who use a particular machine or work in a particular area are aware of, for example.

Once you’ve identified the hazards that need to be addressed, what do you do about them? You look for ways to control them, starting with the most dangerous or the ones that can be easily eliminated. Getting workers involved in deciding what controls you’ll use is also a great step to get them more active in the program.

These are obviously the nuts and bolts of a safety program, but they don’t work if you haven’t gotten managers and workers on board and involved. Workers are probably the people most likely to know where the real hazards are and where things might go wrong, but they’re not likely to want to talk about it with management you’ve established a program where reporting a hazard is encouraged, not punished.

If hazard identification is your topic, check here: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/hazard-Identification.html

If you’re moving past identification and ready to tackle prevention and control, this is your destination: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/hazard-prevention.html

Education and Training

You can have a great program, but if nobody knows what to do or who should handle what part, you’re not going to get anywhere. Here’s the very basic breakdown:

OK, you’re probably going to need to get a little more in-depth than this. Fortunately, OSHA has some handy resources available, including training tools to help people get better at spotting hazards: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/education-training.html

Program Evaluation and Improvement

So you started a program, and you got everyone to participate, and things seem to be going really well. Or perhaps your program, for whatever reason, isn’t doing what you hoped it would do. Evaluation is the part where you figure out what’s going well and what’s not. And improvement is the part where you do more of what’s working and less of what isn’t.

If you’re working on a safety program and need to be able to report on how it’s going and what it’s doing for the company, check out OSHA’s suggestions and tools for figuring it out: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/program-evaluation.html

Additional OSHA Guidelines Information and Assistance

There’s your very quick summary of OSHA Guidelines and Recommended Practices! If you need lots and lots more information, OSHA makes sure you have tons of links and helpful tools to check out on their “additional resources” page here: https://www.osha.gov/shpguidelines/program-evaluation.html.

As always, if you are looking for dust and fume collection or fire and explosion safety controls, we are here to help you with any information you need. Using this equipment is a best practice for dealing with combustible dust, including spark arrestors, abort gates, and fire retardant dust collector filters.

DISCLAIMER: This guide is not intended to be used in place of OSHA guidelines or actual recommendations. We hope it helps you get an overview of what’s available, but while we are dust and fume collection experts, we defer to those more knowledgeable when it comes to safety program design.