Combustible dust removal
Taken down out of the structure, the cabling and the ceiling spaces, with equipment that does not add the spark.
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The problem
Dust that has settled on a rafter is not doing much. Dust that has been put back into the air is a different substance altogether. And the thing most likely to put it back into the air is somebody cleaning.
Queensland’s code of practice for managing hazardous chemicals in the workplace says so directly. It records that dust explosions “present a significant risk in some workplaces, however they are often overlooked”, and it lists the common ways dusts get disturbed: wind from opening doors, cleaning and sweeping up waste, and using compressed air to blow material out of crevices, gaps and machinery.
Why the equipment matters
Dust in the air carries static
Dust moving through the air in a factory can carry a static charge, and a spark in a room that also holds flammable liquids starts a fire. A fibreglassing plant is the clearest example. The dust and the liquids are both in there, in the same building, at the same time.
So the gear on this job is anti-static end to end. Purpose-built vacuums. Anti-static hoses at twenty metres. Anti-static aluminium wands from one to five metres with bristle heads, so the reach comes from the pole and no machine has to get closer than it should.
Compressed air is one of the ways the regulator says dust gets put back into the air. On this work the dust comes down into vacuums instead.
A job we did
A timber factory, once a year, Gold Coast
Sanding, polishing and varnishing under one roof. Timber dust settles on the walls, the roof areas, the pipework and the ducting steadily through the year. The building manufactures its own hazard as a by-product of doing its actual job.
A 6 metre roof, so a small platform. 2 days, 4 people, 8-hour days. Walls, roof structure, pipework and ducting all taken down with the vacuums, with no sweeping or blowing.
It runs as a standing annual booking. Which is the right shape for this: accumulation is a rate, not an event, and a building that produces dust every week does not need a one-off.
That job sat in the $7,500 to $10,000 band.
Where it accumulates
The places nobody has looked at for years
Roof steel, purlins and bracing
Cable trays and cabling runs
Light fittings and their supports
Ceiling and roof cavities
Ducting, extraction and plant
Racking tops and high-level ledges
Light fittings and the cabling running to them get extremely hot. A hot surface with years of settled dust on it is the reason they get cleaned on this job and are not skipped for being awkward to reach.
The regulatory picture
What the codes actually say
WorkSafe Queensland treats areas around activities generating fine dusts of combustible material (sugar, grain, polymers, dry organic residues) as areas that require classification as hazardous zones. It names static electricity and electrostatic discharge among the ignition sources, and it names good housekeeping to minimise accumulation of combustible dust as a control measure in its own right.
The classification standards it points to are AS/NZS 60079.10.1 for explosive gas atmospheres and AS/NZS 60079.10.2 for explosive dust atmospheres. Nationally, the equivalent is Safe Work Australia’s model code of practice for managing risks of hazardous chemicals, which is what New South Wales operates under for the Sydney and Tweed end of our work.
We are the housekeeping control, done with the right gear. We are not hazardous area classifiers, and if your site needs a classification report that is a different specialist and we will say so.
Who this is for
Buildings that make their own dust
Factories and manufacturing plants
Warehouses and distribution centres
Timber, food, grain and polymer processing
Enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces where residue builds up
How it ignites
Dust, air and a spark have to meet
Queensland’s Managing risks of hazardous chemicals in the workplace Code of Practice 2021 describes dust explosions as usually happening where combustible dust has accumulated, is then disturbed and released into the air, and the cloud meets an ignition source such as a flame, a hot surface or a spark. Section 3.4 adds that the pressure of one explosion can disturb dust lying elsewhere and make further clouds.
So a layer on a ledge or a cable tray matters even when the air looks clear. The settled layer is the fuel, and the disturbance is the part that can be controlled.
Housekeeping
Where cleaning sits in a dust risk plan
The same code lists housekeeping, meaning cleaning to minimise accumulation of combustible dust, among its specific controls for fire and explosion risk, alongside ventilation and removing ignition sources from hazardous areas. Among its administrative controls it lists vacuuming or wet sweeping to suppress the dust that dry sweeping would raise.
How often a building needs it depends on how fast dust builds up, and a timber workshop and a distribution warehouse are not the same rate. We can look at the structure with you and say where it collects first.
Before you book
What to ask a contractor before dust work starts
- Is compressed air used anywhere on the job?
- Is the vacuum, the hose and the wand anti-static? Ours are, from the machine to the end of the pole.
- Does the cleaning run top down, so dust is not shaken onto surfaces already finished?
- Which parts of your site have their own permit rules, such as hot work or electrical isolation, that affect the day?
Related work
Where combustible dust removal fits with the rest of the work
Most industrial buildings need more than one of these, and it is usually cheaper to do them on the same visit while the access equipment is already on site.
Get in touch
Show us where it has built up
If there is dust on your structure and nobody has been up to it in years, that is the conversation. We will go up, look, and tell you what is there.
0409 455 189 · info@legacyinnovations24.com.au
Ticketed for height and confined space · $10 million public liability