Five workers were killed in an explosion that occurred at a Sun Prairie-based milling company, Didion Milling Inc. The company’s CEO, Riley Didion, has been sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay a $1 million fine and $10.25 million in restitution for the company’s guilty pleas to two felony charges related to the deadly explosion at its Cambria mill.
According to a report by the Wisconsin State Journal, this explosion took place in 2017.
This catastrophic accident demonstrates the high cost that is to be paid when manufacturing plant managers and leadership don’t take enough safety measures to ensure that hazardous dust, particles, and contaminants are collected and filtered.
Benefits of Downdraft Table Dust Collectors
As a manufacturing company grows, so will the need for more workers. Ensure long-term success and profitability by protecting the health and safety of those workers. Make worker safety a top priority by using a downdraft table at every workstation. This will ensure that equipment and facilities last longer. When equipment requires less maintenance, costs and downtime decrease drastically.
Whether your team welds, grinds, deburs, cuts, sands, finishes, solders, paints, or mixes, we all know this work produces dangerous and toxic fumes, smoke, and dust. These particles can ruin the health of your workers and health of your equipment as well. That’s why failing to get the best downdraft table for every workstation in your shop could, as we see, blow up in your face.
A top-rated downdraft table will go a long way in keeping people, property, and profits healthy and safe.
Problem of Dust
You see, dust, fumes, and smoke occur when sanding, welding, soldering, and other processes. If this dust is not immediately captured then it collects in the air, creating a toxic environment for human health. Additionally, these particles get clogged in the tools and equipment that you use, causing tools to rust, malfunction, and deteriorate. Moreover, facilities become hazardous, including slippery floors, toxic air, and everything else in the spaces where dust collects.
The good news is a downdraft table dust collector can easily keep the air crisp and clean so workers can operate without the fear of sacrificing their health and safety.
Two Types of Ventilation Systems
Downdraft table dust collectors work by ventilation systems, which are essential for removing and managing airborne pollutants in indoor workplaces. There are primarily two types:
- Source Capture
- Ambient Air Cleaning
These methods effectively filter dust, smoke, and fumes. Source capture, also called local exhaust, can be set up in two ways. In a ducted system, devices like downdraft table extractors are used to draw particulate matter into ductwork connected to a central collector for dust, fumes, or mist.
If it is possible, please note that self-contained source capture systems, like Diversitech’s downdraft table extractors, are the most effective tools for extracting and filtering airborne contaminants because of several key advantages:
- Lower equipment and installation costs (No costly ductwork and mechanical contractors)
- Protects the worker's breathing zone (No respirators required)
- Less ductwork maintenance (No duct cleaning)
- Flexibility to easily reposition unit (No ductwork relocation)
- Lower energy costs (Unit can be turned on only when in use versus a central system)
- No costly air makeup system (Lower electrical cost)
How a Downdraft Table Works
Downdraft table dust collectors are widely used as fume extractors in industrial settings due to their ability to safely remove hazardous contaminants. A downdraft table functions by directing airflow downward, capturing contaminants at their source. A downdraft table effectively moves oil mist toward the table surface, where ventilation and filtration systems draw contaminated air through filters, trapping harmful fumes.
Diversitech’s Downdraft Table Options
Diversitech offers a superior downdraft table series that is compliant with OSHA guidelines for the safe capture of dust, smoke and weld fumes. When a downdraft table by Diversitech is installed in each workspace of your plant, each workstation becomes a self-contained dust and fume extraction station that is safe for conducting manual manufacturing processes.
Each downdraft table captures fumes, smoke and dust right at the source so indoor air quality remains uncompromised. Whether your team is welding, grinding, deburring, cutting, sanding, finishing, soldering, painting or mixing, the various downdraft table options offered by Diversitech delivers the perfect, flexible, all-in-one solution.
Each downdraft table also comes fitted with multi-stage spark arrest baffles, industrial swivel casters and a push-button, reverse-pulse filter cleaning system to reduce maintenance.
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Wet Downdraft Table Options
Companies involved in the production, processing, finishing, handling, recycling, storage, or use of combustible metals and alloys need to understand the changing NFPA 484 regulatory environment in the wake of several high-profile and catastrophic workplace explosions, like the one we opened with.
Combustible dust can be either metallic or non-metallic airborne dust that is capable of causing an explosion in your manufacturing facility. Work applications that have the capacity to produce combustible dust create some of the most hazardous work conditions imaginable if the dust is not contained and removed safely. The
Our Monsoon™ wet downdraft table selection safely captures combustibles by pulling contaminated air through the ventilated work surface and moving them into a torrent of water. The dust particles then bond with suspended water droplets before draining down to the bottom of the downdraft table dust collector for safe removal.
Explore our range of Monsoon wet downdraft table series to discover the right fit for your workspace.
Takeaways
It’s hard to believe that five people lost their lives in that tragic incident at Didion Milling Inc. due to the negligence and short sightedness of the company’s CEO and leadership team. Lives cannot be replaced, so the loss that was experienced by their spouses, children, families, friends, and communities is permanent. This deadly explosion happened simply because there were inadequate safety measures taken by the management team to protect people, property, and, even, long-term profits.
If only they had a wet downdraft table positioned at every workstation, all that combustible dust would have been safely and immediately and, likely, that very costly disaster would never have happened. Our downdraft table selection is the perfect safety measure to keep workers and your equipment and facilities safe, secure, and operating at their best. Diversitech offers a range of superior downdraft table extractors for dust, smoke, fumes, oil mist, and combustibles. This range of downdraft table options includes standard, portable, and wet downdraft table extractors.
Shop Diversitech’s range of downdraft table extractors to meet the goal of efficient product manufacturing while prioritizing worker health and safety. Better still, contact us to schedule a discovery call and to find the best solution for you.
Shop Our Downdraft Table Selection or Contact Us to Speak with a Consultant