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.

Demand for products and goods goes up and to the right each year. That means more raw materials are being manufactured to meet growing demand. Downdraft tables are an essential tool every industrial shop needs when welding, sanding, grinding, deburring, spray painting, plasma cutting, and soldering.

You see, all of these manufacturing processes produce hazardous particles that may hurt the health and safety of industrial workers. Dust, oil, mist, and other dangerous contaminants have been documented to cause serious long-term injury to workers. In some cases, even death.

We’ll look at some of the hazards produced by various industrial operations and then take a closer look at how downdraft tables have become a breath of fresh air for smart companies doing their best to protect what matters most - their people.

There is one dust collection apparatus that is often overlooked for less expensive or older technologies that, in reality, boasts a wide range of use-cases. In fact, the applications for this device are so varied, that it warranted an article of its own. With such wide applications possible for these tools, they have the potential to impact the health and safety of workers in practically all industries across manufacturing, food production, metalworking, wood working, stone working, painting and finishing, pharmaceuticals, and more.

As employees and employers are becoming more acutely aware of the hazards of airborne particulate matter, fumes, and oil mists in the workplace, some illnesses that were considered rare only 20 years ago have skyrocketed in cases, primarily due to prolonged exposure to some kind of airborne particulate matter. COPD, silicosis, and popcorn lung are all examples of these impending health issues that have only recently surfaced in the vernacular. While many of these ailments have been known in medicine for multiple decades in some cases, very few of them have treatments that are near anywhere 100% effective in curing the damage caused by the lung tissues scarring.

These profoundly impactful particulate matter collectors, as you may have guessed, are collectively called “downdraft tables.” They are essentially specialized workstations equipped with built-in ventilation systems designed to capture and control dust, fumes, and other airborne contaminants. Here we will dive into some of the extensive range of uses for downdraft tables, showcasing their importance across manufacturing and beyond. 

Powders, pigments, sprays, and lacquers- all of these and more come to mind when the term “cosmetics” is used. In manufacturing, even some hygiene items like dental care and deodorants fall under the “cosmetic” umbrella. With that in mind, most people don’t give a second thought to the safety of their cosmetic and personal care products- after all, they should be safe to use.

Although cosmetics may seem like the last place where you’d be likely to find toxic fumes, hazardous dusts, and carcinogens abound, the truth is that there are some serious health risks behind all of the glitter and gloss.

In today’s article we’ll be giving an overview of the health risks associated with dusts and fumes in the cosmetics industry- and Diversitech’s solutions to help mitigate health hazards, including downdraft tables and fume extractors.

Understanding VOCs

Noxious paint fumes, benzene, acetone- these are all substances commonly used in the industrial sector that can be classified as volatile organic compounds. Volatile organic compounds, commonly abbreviated to just VOCs, are solvents which can evaporate under normal indoor atmospheric conditions due to their high vapor pressure and low water solubility.

Here at Diversitech we offer a broad range of dust collectors, fume extractors, and other air capture devices to help keep the ambient air in your shop free of hazards. With so many options available, it can be difficult to choose or even know where to start when it comes to selecting the right device for your operations. Today, we’ll be going over some of our most popular air pollution solutions to help narrow down which one is right for you.

Downdraft Tables Capture Contaminants at the Source

If your manufacturing process is generating particulate matter, you can’t go wrong with Diversitech’s DD Downdraft Table. Downdraft tables are standalone workstations equipped with a ventilated working surface which resembles a metal grate. While you work, a blower motor attached to the table vacuums up airborne contaminants through the ventilated work surface before they can negatively impact the air quality of your production facility, then deposits the contaminants into a dust collection receptacle. We refer to this as capture-at-source technology. Our downdraft tables are compliant with dust, smoke, and welding fumes capturing guidelines as defined by OSHA, so when you choose Diversitech you know you’re investing in a worthwhile safety measure for your workplace.

Our standard DD downdraft tables are well suited to be used for all kinds of cutting, fusing, and finishing operations. However, we do also offer application-specific kits which are designed to provide the most effective dust collection for certain operations. One of these is the welding/grinding/deburring (WGD) kit, which comes outfitted with booth walls and a metal mesh pre-filter for enhanced dust capture. The spray painting kit is equipped with the same booth walls, but also has an additional paint arrestor pre-filter, polytech filters, and reversible carbon canister afterfilters, along with a greater ventilation area on the tabletop surface. This same tabletop with added ventilation is what’s used on our plasma cutting kit. Lastly, the clean air workstation kit includes side and back walls, a dust and vapor proof light kit for improved visibility, and a backdraft hood. Get a closer look at our different models here.