Industrial safety is always a sensitive topic of discussion that requires and deserves a lot of attention and the people who belong to the respective authorities who set those important safety standards and regulations will definitely know the significance of a flame arrestor’s use. But before we dive deep into the discussion of what is a flame arrester and how well it assures the safety of lives and equipment inside a facility or a plant, we have to understand why industrial safety has become such a sensitive topic that no one should be messing around with.
Any industrial operation or a multitude of operations that function within an industrial manufacturing plant will involve a lot of manpower working. A place that involves too much of human lives as a part of its workforce will always be considered a place that should be regulated with fool-proof safety measures and standards but what makes the industrial plants a highly sensitive place is the presence of heavy machinery alongside human lives that operate together. Yes, the money part involved in purchasing highly expensive cutting-edge technology-based machinery is definitely a contributing factor but the truth is quite different. The reason is the fact that when something goes wrong inside such a facility, even a small mishap can cause the machinery to malfunction which might turn them into life-threatening objects. If such a scenario happens, it puts the entire team of human lives at extreme risk which is exactly why many safety regulations came into effect for a long time and one such step is the consideration of a flame arrestor’s use.Let us now understand why many people stress the flame arrestor’s use and why industrial safety can be a serious issue if not handled sensibly without proper plans and guidelines.
Almost everyone working in the field of manufacturing will know how significant safety guidelines are for an industrial facility. Human lives are the most valuable assets that any organization can have and safeguarding them is of utmost priority. Every line of work contains human resources at various levels of operations but the Engineering and manufacturing ones have quite a high-risk factor involved as staff more often than not, work nearby or use heavy machinery which poses extreme risks when something goes wrong. This is one among the few other reasons that make the facility supervisors and other responsible personnel to come up with safety regulations that ensure that everyone’s and everything’s safety is never in jeopardy. This is also the reason due to which there are numerous safety drills and training exercises given to staff working at industrial and manufacturing facilities or plants near heavy machinery in order to know how to handle them the right way.
The purpose of these training programs is also to equip the staff with the right knowledge for them to understand and react properly during critical situations when something goes wrong due to a mishap. Evacuation is to be done in an orderly fashion, not to touch machinery without safety equipment and all such instructions are given to the staff as a part of those training. This is because past accidents have made people learn from them as many lives were lost mainly due to the lack of correct knowledge about how to react when an accident has occurred.
The significance of industrial safety is transferred to the staff through training programs using practical and theoretical methods but how about the implementation of industrial safety? Yes, you guessed it right. The implementation part happens with the fitting of safety-ensuring devices such as flame arresters which are mostly used in plants like oil refineries. Well, the name FLAME ARRESTER clearly explains what is it used for, isn’t it? The purpose of a flame arrester is to prevent damages due to flammable scenarios such as explosions and provide safety to human lives and the equipment involved by arresting the flame as much as possible if not completely stopping it. A flame arrestor’s use is highly significant in industrial plants where they are used, as explosion scenarios and flammable conditions can be extremely dangerous in terms of causing damage to lives as well as machinery.
The flame arrester’s working principle is quite a simple one which is to subside the flame as much as possible without allowing it to move forward and damaging the entire system where it is fitted. A flame arrester is a small device that is used to fit in the conjunction of piping systems in most cases. The reason for such a fixation procedure is because of the fact that it is exactly how the flame arrester working principle is designed. The safety device is designed with a mesh that is bordered by a circular metallic part that can be fitted at the place where two piping systems get connected with each other. This design supports the purpose of flame arresters which is to remove the flame part from the fire when passing through the pipe. As the flame passes through the flame arrester mesh, a filtration process occurs based on the openings present in the device that remove the flame part and let the air to flow through the piping system. In most scenarios, the flame arrester device is fitted at the joining of the piping system and at times even at the opening of enclosures. This is to ensure the flame is not allowed to travel the full length of a piping system because the more the flammable air travels, the more the damage is.
By now it would be very clear about what is the biggest advantage of using flame arresters at industrial plants and facilities. Flame arresters arresters though small in size and following a very simple functionality, prove to be highly worthy of being installed at plants because of how much damage control they can provide and also save valuable assets. But there is one more advantage than just not allowing the flame to travel through, which is the flame arrester working principle Just like it filters the flame proceeding forward inside a piping system, a flame arrester does not allow the flame to go back to its source. Yes, at times, it is possible for certain flammable mixtures to react with each other a bit later and track back to the source of the fire which if allowed, will be catastrophic in nature. And that is where the flame arrestor’s use comes in highly handy. It doesn’t allow the flame to retreat back to the source and completely subsides the effect.
As already mentioned at the beginning, industrial safety at any level is highly sensitive and needs to be addressed with utmost caution and priority. The famous saying “prevention is better than cure” fits perfectly when talking about flame arresters being installed within an industrial facility. Furthermore, any industrial accident is to be handled with extreme caution which means installing devices and following safety measures to prevent so-called accidents from happening, but when it comes to an explosion inside an industrial plant, it needs the highest of attention from the respective personnel. Because a flammable scenario like an explosion only gets worse when there is too much equipment present in its surrounding but that is how an industrial plant is constructed. This is exactly why the benefits of putting flame arresters in use at industrial plants should be highly appreciated.
Varem Technical Solutions is a registered Limited Liability Partnership (LLP) Company that has its prime focus in the domain of manufacturing and supplying devices which are used in ensuring safe operations at Mechanical Engineering based industries.
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