Is your lab storing flammable liquids in a household refrigerator? Chain reactions when using field-modified household refrigerators or freezers – or lab units not certified as flame or explosion proof – have led to disastrous results in labs across the land. Personal injuries have resulted and property damages have been in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Flammable storage refrigerators and flammable storage freezers are absolutely essential to personnel and property safety when dealing with volatile vapors and gases. Explosion proof refrigerators and explosion proof freezers are the solutions of choice when the laboratory environment surrounding the units may harbor flammable vapors or gases.
Here’s More:
Given that modifying household units for laboratory applications is foolish if not dangerous and will undoubtedly void product guarantees, purchasing agents and their bean counters should be familiar with how, not if, to choose flammable safe and explosion proof refrigerators and freezers.
A flammable storage refrigerator and a flammable storage freezer are both designed to keep flammable vapors or gases from contacting internal ignition sources. Compressors, thermostats, defroster timer housings and interior lights are prime culprits for unwanted sparks that ignite vapors and gases, literally turning the storage unit into a bomb that can scatter its contents across the lab floor and injuring or perhaps killing anyone unfortunate enough to be in the way. Flammable refrigerators and freezers are especially designed to eliminate these chance sources of ignition. Using non-breakable sealed containers is not a wise option.
Explosion proof refrigerators and explosion proof freezers build on the safety of their flammable cousins by protecting personnel and property from explosions when the laboratory atmosphere may become volatile from experiments being conducted. In such instances it is crucial to separate the internal and external environments.
Unlike flammable refrigerators and flammable freezers which can be plugged into a wall outlet, explosion proof units are hard wired into the building’s electrical system. When making a choice between less-costly flammable safe and more costly explosion proof refrigerators and freezers, the deciding factor is whether or not the atmosphere outside the unit is as hazardous as the environment inside.
———————-
Who out there in lab land will share experiences on this topic?
Tags: norlake
