My opinion on solvent use and fire prevention by ink manufacturers

Abstract: Safety production is a top priority for ink production companies. From the perspective of the ink producers, this article puts forward some views on the use of solvents and fire prevention. It is hoped that they can get peers to learn from each other and try to prevent unnecessary problems.

Keywords: ink manufacturing, solvent, fire prevention

In all production and business activities, it is first necessary to ensure the safety and health of workers in the production process; when planning, organizing, directing, and engaging in production, it is first necessary to comprehensively and accurately understand what risks are involved in production; any production and business unit must first Only when they have the conditions for safe production can they engage in production and business activities; before the employees start jobs, they must first carry out safety education and training, and pass the examination; in the job operation, they must first strictly enforce the safety operation rules and safe operations; When there is a contradiction in safety, it is necessary to adhere to the principle of “production is subject to safety”, give priority to solving safety problems and ensure safety before proceeding with production; when evaluating production work, safety standards are first used as a measure. This is the guiding ideology and basic principle for us to do a good job of safe production. The core of the work is to ensure safety-oriented people-oriented production. Safe production must be based on ensuring the safety and health of workers in the production process. We must improve the safety of workers and ensure their safety. Safe operation is fundamental.

The reason why accidents happen is that the main reason is that some factories use flammable and explosive organic volatile solvents in large quantities, and business owners lack professional knowledge and unilaterally pursue economic benefits while ignoring safety production.

First of all, let's take a preliminary look at the hazards of producing solvents commonly used in inks. Organic solvents can cause the body to develop: headaches, fatigue, dizziness, anemia, liver damage and other adverse effects, so be sure to be careful. When working in organic solvents, it is important to note that containers of organic solvents, whether they are in use or not, should be tightly closed; workplaces can only store organic solvents that are needed on the day; work in the upwind position as much as possible. Avoid breathing vapors of organic solvents; avoid direct skin contact as much as possible. If an individual experiences acute poisoning: Immediately move the poisoned person to a place where air is circulated, lower his head to lie on his side or supine, and maintain his temperature. Immediately notify the on-site person in charge, safety and health management personnel or other responsible health personnel. If a poisoned person loses consciousness, he should immediately take out his or her mouth. If poisoning personnel stop breathing, artificial breath should be given to him immediately.

Alcohol, acetone, cyclohexanone, ethyl acetate, etc. are all highly volatile flammable and explosive solvents. Improper placement and use of such materials can cause accidents, so be sure to follow the specifications below.

First, place:

Place containers of volatile solvents such as barrels, bottles, etc.
1, must be placed in a cool dark place;
2. It shall not be placed on places where people and equipment are concentrated, such as offices, workshops, power distribution rooms, etc.;
3. There must be no open fire nearby or near heat sources such as machines and motors;
4. Must be placed separately and not in the same warehouse as other materials such as packaging materials and products;
5. There should be fireproof equipment near the place.

Second, receive and add

When using such solvents in production, care must be taken:
1 If you have to receive a small quantity each time, you would rather give yourself more than a few times, and do not lead too many at once;
2. When used in the workshop after receiving, the container for the solvent must also be separated from the actual operation by a certain distance. Do not rely too much on it.
3, when used in the production of the need to add, it should also add a small amount each time, would rather run a few more steps, run several times, do not figure convenient, once a lot.

Third, use

1. Use a small amount of solvent in an open container during operation. Do not use a large amount of solvent at one time to prevent it from being used improperly. A lot of solvent will spill over and cause accidents.
2. It is necessary to strengthen ventilation during use and the operation site should be widely ventilated. Avoid using and adding such solvents in confined spaces. Because such solvents are extremely volatile, the gases formed by the volatilization can ignite and detonate. The narrow space and high gas density (ie, gas concentration) can easily be ignited. Switching lights and electric sparks to make and receive calls, as well as static electricity caused by walking and various types of friction, can ignite such gases with relatively high concentrations.
3, should pay attention to the wind direction when using, must make the human body in the upper hand, using the operating part in the downwind.
4. When using this type of solvent, do not switch the power supply, do not answer the phone, and the phone must be turned off before performing such operations.
Fourth, the remaining solvent treatment
1. The remaining solvent after use must be returned to a special container. When returning or inverting, you should also pay attention to safety operations in the same way as when you receive it to prevent accidents.
2. Do not dump the remaining solvent at random.
3. Do not invert the remaining solvent in the sewer of the toilet or pool.

The use of flammable and explosive organic solvents is likely to cause fire accidents due to the following reasons: Insufficient understanding or ambiguity of physical and chemical properties and dangers of flammable and explosive organic solvents, failure to use and operate correctly and safely, failure in construction, equipment, and production processes Construction, installation and operation shall be carried out in accordance with fire prevention regulations; neglect of fire safety hazards that may cause static electricity, lightning strikes, etc.; lack of normal maintenance of equipment; lack of proper fire safety knowledge training for managers, technicians and production operators.

Of course, as a chemical plant, there are many aspects of the risk of fire, such as smoking in the work area and other fires caused by the open flame, because this article is to discuss the potential hazards of using flammable and explosive volatile organic solvents. The reasons for other aspects will not be detailed here. The use of flammable and explosive organic solvents, to prevent the occurrence of fire, the key is eight words: "standardize behavior, familiarity with performance."

First of all, in terms of normative behavior, business owners themselves and enterprise employees should raise awareness of fire safety management, establish relevant responsibility systems and related management systems, and arrange special personnel to take charge of fire safety management, that is, to determine the fire safety responsible person and fire safety management. people.

The construction and layout of the factory must be designed, constructed, and installed in accordance with the relevant requirements and requirements of the "Code for Fire Protection in Building Design", "Design of Fire Protection for Petrochemical Enterprises", "Specification for Design of Power Devices for Explosive and Fire Hazardous Environment" and other relevant requirements. According to the type, performance, production process and scale of products produced and used, set up appropriate safety facilities for fire prevention, explosion protection, antivirus monitoring, alarm, cooling, moisture prevention, ventilation, lightning protection, anti-static, and isolation operations. It must be approved by the fire safety supervision and management department before it can be put into operation; the layout of the equipment must take into account the need for safety and fire protection. If the solvent tank is buried underground as much as possible to prevent high temperature, sunlight and leakage, the factory should also set high lightning rods. All conductors such as pumps, tanks, vessels, pipelines, etc. are electrically connected and grounded. The total grounding resistance is generally not more than 10 ohms to avoid the fire caused by the electrostatic discharge caused by the induction; the emergency measures shall be formulated according to the actual situation. Set up facilities such as automatic chaining, leakage elimination, emergency rescue, and automatic fire extinguishing, and rescue equipment. When the enterprise is far from the fire brigade, it shall also set up an enterprise full-time fire brigade or compulsory fire brigade to ensure the safety of production and use.

Secondly, in terms of familiarity with performance, the dangers of flammable and explosive organic solvents are mainly flammability, explosiveness, thermal expansion, fluidity, static electricity, and toxicity. For the use of flammable and explosive organic solvents, we must have a fairly clear understanding and mastery of their physical and chemical properties.

1, the correct use of organic solvents. The use of flammable and explosive volatile organic solvents, with the air contact point to control their safe use temperature is below 30 degrees Celsius.

2. Minimize open operation, use closed operation to prevent evaporation and diffusion; minimize solvent buckets in the production workshop; store the amount in one day's use as the standard; use static type static loading, and use bucket type dynamic loading less material.
3. When the resin is produced, the process is usually directly after the resin is cooked at a high temperature (about 200 degrees Celsius to 240 degrees Celsius) and is ready to be mixed with ready-to-dissolve thickeners (such as No. 200 solvent gasoline, toluene, xylene, etc.) In dilute tanks, these high-temperature resins quickly raise the temperature of the solvent and even reach the boiling point. Therefore, when manufacturing the dilution kettle, be sure to install the jacket in the dilution kettle and install the straight condenser on the kettle. Then, empty the tank and open the jacket and condenser cooling water before diluting. The contents of the tank are circulated and cooled to prevent the hot solvent vapor from being discharged.
4. For power lines in the production workshop, pre-embedment should be used as far as possible. If it is really necessary to open the line, metal casing should be used instead of plastic casing to prevent the plastic casing from aging and long-term exposure to organic solvents and cause circuit short-circuit and fire.
5, try to avoid the collision of the production of metal objects and produce sparks, the author when inspecting a paint factory, saw a production worker in the high-speed disperser shaft with a plastering knife to scrape the paint, this is a very dangerous The behavior, because this practice can easily lead to sparks, it should be absolutely prohibited.
6. The air humidity at the production site should be kept between 65% and 70% in order to reduce the danger of static electricity generation because high humidity air can reduce the surface resistance of the material and can lead to static electricity.
7. The equipment is regularly repaired and maintained. Due to the high temperature and corrosiveness in the production process, various equipment, containers, and pipelines are washed and corroded by the materials for a long time. The wall and the tank wall are gradually thinned, and leaks and fire accidents are prone to occur. Therefore, key equipment should be regularly maintained, repaired, and replaced.

8. Strengthen the fire safety training for the employees of the company and regularly organize the fire extinguishing drills. It is very important to select the extinguishing agent correctly for the flammable and explosive volatile organic solvents according to the specific gravity and water solubility.

9. The factory shall set fire lines and prohibit the entry of fire sources into the production area.

Chemicals that are flammable, explosive, toxic, harmful, and corrosive and that cause harm to or damage to people, facilities, or the environment are hazardous chemicals. Their production process is long, the process is complex, both high temperature, high pressure, but also low temperature, low pressure, original, accessories and products are gas, liquid, solid three-state, so improper control is prone to accidents. Only by strictly controlling the entire process of production, management, storage, transportation, use, and disposal of hazardous chemicals, and strengthening the management of name links, can we avoid the occurrence of dangerous chemical accidents and mitigate the losses and injuries caused by accidents.

Admittedly, ink manufacturing is a dangerous goods industry. Printing companies also need special attention when using inks. The ink used by the printing company must be reconciled to achieve the desired color and density. Since inks contain a variety of flammable and flammable substances and have a fire risk, the storage and use of ink should be as follows:

The ink is stored separately in a special warehouse that meets the fire protection requirements for chemical dangerous goods. There is a special person to keep it and cooperate with the fire department to perform regular fire inspections. The reconciliation ink should be in a special room, and the open flame should be prohibited inside and outside the room to maintain good ventilation. Solvents and solvents should be stored in separate buckets and be carefully sealed. In the process of ink reconciliation, some solvents and inks will react quickly to release heat. Therefore, the principle of “slow, uniform, and low” should be adhered to in order to prevent flashing during the ink transfer process. Residual containers of residual ink should be treated in a centralized manner, and they should not be placed at random so as to avoid causing fire.

Safe production is an eternal topic, whether it is for company management or ordinary members. The ink industry we are working in is also a dangerous chemicals industry. Therefore, safety production is not an empty talk. We are willing to work together with all industry peers.

Li Chunhong

Reprinted from: China Yinguang