Dust Control Handbook for Industrial Minerals Mining and Processing

other industrial application using an exhaust hood, one area of concern for overexposure is whena worker positions himself/herself between the dust source and the exhaust hood. In thisapplication, if the worker leans out over the air slide, he or she will be exposed to any dust beingblown off the bags by the air slide as it is pulled into the exhaust hood.Figure 6.16. Semi-automated bag palletizing systems in which a worker removesbags from a conveyor and lifts and positions each layer on an air slide beforeautomated loading onto the pallet. Both an OASIS system and an exhaust ventilationsystem are used to lower the worker’s dust exposure during this bag palletizing process.Automated Bag Palletizing SystemsVarious manufacturing companies have developed advanced designs for automatic palletizingequipment that utilize either the traditional high-level pallet loading or low-level pallet loadingtechnology. With high-level pallet loading systems, the pallets enter the automated palletizersystem near the floor and are then raised to perform bag loading. When the pallet is completelyloaded, the full pallet is then lowered back down to near floor level before being delivered to aplastic pallet wrapping system or loadout area.With these high-level pallet loading systems, the bags arrive at the unit from the filling stationvia a conveyor belt. Once at the unit, the bags are guided onto a stripper plate that is composedof a series of rollers. Bags are arranged onto the stripper plate in a predetermined pattern asprogrammed into the unit by the worker overseeing the automated unit. Once a full layer of bagsis positioned, the system stripper plate is automatically opened and the entire layer of bags isBagging 177