Title:

Dumbwaiter System for Chemical Transport

Hazard Category:

• Chemical

Hazard(s):

• Chemical vapor exposure due to leaks or other release while transporting them to the clean room.

Problem:

At the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University chemicals need to be transported from preparation or storage areas to the clean room for use. They needed to avoid the use of passenger elevators or emergency exit routes while transporting these hazardous chemicals.

Risk Description:

• Transporting hazardous chemicals in a passenger elevator can be very dangerous if there is a leak or other release of the chemicals while passengers are confined in the elevator with the chemicals.
• Transporting chemicals in the path of an emergency exit corridor could also be quite dangerous in the event that people had to evacuate the building while the hazardous chemicals were in their way.

PtD Strategy

Prevention through Design is the effort by design engineers to make safer workplaces through implementing safety at the project design stage. Designers at the Birck Nanotechnology Center at Purdue University installed a dumbwaiter system in order to eliminate potentially hazardous conditions that could arise if chemicals were transported in a passenger elevator or in the path of an emergency exit route.

• The dumbwaiter system travels from a lower level up one level into the clean room.
• It insures that material transport stays away from any emergency exit path.
• It also eliminates users from traveling in an enclosed elevator with a hazardous material; in case of a spill the material is contained and away from personnel.

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