Every day, plant managers across America face the invisible threat of combustible dust accumulation. Beyond the constant pressure to maintain productivity, you’re dealing with confusing regulations, the looming risk of OSHA fines, and the ever-present danger of catastrophic dust explosions that could harm your team and shut down operations.
In this enlightening episode of the SonicAire OnAire podcast, hosts Jordan and Taylor share their journey from Reidsville, North Carolina classmates to trusted dust control experts. With their small-town roots and deep technical expertise, they understand the challenges you face and have guided countless facilities to safer operations.
Jordan and Taylor reveal their “Mount Rushmore” of combustible dust management—four essential steps every plant manager needs to implement: ceiling inspection for fugitive dust, proper collector maintenance, comprehensive documentation, and NFPA 660 standard awareness. This clear, actionable roadmap eliminates confusion and provides the structure you need to address combustible dust challenges effectively.
By implementing these four critical elements, you’ll transform your facility from a potential hazard zone to a model of safety and compliance. Avoid the devastating consequences of inaction—fines, shutdowns, and potential disasters—and instead create a workplace where both productivity and safety thrive. At SonicAire, we’re not just selling fans; we’re your partners in achieving dust control excellence.
Episode Transcript:
Hey everybody, welcome back to the SonicAire OnAire podcast. I’m Jordan.
And I’m Taylor.
And here we are again today talking about all things dust, and today we’re talking about some important things that you’ll want to consider if you’re a plant manager.
Alright so, we’re talking about things that you want to consider if you’re a plant manager and some of the top things that we look for when we’re talking about dust control. When we go into a facility, and we start to help our customers map out what’s going on and help them get a perspective of where they are and where they want to be and kind of a future vision. And sometimes when you’re thinking about where you’re going, you have to look back and think about where you came from.
I can see where this is going.
Which is funny because you and I kind of come from the same place.
Kind of. Yeah, same city, town, high school, but we didn’t ever really know either one of us existed. Not because you’re wildly older than I am or anything, but just because, you know, small town, lots of faces, you know everybody except a few.
Yeah, not many. We should get ZIP code shirts made.
Yeah, that would be a pretty good way to distinguish, and it may even help elevate some of these turf wars.
Yeah, ZIP 27320. So, Taylor and I grew up in Reidsville, North Carolina.
Some like to call it Reids Vegas.
Reids Vegas. Rockingham County High. The one and only. So, I graduated in 2001 and you were just a little bit further behind.
I graduated in 2014.
Oh wow. Okay, so maybe I’m a lot older than I thought I was. But yeah, it’s fun to reminisce about life at Rockingham, and there’s actually been a few famous people semi-famous. Taylor and I aren’t the only famous people.
We are famous, as an understatement, in the dust space, which is not a very big space at all. So yeah, there’s a lot of other people that are way more important than we are and way more important things. You went to school at the same time with a few of them.
A few of them, yeah. And they all three, that I can think of, were from the class behind me, so they would have graduated in 02. So, Ben Napier from HGTV. The Home Town show. Big guy. A cool guy. I remember we kind of had some overlapping circles of friends and stuff. I just remember him being a super nice guy.
I think when I plugged that together, we were doing something and you’re like, oh yeah, I went to school with him. And you said he was he was a mascot, too.
He was. He was our cougar.
What a what a radical life change.
Yep, and he just keeps getting bigger and bigger. From a celebrity standpoint. He’s shrunken here recently.
Yeah, I think you were saying something about he made it the list for people’s sexiest man or something. He’s been on people.
He’s good-looking dude.
Yeah, great guy. And BJ Barnum was also part of that class from American Aquarium. Big alt country, rockabilly band. Great guy. The life of the party. Really fun, entertaining guy. Still message him once in a while. We both were at NC State at the same time as well. Go Wolfpack. And so, he’s a huge supporter and proponent of NC State stuff. And so, I see him pop up on their feeds and in their magazines and stuff like that. And so, I’ll shoot him a message once in a while.
Were any of the sports guys there when you were going through school? I don’t know if we were in high school at the same time, but Brian Mitchell, he’s been a pitcher for the Yankees for a little bit and I think may have just rolled out or dropped back down. But he came up and got pulled up for a while. But I just remember it was such a big deal because, you know, being 12, 13, 14, or whatever and hearing somebody had the option between one million dollars to sign on with the Yankees and go throw a baseball, or we’re going to pay for your full ride to go to Carolina so we can pay you more later. Which was just like this like wild idea because, I mean, I’m showing up to my Little League rec games, and I’m like maybe, yeah maybe I can get a million dollars to do that. But I didn’t.
The Settle guys were there. One of the subtle guys went pro. I remember his jersey hanging in the hallway.
Oh yeah. And then I think one of the cooler ones was Jerome Simpson. I don’t remember exactly how his career panned out. I know he played a few different places, but like he has one of the most famous clips, because he got tackled and did a flip into the end zone and landed and threw his hands up. It was just a wild, interesting clip. I’m sure it’ll be in there, but cool moment zooming back out from, hey, that happened in this little old tobacco town. Like in the shadows of manufacturing. And going from Reidsville and, you know, that was that was a big challenge for a lot of people. They’re like, I’m so ready to get out. And then you’re also wondering kind of like, why do so many people stay here? We even just interviewed somebody who’s from the same County and he was like, no, I love it here. He’s like, it’s nice that it’s small, but you’re close to things. So yeah, it’s interesting to see people going on and doing cool things and, you know, us too in the dust space, so here we are.
Yeah, here we are. Look at us now! Who would have ever thought?
All roads lead to Reidsville one way or the other.
They do. We should get our own SonicAire jerseys. See if they’ll hang them up in the halls down there at Rockingham.
They might. There’s not many other sports trophies there, so. I did bring in a few band trophies.
Shots fired. Yeah, band trophies. Taylor went semi-pro in band.
I was your stereotypical band nerd.
Look at you now. Hey, here we are. Alright so, if you’re walking into a facility that’s dealing with combustible dust, where do we go from there? Like, how do we help guide someone to help shape their journey on combustible dust? So, maybe if we came up with a top list, or a top five things, or…Ooh, Mount Rushmore’s are big right now. Let’s do a top four. So, if you’re dealing with combustible dust and don’t know where to begin, or maybe you’re looking back, maybe you’ve gotten started, maybe you’ve got a filtration system and that’s it. So, let’s assume that that’s the starting point: someone’s got a dust collector, and then where do they go from there? What’s the top four things?
Also, fun fact: no one immediately died during the Mount Rushmore creation. However, several did years later because of inhaling all the dust.
Dust is everywhere.
We should have put some fans there. Hit us up National Park System we’re ready. We got you. So yeah, if I was just to show up and had a customer call or anything like that…I mean, I think the number one, or my George Washington if you will, would be like, let me just look at your ceiling. Because that’s the big thing for us, right? So, we talk about filtration, and we want people to have filters, and that’s not what we do, but we know that it’s a part of the process, and we want you to capture as much at the source as you can. But if you’re like, man, what are the what the heck do these SonicAire fans do? That’s what I’m looking for: I want to look in your ceiling and see if you’re dealing with fugitive dust. Because, even if you are capturing as much as you can, there’s still going to be some that gets away. And that stuff that settles and is getting past whatever other defense mechanisms you’ve got or whatever you want to call it, there’s still going to be that fugitive dust that makes its way into the ceiling. And that, like we’ve talked about in the past, can really lead to fines, because you are not going to stop your operation to go and look at your purlins, or your bar joists, or whatever you’ve got going on in your facility. And so, if I can see the dust from the floor, I know you have a problem. You might not know you have a problem, but I know that it’s dangerous, I know that you have the potential to be fined, I know you have the potential to be shut down by an AHJ or a fire marshal, or anybody that’s got the big thick OSHA or NFPA books. I know you’re at risk just from looking at your ceilin.
Yeah so, number one: fugitive dust. Deal with it, get a plan for it, that sort of thing. Number two, I would say if you’ve got a collector, take care of that collector. So, clean it, manage the filter media, because that stuff gets clogged up and then it doesn’t operate efficiently. And then, you know, with the next step in that being: make sure that you have fire protection on your filtration system, because when a fire or spark gets into that filtration system, things can go very badly very quickly, and that flame can propagate down the ductwork and then blow out the filter, and things get really bad really quick.
Yeah, so one of the interesting things about filtration systems, and we’ve attended some things where we’ve even learned more about filters, just because we’re playing in the same space, and so it’s helpful to know information about this. Because a lot of times people come to us and they’re like, we have a filter, we don’t have a filter, what should we do next? And I would, say along the same lines, taking care of your filter is like making sure that it’s being used as it was designed. Because a lot of times these things are custom. You can’t just plug and play a filter. You have so many different channels of where you’re going to be pulling air from or you’re going to be trying to collect the dust. And so, if your process changes, or you’ve added a section of your facility, or there’s a part down for maintenance or, or, or. Any change you make, you need to have a good change management program so that your filtration system is still working at full capacity. Because if you start to change and you have louvers moving or closing off sections of air that it’s pulling from, it is not operating as it was intended to. And so, you have to be very careful like you said. Like, oh, we bought this filter system before we spun the whole plant around. Well, it’s probably not doing what it was supposed to do.
That’s right. It’s not going to be performing as expected. Which means you’re going to miss some dust, you’re going to have more fugitive dust. Back to number one: managing that fugitive dust again. All roads lead back to that. Not just Reidsville and Rockingham County. But, back to fugitive dust.
We are getting connected to all the major road systems. So okay, we’ve got fugitive dust management, and then we’ve got paying attention to your collector. Oh, so for number three, I would say I want to see your documentation. So, what is your DHA, and what is your housekeeping protocol? Those are two things that are key as far as what’s required in the standards and then also what’s required by an AHJ. Because we’ve talked a lot about grain dust a lot recently, and whether it’s in the context of the new 660 standard or any of the NFPA documents, one of the biggest challenges you see in those facilities that explode, especially like the Imperial Sugar instance, is that the housekeeping protocols were not being followed. They were even being forged in some cases, or it was not being truthful about it. But if you can have those two documents, I can tell you a lot about your operation, and as far as your safety from a dust perspective. Because your DHA is calling out all of these things. It is giving you an understanding of the risk that’s there. It is a requirement. I think there was a September date of last year at one point, and it keeps moving. But it is one of those things that’s like, you need to be ready with that document when somebody shows up. And if you haven’t done one, we would highly recommend it. You can reach out to us and we can help get you resources for people that do those sort of things. We work with several insurance companies and even some of the certifying bodies that can help with those things. And so, that’s just where we’re trying to be a resource beyond just like, hey, buy our fan, put it in, whatever. But, if you have a DHA, it can tell you a lot about what’s actually going on. And then, if I can see your housekeeping record or your plan, I can tell you, are we handling the fugitive dust? And have you been taking care of your filter? So, it is really adding on to what we’ve already talked about. But those two things in particular: just understanding the problem, because we talk about that all the time. Our customers come to us, and they have either just found out that they have a problem, or something’s gone wrong. So, problem awareness is a big thing. And so, having those two will take you far.
Yeah. So, housekeeping, whether you do it through an automated process like we have, or you’re doing it through a manual process, do it.
Yeah, it’s got to be done.
Do it. Take care of that. Take care of your filter system and your collection system. So that’s maintenance and spark detection and flame suppression, all that good stuff. And now we’re talking about documentation. So, Dust Hazard Analysis, DHAs, and change management as well. That kind of falls into that as well. And then, I would say number four is kind of adjacent to that, but it’s NFPA 660 awareness, and it’s just: know the standard, know what’s covered in it. It covers everything combustible. All things. No matter what industry you’re in, it’s got something in there for you to help you run a safer, more efficient, better, healthier organization and facility that’s going to take better care of your employees.
Yeah, and standards are such a hard thing. Working in operations and engineering, I’m fully aware that it is not fun to pull the standard and look at it. And a lot of times when you have to pull the standard, something is not right. You know that something’s going on; somebody has questioned what you’re doing, or you’re trying to explain away something. And so, when you have to pull nine dot six dot three dot four section A, I understand that it’s not fun. But when you are comfortable going through the sections and understanding what you’re looking for. it does make a big difference. Because you can then start to quickly plug and play different sections, and say, oh, this is what’s applicable to us. And even in the new 660 standard, I don’t remember the exact number, but I think the first eight/nine sections are really just the fundamentals of combustible dust. So it works through definitions, scenarios of where this is applicable and where it’s not. And then like, what the heck are we even talking about? What is a hazard, and what’s a hazardous location, and how are those defined? And so, just working for that first half…this is for everybody. And then once you start to get at the back half, then you start to get into the specifics of grain, feed, metals, wood, whatever. So, it is a daunting challenge, but I think one of the great things and, as you get more involved with the technical review committee, we’ll have more exposure to. But the way that they’ve structured the standard makes it more accessible because you’re not having to look all over the place. Because our food and grain friends used to have to reference 652, and then they would have to pull the other one, and then you have to go back and do the fire suppression stuff. And so, it’s great that it’s been simplified, and I think it’s a great addition to the top four.
Yeah, it’s not an easy read, but it’s a great reference manual, and it’s something that the more familiar you are with it, the more comfortable you can be around combustible dust and working with it because you have the proper precautions in place, and it’s going to guide you through all that and walk you through that. If you need a resource for that, your insurance agent is probably a good resource for that. Believe it or not, an OSHA agent or inspector can be a good resource for that. They will guide you. They are not there to necessarily enforce compliance with that, but they want to enforce compliance with a safe workplace. And so that’s one of the ways that you can demonstrate that you have a safe workplace is if you can show them compliance with NFPA 660. Call us. We are there to help you, and we’re happy to help you on that journey no matter what that means. It doesn’t just mean, hey, buy a fan. It’s, let’s help you create a safer workplace, and if we can do that at the end of the day we’re happy.
Yeah, I mean, we’re completely fine with you reaching out and it doesn’t turn into a sale. I mean, we’re positioning ourselves as the dust expert, right? So, we are partnering with guys like Chris Cloney and Dust Safety Science. We work with the insurance groups to understand what they are looking for. How are your customers hurting? We’re an innovative company, and so, if there’s an area where we can help our clients have a cleaner healthier more safe work environment, we’re going to do it. And so, even getting past those hurdles of, like, what the heck is an overhead fan for continuous dust control? We can help address those issues. Obviously, we would love for you to order fans, but it’s not what we’re here for. It’s not it’s not our it’s not our core focus of what we’re trying to do here.
Yeah, we we’re there to be the guide, we’re not trying to make ourselves the hero. We’re here to help you, help anyone that’s in the industry and be a resource. And we mean that. It’s not about us.
Oh yeah. So, hopefully that’s a pretty solid, non-silica-exposed Mount Rushmore of our top four ways and top four things that we would point any plant manager to. Because SonicAire has been in business for a little over 20 years, and so, we feel comfortable with stepping in your facility and very quickly being able to make a judgment. We know these things like, let me look at your ceiling, do you have fugitive dust, let me see your documentation, do you have a housekeeping plan, do you have a DHA? Let’s take a look at your filters. We can’t fix your filter or anything, but we can point you in the right direction.
That’s right.
And then, last but not least, we can help you get over that hurdle of 660. It can be daunting, but it is the barrier for entry for manufacturing. I mean, everybody is involved with it. if you have any kind of process, you’re likely making dust. and if you make dust you’re involved with 660.
Alright, I hope that was helpful and informative. Hey, if you like the content we’re putting out, please like and subscribe, give it a thumbs up wherever you are following us so we can see that feedback and keep churning out some more good stuff. So, that’s it. That’s all I got for today. I’m Jordan.
And I’m Taylor.
Thanks for watching. See you next time.