Document 4J3Lon3wb6r0Z88EkBQM4O8Ex

Vista Chemicoi Company 15990 N, Barker's Landing Rd. Post Office Box 19029 Houston,Texas 77224 Phone 1713) 53V3200 January 9, 1985 XF: Mr. Richard Atcheson Plant Superintendent United Technologies Corporation 2601 South Adams Street Marion, IN 46952 Dear Mr. Atcheson: I sent you a letter on December 20 regarding the flammability and explosibility potential of PVC Dust. I discovered an error in the third paragraph. The next to last sentence should read, "particulates (less than 100 microns in size) must be present." A corrected letter is attached; Please destroy the original. Thomas G. Grumbles, CIH Director, Industrial Hygiene & Product Safety ajo 006 Attachment cc E. L. Kieschnick Pat Haugen Jim Rogers Vista Chemical Compony 15990 N. Barter's Landing Rd. Post Office Box 19029 Houston,Texos 77224 Phone (713) 531-3200 December 20, 1984 Mr. Richard Atcheson Plant Superintendent United Technologies Corporation 2601 South Adams Street Marion, IN 46952 Dear Mr. Atcheson: At the request of Pat Haugen I am responding to your request for information regarding the flammability or explosibility potential of PVC dust. Vista Chemical has done no testing specific to this issue. However, there is some data available in the technical literature. This information is summarized below. Pure PVC powders, or resins, can support and propagate flame, but only with extremely high ignition energies. Experiments have shown the energy required to be in the area of 100 joules or greater. Even with this energy of very dense cloud of fine particulates (less than 100 microns in size) must be present. This high of an ignition energy and dust concentrations are certainly atypical in PVC processing plants. It is generally accepted that equipment handling pure PVC requires no explosion protection and we are not aware of any dust explosions associated with PVC Resin. It should be noted however that the addition of volatile additives, such as plasticizers, can change the explosion characteristics of the dust. -f ni'aro 1 v . Thomas G. Grumbles, CIH Director, Industrial Hygiene & Product Safety aj o 005 cc E. L. Kieschnick Pat Haugen Jim Rogers VVV 000016053