Quantifying the Finest Particles in Dust Fractions Created During the Sanding of Untreated and Thermally Modified Beech Wood

This article deals with the fractionation of wood dust by sieve after sanding. Dust from untreated beechwood was compared to dust from thermally modified beechwood (at 200 degrees C for 3 h). The authors hypothesized that the thermal modification changes the particle size distributions of the dust sieve fractions and that all the dust sieve fractions contain the finest particles, which are suspendable in the air and are potentially respirable. To obtain dust for testing, both wood materials were sanded with P120 paper at a belt speed of 14.5 m/s and a pressure of 0.65 N/cm(2). A set of sieves with aperture sizes of 25, 80, and 250 mu m were used to separate the dust into sieve fractions with grain sizes less than 25 mu m, 25 to 80 mu m, 80 to 250 mu m, and greater than 250 mu m. The content of the finest particles in the fractions was measured via a laser particle sizer. Both dusts had similar particle size distributions. In addition, each investigated fraction of both dusts contained the finest particles, i.e., less than 10 mu m. It follows that the laser analysis method may be necessary to correctly assess the occupational risk at a sanding.

Automated summary

This article examines the fractionation of wood dust after sanding, comparing untreated wood dust to thermally modified wood dust. The results show that both types of wood dust have similar particle size distributions and that all fractions contain the finest particles that are suspendable in the air.