(52d) Analysis of Hayes Lemmerz Dust Explosions and Fire CSB Report

The Hayes Lemmerz International manufacturing plant in Huntington, Indiana generated large amounts of aluminum dust while recycling scrap aluminum from the plant's process to produce cast aluminum automotive wheels. While the manufacturing facility implemented a dust collection system in an attempt to decrease the risk of a potential dust explosion, mismanagement and poor operating practices eventually resulted in ignition of the aluminum dust in the drop box of the dust collection system. Pressure piling in the drop box led to further explosions and a fire within the facility, killing one employee and seriously injuring two others. Following the incident, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) released a report recommending Hayes Lemmerz to develop a system to handle and process aluminum chips that better minimizes the risk of dust explosions, regularly train employees on the hazards of aluminum dust, implement policies to improve management of change (MOC), establish a program to review near misses and produce written operating procedures. These actions are deemed to be appropriate to sufficiently reduce the risk of an aluminum dust explosion. However, the interest of safety demands that hazard reduction systems should have redundancy. Therefore, several recommendations are made along with those given by the CSB including improving relief venting on the drop box and dust collector, adding additional isolation valves and modifying the material of the ducts used in the dust collection system.