New White-Paper Guides Tanker Truck Static-Electric Safety during Loading or Unloading


Transferring Flammable/Combustible Materials Safely Requires Strict Compliance with Static Electric Standards and the Use of Current Technology

A newly released white paper from Newson Gale, Inc., aptly titled "Achieving Safe Tanker Truck Loading / Unloading" provides detailed practical guidelines to ensure safe transfer of flammable or combustible products to or from tanker trucks or similar mobile equipment or containers.

The paper is available for review or downloading, free of charge, from the Newson-Gale, Inc. website: www.newson-gale.com/KnowledgeBase/KnowledgeBase.asp. Or, alternatively, go to www.newson-gale.com and click on the "Knowledge Center" drop-down and select "Technical Papers."

The paper begins by explaining how seemingly small but high-voltage electric charges can be generated when some liquids or powders come into contact with conductive objects. Charts demonstrate how this voltage can accumulate on the pumping source at the rate of nearly 150 kV per minute, with a stored energy potential of more than 10,000 mJ. At such levels the sudden creation of any path from the truck to ground can initiate a spark that can cause a fire or an explosion.

The author then continues with a detailed guide to applying the three most current guidelines that guard against this danger by ensuring that the feed system (the truck or pump) is securely grounded before and during the transfer process.

More recent advances in technology are then described. In these new electronic-based systems the essential result remains the provision of a low-resistance to ground connection as required by the three current guidelines but a number of design variations are available.

The more advanced of these systems now provide verification of three key parameters. First a capacitance check verifies a secure connection between the system and the tanker truck. Then an automatic circuit test enables operators to immediately determine when a true ground-point is located. And the system then constantly monitors this vital connection to ground, <10 ohm, giving the operator immediate warning if resistance of the link rises or if the connection is completely lost. Adding a "kill switch" provision to this system is also possible, stopping the flow automatically should the path to ground be interrupted.

The applications noted in this paper importantly include tanker trucks carrying a variety of liquid and powdered products, but the subject matter is equally pertinent to applications such as loading and unloading railroad tankers, vacuum trucks, portable containers and FIBCs.

For additional information, contact: Newson Gale Inc., 460 Faraday Ave., Unit B, Suite 1, Jackson, NJ 08527. Phone: 732-987-7715. E-Mail: groundit@newson-gale.com. Or visit our Website: www.newson-gale.com

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