Explosion protection & abort gates

Explosion Protection System Design

DCG designs explosion protection solutions around your dust collection equipment, process materials, and facility layout. Our team considers applicable requirements of NFPA 69, Standard on Explosion Prevention Systems, when developing system layouts and coordinating explosion prevention, isolation, and protection strategies for combustible dust applications.

A stainless rotary valve with a red gear motor under a process hopper, a second valve beyond.

Explosion Protection Equipment & Selection

Selecting the right equipment starts with understanding your combustible dust hazards and process requirements. DCG helps identify appropriate solutions, including explosion isolation devices, abort gates, and other protection components, working with equipment manufacturers to support system designs that align with applicable NFPA 69 requirements.

Red isolation valves on spiral ducting carried on a galvanized steel rack beside a large outdoor collector.

Ductwork Integration & Fabrication

Explosion protection equipment must be properly integrated with the dust collection system. DCG coordinates ductwork layouts, connection points, transitions, and custom-fabricated components to integrate selected equipment with your process and facility configuration.

A red high-speed abort gate on its support stand and ladder, on wall-mounted ducting with grain silos behind.

From Design Through Installation

With engineering, custom sheet metal fabrication, and mechanical installation capabilities, DCG provides a coordinated approach to explosion protection projects. From equipment selection and ductwork integration through fabrication and installation, we help deliver a complete solution tailored to your facility and process.

An outdoor cartridge collector under a canopy, with a red isolation valve and blue fan on the ducting above.

What the standards actually require

NFPA 68 governs deflagration venting — relieving pressure to a safe place so the collector survives and the building is not the relief path. NFPA 69 covers prevention and isolation: stopping a deflagration in the collector from propagating back down the duct into the process that fed it.

Isolation is the requirement most often missed on systems we are called out to look at. A correctly vented collector with no isolation still puts a flame front into your plant through the ductwork.

The hardware, and what each part is for

Explosion vents relieve pressure outdoors. Flameless vents do the same job where venting outdoors is not possible, quenching the flame front so the collector can sit inside a building. Chemical isolation suppresses the event in the duct; mechanical isolation valves close it off physically.

Spark detection and extinguishing systems catch the ignition source upstream, in the duct, before it reaches a collector full of accumulated dust.