What about “dust suppressant” technology from the USA?
There are some products from the USA that utilise “Dust Suppressant” technology and claim to significantly reduce the airborne dust levels of traditional silica based investment powder products.
Independent testing of a product which utilises “Dust Suppressant” technology was carried out by the Institute of Occupational Medicine (IOM)- Edinburgh, UK which showed that this product contained 5.6% respirable crystalline silica according to SizeWeighted Respirable Fraction (SWeRF) analysis of bulk materials and dustiness testing in accordance with EN15051-2.
This was compared by IOM to other products on the market of similar composition which do not utilise “Dust Suppressant” technology and the results showed respirable crystalline silica content in the range of 5.5 to 6.5%.
The IOM have independently tested a sample of our X-Sil product and confirmed there is no respirable crystalline silica present within the product. As with all refractory mineral dusts, traces of silica impurity can be present. Therefore, the X-Sil Safety Data Sheet (SDS) states that the product contains less than 0.1% silica which is below the OSHA and EU cut off value for hazard classification.