Serious accidents may happen in laboratories due to leakage or spillage of chemicals during storage. Safety closets used in order to prevent this for safe storage of reactive substances and toxic substances also effectively avoid hazards in case of accidents. Safety closets may prevent major accidents due to their characteristics in case of emergencies such as fires.
Characteristics of Safety Closets
Closet chassis is made of durable steel material and coated with a dielectric paint that is also resistant to scratches. Additionally, surfaces and insides of cabinets are thermally insulated from each other, thus preventing the heat transfer. With door locking system, resistant doors are locked closed automatically in an airtight position to prevent entry or exit of air. There are suitable ventilation ducts to eliminate harmful gasses that may be emitted within the closet, which restricts the damages that may be caused by explosive gasses. Moreover, there are grounding cables at multiple points, which limit generation of static electricity. Doors can be opened easily during daily use, namely they do not cause difficulties during their usage. Thanks to their legs that can be adjusted to work environment, their height can be manipulated. Products of various capacities are offered to suit various needs.
Purpose and Types of Safety Closets
If chemicals are stored properly, no extra effort is required to ensure that the explosives do not worsen the fire during firefighting and rescue operations. This way, fully focusing on first aid and fire control operations becomes possible and maximum security can be achieved in laboratories.
There are four types of closet designs as per the standards that define the number of minutes individual closets offer protection in the event of a danger, which are namely 15, 30, 60, 90 minute protection models. Most widely preferred type is closet model that offers 90 minute fire resistance.
ACİD BASE CLOSETS
The majority of accidents in laboratories are caused by improper storage of chemicals with hazardous properties. Acids and bases having corrosive and toxic properties from these hazardous chemicals can damage the health of laboratory personnel by destroying the skin and damaging the lung and stomach tissue. In addition, they should be removed from other materials and stored separately because they can cause interactions with other chemicals in the event of an unrecognized leak. The best way to store these chemicals is the use of acid base cabinets. Thus, possible threats to health can be reduced.
Characteristics of Acid Base Safety Closets
Materials that have very high resistance against acids and bases and that are able to defend themselves even when subjected to most adverse conditions are used in manufacturing of acid base safety closets, which are a type of safety closed designed for the most reliable storage of chemicals in the laboratory. Connection points such as hinges are as well very resistant against corrosive conditions. They also contain fresh air and a ventilation system that removes dirty air from the cabinet. These cabinets are resistant to impact, scratch and abrasion, thus ensuring a regular storage.
Closets come with sliding drawers that have an anti-slide system, which helps separating acid and abrasive substances from each other for a safe storage. Moreover, water tight drawers safely contain spilled material after a possible accident. This also prevent leakage of chemicals to water lines. Shelves have very high load bearing capacity up to 30 kg and can be easily cleaned.
Acid base closets are fully heat insulated. With these closets, coated with special paint that provides maximum resistance against acids, materials are stored away from sunlight, in a dry and well ventilated space, which prevents deterioration.
GAS TANK CLOSETS
Commonly used gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen and argon are stored in pressurized gas cylinders in order to save space. Stored in compressed form, these gases can cause serious damage if instructions are followed poorly. For this reason, it is best to have them stored in security cabinets with high security features.
Characteristics of Pressurized Gas Tanks
Gas cylinders contain very high pressure for the gas to be compressed. Due to the fact that they are manufactured from durable metals to meet this pressure, they can weigh up to 70 kg. Because of all these and their lengths of up to 1.5 meters, they are difficult to transport and their storage can be troublesome. It is wrong to keep tanks out in the open or attempting to take precaution by chaining them. These sloppy measures will not help in the event of a impact, slide or fall. For instance, if the tank is stored out in the open, shattering of iron and steel shrapnel may cause formidable damage.
Pressured gasses are discussed in 6 groups depending on their hazardousness. These gas groups must be stored as appropriate for their storage requirements and gasses that needs to be stored away from each other must be strictly kept away from each other. These pressurized gas tanks have the potentials of tipping over, leaking, exploding, causing suffocation, poisoning, anesthetic effects, tissue damage and bolting. In order to prevent these hazards, it is essential that these tanks are painted, labelled and stored in strict adherence to standards. Gas cylinder closets are the most reliable storage method.
Characteristics of Gas Tank Closets
Gas tank closets are high quality safe storage cabinets which are tested to comply with relevant standards for safe storage of pressurized gas tanks. Having high fire resistance due to their superior manufacturing technology, these closets are constantly vented from the top and bottom against potential leakage. These closets are provided with connection points to fasten gas tanks to closet. Their installation is simple and they come with balance settings that enable adjusting on non-level grounds. There are adjustable connections to retain tanks throughout the closet. Closets are equipped with slopes to facilitate transportation of tanks. Both ventilation system and electrical system of these stock storages designed for gas tanks are made of fire resistant material. When the temperature reaches a certain high value, doors lock themselves automatically. This way, both the surroundings are isolated against potential accidents and time is saved for intervention.
Because gas tanks come in various sizes, gas tank closets also have various sizes and prices. You can examine in detail most reliable gas cylinder closets and own user-friendly closets with long useful lives.
CHEMİCAL CLOSETS
In 21st century laboratories, flexible designs and arrangements are the most important and most important topics because the working conditions of the laboratories where the most dangerous operations are carried out may change day by day, new equipment may be needed every day. Examples of such designs are storage of hazardous materials such as flammable liquids and safety cabinets designed to minimize accidents in fire risk environments.
Importance of Safety Closets
Technical hardware and equipment are components of all laboratories that are effective and compatible with all room concepts and can be adapted in accordance with the changing laboratory procedures. Today, the security cabinets with their durable concepts made fire resistant central room concept an old-fashioned practice. Safety closets, which have been commonly used due to increased security sensitivity, are more widely preferred. Thanks to these more practical and portable closets, a high level of security is ensured and thus renovations that would otherwise be essential after any negative situation that may occur are prevented.
The main reason why safety closets that comply with European safety standards are preferred in laboratories around the world is not only to ensure personal safety, but also to provide less damage in the event of a fire. Because of its highly insulating structure, it prevents the spread of any explosion by limiting the regional damage. In addition, time will be gained during the transportation of the team to the scene.
In classical systems, water spraying systems are activated internally at a certain temperature. User has to wait for the moment of danger in order to know whether these equipment are working properly. In addition, harmful substances in the environment spreads via water used for extinguishing and can become a further threat. However, this situation is prevented because of the new system safety closets as they are always ready because of their designs and they do not need to be active in any negative situation.
