It’s time for spring cleaning in readiness for the busy summer season. So, among other things, if you have not paid any attention the to the lint build-up in your shop for some time, now is a good time to do it.
As we all know, if you handle tees and sweats, lint happens. It takes to the air and slowly builds up wherever it lands. Besides becoming a potential health hazard if it builds up on shelving and work surfaces where people can later disturb and inhale it, it also builds up in places where it cannot easily be seen. Places like the exhaust system of your dryer where it eventually becomes a fire hazard.
This is not a topic you hear much about but ignoring it can be dangerous. I’ve written before about two lint fire incidents, one in Vancouver and one in Calgary. THey’re worth telling again to make the pint about the hazard of lint buildup.
In the Vancouver incident the lint around the dryer caught alight and quickly spread wherever lint had accumulated. The flames ran up the metal pillars in the print shop and back and forth across the beams under the ceiling like those gunpowder fuses in the old cowboy movies. It had burnt out before the fire truck arrived but it still caused a lot of smoke damage.
In the Calgary incident a spray can of adhesive fell onto the conveyor belt and exploded inside the dryer. There was apparently a considerable build-up of lint in the exhaust system which caught alight. In this case it required a fire truck to put it out. The hop had to close for some time for recovery and repairs.
If you have one of those very rare spotlessly clean textile print shops where lint is not allowed to accumulate, then you don’t have to be concerned about this at all. But let’s face it, that wouldn’t be the case in most textile screen shops. Lint can build up quite quickly, especially the bigger, high volume shops. So, keep your shop as healthy and as safe as possible—make lint removal one of your Spring-cleaning chores.