In a study conducted regarding the Custom Cnc Machine Parts Toronto engineering of nano-objects, the following were found out: The mass of emissions which comes from machining of composites and which contains reinforcing engineered small objects is in most instances not really different from the machining of composites which do not contain nano-particles.
- Machining processes involving high energy usually emit high number of particles and at the same time produce higher airborne mass concentrations compared to the lower energy processes.
- For some methods, lower emissions can be achieved with the use of wet machining as compared to dry machining.
- During the process of machining, a mixture of particles is being released from the composites. Most of the particles emitted from the matrix are particles and are part of the matrix that has nano-objects embedded on them though some free nano-objects are being released.
- The use of different engineering controls for the machining processes will significantly lower worker exposure if it is designed appropriately and if they are also adequately maintained.
Risk to the Health of Workers
There are significant quantities of objects which are released from the composites that contain nano-objects through high-energy machining processes like cutting with the use of band saw or disc saw. However, similar quantities of the material are released during the machining process of the composites which do not contain any reinforcing nano-objects. Thus, unless reinforcing particles have high toxicity, the potential risk for the worker’s health during the machining process will be similar for the composites that have or do not have reinforcing nano-objects. If you are given large quantities of materials which are emitted, there is a potential risk from the high energy machining processes although these types of processes are usually of short term duration only.
Cutting or manual grinding which belongs to the lower energy machining processes emit significantly low levels of material. The levels of emissions are not really a significant health risk if there is low toxicity level on the particles emitted. However, these may present risk to health if the emitted particles clearly have high toxicity levels.
The carbon nano fibers and carbon nanotubes are typically used as reinforcing materials for nano-objects in some composites. There have already have been two studies reported that the emission of free carbon nano fibers and nano tubes during machining, though there are a number of other studies in machining that did not detect the emission of free carbon nanotubes. The duration in which particles remain suspended in the air after the process of machining has significantly stopped in the vicinity of the process area. While the coarse particles settle on the floor or on the surfaces after a short period of time, nano particles still remain suspended on the air for a longer period of time.