Dusts & Materials
Know the dust. Choose the right recovery.
Most fine industrial powders are combustible — the differences that matter are severity, reactivity and toxicity. Find your material below.
Featured material guides
Chemical Dusts
Activated Carbon
A Group F dust that self-heats, depletes oxygen and carries whatever it adsorbed.
Read the guideBiomass & Renewable Energy Dusts
Agricultural Biomass Dust
Crop residue carrying crystalline silica and mould spores alongside the combustible fraction.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Aluminum Dust
One of the most severe combustible metal dusts — safe recovery under NFPA 484.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Arsenic Dust
Regulated human carcinogen — smelting flue dust, gallium arsenide, treated timber.
Read the guideMining & Mineral Dusts
Asbestos
Installed as fire protection, classified Group 1 — framework-first handling, HEPA within it.
Read the guideBattery Manufacturing Dusts
Battery Black Mass
Conductive, toxic, possibly water-reactive, and may retain residual stored charge.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Beryllium Dust
Hazardous at minute concentrations; sensitisation and chronic beryllium disease.
Read the guideBiomass & Renewable Energy Dusts
Biomass Dust
Variable feedstock with a documented self-heating record in silos and stockpiles.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Brass & Bronze Dust
Copper alloys whose hazard is inherited — zinc fume and lead in free-machining grades.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Cadmium Dust
Regulated carcinogen with its own OSHA standard — contained HEPA recovery, never swept.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Calcium Dust
Calcium metal is water-reactive and combustible; calcium carbonate is neither.
Read the guideChemical Dusts
Carbon Black
Cloud hard to ignite, bulk smolders from within — the collected material is the hazard center.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Carbon Fiber Dust
The dust that shorts what others leave alone — electrically conductive, an irritant, fiber plus resin.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Chromium Dust
The hazard depends on oxidation state — Cr(VI) is a potent carcinogen; metallic Cr is a combustible metal.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Cinnamon Dust
High volatile oil content produces adherent deposits and a possible vapour component in mills.
Read the guideMining & Mineral Dusts
Coal Dust
The oldest documented dust hazard — volatile-driven reactivity with self-heating discipline.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Cobalt Dust
The metal where health leads — carcinogen, sensitizer, and the cause of hard-metal lung disease.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Cocoa Dust
Fat-bearing fines that cling to warm equipment — with allergen duty on the same pass.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Coffee Dust
Chaff against the heat path and fine grounds at the grinder — the roastery's two streams.
Read the guideMining & Mineral Dusts
Coke Dust
Less reactive than its parent coal — wrapped in the strictest exposure rules in heavy industry.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Combustible Metal Dust
Which metals burn as dust, why water is wrong, and what Group E means.
Read the guideMining & Mineral Dusts
Concrete & Cement Dust
The honest inert page — caustic chemistry, silica at the saw, and volume, not explosions.
Read the guideBattery Manufacturing Dusts
Conductive Carbon
A Group F carbonaceous dust that also conducts, so deposits can short equipment.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Copper Dust
The least ignition-prone metal family — hazards hide in conduction, companions and exposure.
Read the guideWood Dusts
Cork Dust
It surprises twice — a genuinely combustible natural dust, and a cause of cork worker's lung.
Read the guideAgricultural Dusts
Corn Dust
From elevator to starch room — the fine end behaves like the laboratory benchmark.
Read the guidePaper & Textile Dusts
Corrugated Paper Dust
Cellulose fibre plus combustible starch adhesive fines, accumulating on overhead steel.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Cosmetic Powder
Extremely fine grades where contamination control usually drives the equipment decision.
Read the guidePaper & Textile Dusts
Cotton & Wool Dust
The byssinosis standard's fine fraction — and the flyings that earned their own hazard class.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Detergent Powder
Combustible surfactants plus enzyme sensitisers and, in some formulations, oxidising bleach.
Read the guideChemical Dusts
Dye Powder
A combustible dust and recognised respiratory sensitiser, where routine airborne load is the risk.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Egg Powder
A protein dust where dispersal is a pathogen and allergen event as well as a fire risk.
Read the guideChemical Dusts
Fertilizer Dust
Spans combustible organics, inert minerals and strong oxidisers — identification governs everything.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Flour Dust
The archetypal combustible dust — and a major allergen in the same material.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Garlic Powder
Strongly hygroscopic dehydrated powder that cakes hard and travels far from the mill.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Gelatin Powder
Gels on contact with water, so wet cleanup produces an adhesive mass rather than removing it.
Read the guideAgricultural Dusts
Grain Dust
The one dust family with its own OSHA standard — schedule below the codified action level.
Read the guideBattery Manufacturing Dusts
Graphite Dust
Combustible and electrically conductive — one dust, two failure modes.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Iron & Steel Dust
Everywhere and most often dismissed — fine iron is a genuine combustible metal dust.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Lead Dust
The dust that follows workers home — a numeric limit, named equipment, and hygiene in the rules.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Leather Dust
A combustible organic dust with a chemical twist — chrome-tanned leather carries chromium.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Lithium Dust
The water-reactive metal of the battery boom — reacts with moisture, Class D, kept dry.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Magnesium Dust
The most ignition-sensitive structural metal — wetted collection, vented handling, never airtight.
Read the guideAgricultural Dusts
Malt Dust
Combustible grain-derived dust with a respiratory dimension of its own.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Manganese Dust
The neurotoxin in ordinary welding fume — manganism, present in nearly all steel.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Mercury
A liquid metal that vaporises at room temperature — an ordinary vacuum atomises a spill into a building-wide exposure.
Read the guideAdditive Manufacturing Powders
Metal AM Powder
Group E conductive metal powder, frequently reactive, and valuable enough that method affects reuse.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Milk Powder
Spray-dried dairy powder whose fat content makes deposits sticky and supports self-heating.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Nickel Dust
A combustible metal whose health hazard rivals its fire hazard — carcinogen and sensitizer.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Onion Powder
Sugar content makes deposits tacky and hygroscopic, so accumulation resists ordinary cleaning.
Read the guidePaper & Textile Dusts
Paper & Pulp Dust
Combustible cellulose that mats and clings — the shared dust behind paper, print and packaging.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Paprika Dust
Tacky, intensely staining fines whose visible deposits map where every other dust is settling.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Pea Protein
Air classification concentrates an extremely fine fraction that settles building-wide.
Read the guideBiomass & Renewable Energy Dusts
Pellet Dust
Attrition creates fines at every transfer, drier and finer than the original feedstock.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Pepper Dust
A combustible dust and potent respiratory irritant, so dispersal is an immediate exposure event.
Read the guideMining & Mineral Dusts
Phosphate Dust
Largely non-combustible; the real hazard is respirable silica, not deflagration.
Read the guideChemical Dusts
Pigment Dust
Two hazards in one category — combustible organics, and inorganics carrying heavy metals.
Read the guidePlastics & Rubber Dusts
Plastic & Polymer Dust
Most thermoplastics and resins are combustible — and the insulating dust supplies its own static ignition.
Read the guideMining & Mineral Dusts
Potash Dust
Non-combustible but corrosive, irritant and hygroscopic enough to cake hard on everything.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Protein Powder
High-throughput blending and tote dumping put large volumes of very fine powder into the air.
Read the guidePlastics & Rubber Dusts
Rubber Dust
A combustible dust carrying a passenger — heavily loaded with readily-ignitable carbon black.
Read the guideBiomass & Renewable Energy Dusts
Sawdust
The invisible fine fraction overhead matters, not the visible shavings on the floor.
Read the guideMining & Mineral Dusts
Silica Dust
The oldest occupational disease on record — a numeric exposure limit and no explosion story at all.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Soap Powder
Alkaline, hygroscopic, and turns any wetted spill into a slippery film rather than removing it.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Soy Protein
A very fine isolate that is a combustible dust and a major allergen at the same time.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Spice Dust
Ground spice with volatile oil content that adds a flammable vapour dimension in enclosed mills.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Starch Dust
The powder laboratories use as their reference dust — fine, easily suspended and combustible.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Sugar Dust
The dust that defined the modern enforcement era — finest grades are the most sensitive.
Read the guideChemical Dusts
Sulfur Dust
The lowest ignition energy of any common industrial dust — static control is the program.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Tea Dust
Combustible organic dust from cutting, sifting and blending, with a respiratory dimension.
Read the guidePaper & Textile Dusts
Textile Fibers
Class III ignitible fibers rather than Class II dust — a different classification entirely.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Tin Dust
The mild metal that travels with worse company — lead in old solder and flux fume.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Titanium Dust
Reactive metal, Class D fire behavior — prevention through immersion recovery.
Read the guideAgricultural Dusts
Tobacco Dust
A combustible farm dust that carries an active compound — grain-dust physics plus nicotine.
Read the guideChemical Dusts
Urea Dust
Cakes into hard deposits and releases ammonia on thermal decomposition.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Vermiculite
A non-combustible mineral whose real hazard is possible asbestos contamination.
Read the guideOther Combustible Dusts
Wax Powder
Low melting point means deposits soften on warm surfaces and frictional heat melts material.
Read the guideFood Dusts
Whey Powder
A hygroscopic protein powder that cakes deceptively, then breaks back into fines when disturbed.
Read the guideWood Dusts
Wood Dust
A classic combustible dust and a classified carcinogen — the fugitive fraction is the gap.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Zinc Dust
A combustible metal whose reaction with moisture and acids liberates flammable hydrogen.
Read the guideMetal Dusts
Zirconium Dust
Among the most pyrophoric metals — extremely low ignition energy, often kept wet during handling.
Read the guideMaterial guides roll out group by group. Handling something not covered yet? Ask an engineer — material identification is where every specification starts.
The full materials directory
190 entries across 14 groups
Additive Manufacturing Powders
Agricultural Dusts
Battery Manufacturing Dusts
Biomass & Renewable Energy Dusts
Chemical Dusts
Electronics Dusts
Food Dusts
- Bakery dust →
- Baking mix dust →
- Baking powder →
- Breadcrumb dust →
- Chocolate powder →
- Cinnamon dust →
- Cocoa powder →
- Coffee dust →
- Corn starch →
- Egg powder →
- Flour →
- Garlic powder →
- Gelatin powder →
- Milk powder →
- Onion powder →
- Paprika dust →
- Pea protein →
- Pepper dust →
- Potato starch →
- Powdered sugar →
- Protein powder →
- Rice starch →
- Soy protein →
- Spice dust →
- Sugar dust →
- Tea dust →
- Wheat starch →
- Whey powder →
Metal Dusts
- Aluminum dust →
- Aluminum fines →
- Aluminum grinding dust →
- Aluminum powder →
- Arsenic dust →
- Beryllium dust →
- Brass dust →
- Bronze dust →
- Cadmium dust →
- Calcium metal dust →
- Carbon steel dust →
- Chromium dust →
- Cobalt dust →
- Combustible metal dust →
- Copper dust →
- Copper fines →
- Gold dust →
- Iron dust →
- Iron oxide dust →
- Lead dust →
- Lithium metal dust →
- Magnesium dust →
- Magnesium powder →
- Manganese dust →
- Nickel dust →
- Precious metal polishing dust →
- Silver dust →
- Stainless steel dust →
- Tin dust →
- Titanium dust →
- Titanium powder →
- Tool steel dust →
- Zinc dust →
- Zirconium dust →
Mining & Mineral Dusts
Other Combustible Dusts
Paper & Textile Dusts
Pharmaceutical Dusts
Plastics & Rubber Dusts
A listing here doesn’t replace testing: combustibility, severity class and ignition energy are material- and particle-size-specific. Unsure about yours? Start with the dust risk checker and what a DHA involves.
Talk to the manufacturer
Get the right explosion proof vacuum for your application.
Tell us what you need to vacuum and where. Our technical team will recommend the PrestiVac model best suited to your material, your classification and how hard you will work it — and because we build every unit ourselves, we can modify it to fit.
- Legally certified explosion proof
- Solid stainless steel construction
- Industry-best 3-year warranty
- Designed & manufactured in the USA
- 200+ vacuum versions