How To Choose Ideal Safety Flammable Liquid Cabinet

It’s general knowledge that working with flammable substances must be approached with extreme caution, so no potential hazards occur. Flammable substances are dangerous not just for the people working with them, but for the entire working environment, since the disaster they can cause is always of great proportions. For this reason, regulations have been created to make sure handling dangerous substances is proper and following the written rules.

When it comes to transferring flammable liquids, the most important thing you need to own to secure yours and the environment is a flammable liquid cabinet.

What Constitutes as Flammable Liquid?

Let’s define flammable liquid first. There are different definitions offered by several organizations, but we’ll take the one defined by OSHA which states that a flammable liquid is any liquid that has a flashpoint of below 93°C. OSHA’s categorization includes 4 more categories of flammable liquids:

1. liquids with a flash point below 23°C and a boiling point of below 35°C;
2. liquids with a flash point below 24°C and the boiling point of above 35°C;
3. liquids with a flash point above 24°C and at or below 60°C;
4. liquids with a flash point above 60°C and at or below 93°C.

According to the category the flammable liquid belongs to, the flammable liquid cabinet requirements are determined.

Why are Safety Flammable Liquid Cabinets Important?

Liquids are tricky to be transferred from one place to another without spilling and causing a complete disaster. With flammable cabinets, the possibility of something causing a fire in the workplace is significantly reduced.

What are The Standards for Safety Flammable Liquid Cabinets?

The standards that regulate some aspects of the safety flammable liquid cabinets are posed by OSHA; they apply to the design, construction and capacity of the flammable liquid cabinets. Here’s in short:

• Cabinets should not contain more than 227 liters of liquid that belongs to category 1, 2 or 3 and no more than 530 liters of category 4 liquids;
• All cabinets should be labeled “flammable – keep fire away”;
• The material used for the cabinets can be either wood or metal;
• No venting needed;
• All cabinets must be fire resistant, which can be proved by a fire test – the cabinet needs to spend 10 minutes in fire and during, joints, seams and doors need to stay tight and in place. The temperature inside the cabinet shouldn’t pass 163 degrees Celsius;
• The locking device must consist three-point lock system.