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Code Requirement for Gas Purge 2010-01-27
Oxidizer gases such as N2O, NO, NO2, F2, ClF3, Cl2, O2 Halogens like HC-22, HC-12, HC-11 -----Original Message----- Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:22 AM To: SEMI EHS Grapevine Subject: Antw: RE: Code Requirement for Gas Purge SEMI Environmental Health & Safety Grapevine
An interesting topic right before the next Silane Safety Seminar at the Intersolar in Munich. What are compatible/incompatible gases from the safety view? Is there a rule of thumb?
thanks and best regards Roland
>>> "Eugene Ngai" <eugene_ngai@comcast.net> 27.01.2010 05:53 >>> SEMI Environmental Health & Safety Grapevine
Sorry for my late reply. I agree with Flett's, Bob's and Al's comments I would like to add my historical recall on this topic
In the 1970's when gas cabinet were first developed, most users used house Nitrogen systems to purge the gas panels. These proved to be a route for backflow and contamination. Many companies then switched to high pressure cylinders in the 1980's.
The Gollub Analytical explosion on March 17, 1988 woke the industry up. A silane cylinder which was causing problems at a user site was analyzed and found to have a high concentration of nitrous oxide. While they triggered the gas industry mutual aid program, the people onsite elected not to wait for a remote valve opener to arrive on site and to sandbag the cylinder. They decided to vent the explosive gas mixture through a small tube. This triggered the detonation of the cylinder which killed 3 of them and the 4th lost an arm and a leg. Immediately after this incident SSA (now SESHA) wrote an alert about purge gas cylinders. CGA opened a docket to develop an industry standard. This got a greater sense of urgency after the Osaka University incident. Due to a variety of reasons this was never finalized. It was carried over into the fire codes in various forms as a result.
I can tell you from a gas suppliers perspective that contamination of cylinders with another gas happens far more frequently than one would expect. One gas supplier in 1993 had a pigtail on a manifold explode when they opened a phosphine mixture cylinder to vent it. They analyzed other returned cylinders and found varying levels of contamination. Silane in Argon, Hydrogen Chloride in Nitrogen, Silane in Phosphine, etc. We had an incident when a R&D Chemist used a returned cylinder of Nitrogen to operate a Pneumatic cylinder valve and was gassed with ammonia. We had a 100 psig pressure gauge explode when the operator tried to vent a returned container of Trichlorosilane. The customer backfilled it with Hydrogen Chloride. The best practice in industry is to use a high pressure cylinder for each compatible gas group
Eugene Ngai Chemically Speaking LLC
Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 8:42 PM To: SEMI EHS Grapevine Subject: RE: Code Requirement for Gas Purge
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Dennis
There are a variety of different code references to dedicated purge gases.
- Silane is regulated by UFC Standard 80-1, and NFPA 318. The CGA-G13 reference is not so explicit but reference is also made. - Class 1 Highly Toxics (AsH3, PH3 etc.) are regulated by the Toxic Gas Ordinance (TGO). - HPMs (Hazardous Production Materials, definition according to UFC 209-H) are regulated by NFPA 318 and SEMI F13.
There is some inconsistency, for example for HPMs, NFPA allows compatible gases to have shared purge but SEMI requires dedicated purge per gas. NFPA is clearly more focused on the safety aspect with SEMI perhaps taking potential process contamination into account.
As you mention, there is also a large degree of common sense in taking this approach regardless of code stipulations. Graeme
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 5:33 AM To: SEMI EHS Grapevine Subject: Code Requirement for Gas Purge SEMI Environmental Health & Safety Grapevine
It is normal convention to utilize a homerun or portable purge cylinder in lieu of utilizing the bulk or house N2 system when performing toxic/flammable cylinder changes. From a practical standpoint, this convention makes sense as you want to prevent contamination of your bulk system. I am curious whether this practice is founded in any building code, SEMI requirement, or just best practice?
Thanks in advance. Dennis
Color Coding for Chemical Bottles? 2004-08-02
While this is great for a isolated area, the problem is how to agree on what is common and should be color coded. There are not enough colors to go around. If there is not a universal system an employee leaving one industry/company can easily mistake a color with another chemical. Eugene
-----Original Message----- Sent: Monday, August 02, 2004 6:46 PM To: SEHS Grapevine Subject: RE: Color Coding for Chemical Bottles?
SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS) GRAPEVINE
Was that a CGA White Paper? Never mind...
I'm going to go against the flow here and state that after a few chemical mixups with automated sinks using 20 liter poly containers (HF, H2SO4, NH4OH, H202 and others) at a past employer we installed color AND key coded connections (specially keyed dip tube connections) and that solved our mix-up problems. The color codes were IN ADDITION to the regular product label means of identification.
This was then made part of the contract with the chemical supplier and we felt that this made it as idiot proof as possible (barring a chemical fill error at the supplier).
I support such engineering modifications whenever possible. But then, I also remember a poor employee that died from hooking his airline respirator to a nitrogen supply line... Did we feel that it was this employees fault for not reading the Nitrogen label on the line? Let's not wait for a similar error that may have potentially serious results. We suggest reviewing each application and use of engineering controls when possible.
Perhaps I'm reading more into Vicki's operation but based on the information provided, that's my opinion.
Joe
Reply-To: "SEHS Grapevine" <sehs@semi.org> To: "SEHS Grapevine" <sehs@semi.org> Subject: RE: Color Coding for Chemical Bottles? Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2004 01:17:21 -0400
SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS) GRAPEVINE
I agree with all the statements that have been made as to why a colorcode is not a suitable means of identifying the contents of a bottle.
Over the last 30 years, the compressed gas industry has been asked to do the same thing for gas cylinders. In this case it would be even easier since there are approximately 200 gases in common use, whereas chemicals would be over 10,000. Besides Black and White there are 7 major colors that people can readily identify, the rest are shades of these. As such these can easily get confused by discoloration, color blindness, lighting, etc.
The Compressed Gas Association has studied this in detail and have rejected color coding as a means of identification, this is summarized in a position statement PS-2. the US Dept of Transportation also reviewed this over a 2 year period and published in the Oct 5, 1978 Federal Register a detailed summary as to why color coding is not an acceptable means of identification of cylinders. Only a few medical gases have color coding as a means of identification
Eugene Ngai
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Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 3:14 PM To: SEHS Grapevine Subject: RE: Color Coding for Chemical Bottles?
SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS) GRAPEVINE
And of course, some people have eyesight that doesn't see color the way the majority of us perceive it. But perhaps they are the ones most likely to read the label. Vicki
-----Original Message----- Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 1:32 PM To: SEHS Grapevine Subject: RE: Color Coding for Chemical Bottles?
SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS) GRAPEVINE
Personally, I dislike relying on color-coding for chemical identification. There's a relatively finite number of colors available for a wide variety of materials. And caps are easy to accidentally switch. The safest approach is emphasizing reading the label to confirm identity.
-----Original Message----- [mailto:Vicki.Chouinard@honeywell.com] Sent: Tuesday, July 27, 2004 11:02 AM To: SEHS Grapevine Subject: Color Coding for Chemical Bottles? SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS)GRAPEVINE
Please tell me if you have an opinion about color-coding bottle Labels and bottle caps for commonly-used semiconductor chemicals. A chemical supplier we previously used supplied 4 liter chemical bottles with color labels and caps. Our current supplier uses black and white labels and white caps on the 4 liter chemical bottles. Our research technicians felt the color coded labeling system helped prevent mishaps.
If you have an opinion about safety and color coding of chemical containers, please let me know what it is.
Thank you, Vicki
International Codes 2004-10-14
When the 2000 codes first came out, there was a lot of conflicts and confusion as they were trying to merge the 3 (BOCA, UFC, SBC) model codes There is a continuing attempt to address these and the 2003 had a number of revisions. Eugene
Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 2:11 PM To: SEHS Grapevine Subject: RE: International Codes SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS)GRAPEVINE
Ed, I stumbled across a website that has some UBC/IBC comparisons. It notes a number changes regarding sprinkler requirements. Hope this helps. http://www.bpresearch.org/ubcibc.html Scott
-----Original Message----- Sent: Thursday, October 14, 2004 8:57 AM To: SEHS Grapevine Subject: International Codes SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS)GRAPEVINE
Does anybody know, is there any significant differences between the 2000 and 2003 versions of the International Codes? Building and Fire specifically. Ed
MSDS for electronic components, wafers and semiconductors 2008-06-04 To protect a worker, the OSHA regulations in the US mandates that a user have access to an MSDS for all chemicals having a hazardous property "29CFR1910.1200(g)
Chemical manufacturers and importers shall obtain or develop a material safety data sheet for each hazardous chemical they produce or import. Employers shall have a material safety data sheet in the workplace for each hazardous chemical which they use"
Materials that under normal use conditions do not have a chemical hazard will typically not have a MSDS. For the items you list below, I cannot imagine that they represent a hazard under normal conditions. To answer your question, there is not an exempt list. Some companies or government agencies due to liability or misinterpretation have extended this requirement to all sorts of things that under normal conditions do not represent a hazard, I once received MSDS for an aluminum cylinder. Am I supposed to send this to every customer that I ship an aluminum cylinder filled with product?
Since you are in Singapore this might not be the case Eugene
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2008 12:15 PM To: SEMI EHS Grapevine Subject: MSDS for electronic components, wafers and semiconductors SEMI Environmental Health & Safety Grapevine
Hi Anyone know if there is any legal requirements to have MSDS for electronic components, semiconductor or wafers?
Is there any regulations that exempted the above from MSDS?
Need some urgent advice. Thank you. Regards Danny
Sprinklers in Gas Cabinets 2005-05-19 Joe One of the concerns with Silane is the possibility of suppressing a fire when the water is sprayed directly onto the fire. This is the reason why CGA Pamphlet P-32 section 12.3.1 recommends that the sprinkler in a Silane gas cabinet be directed at the cylinder walls to cool it rather than above where it is sprayed onto the fire. Eugene Ngai
Sent: Monday, May 16, 2005 10:36 AM To: SEHS Grapevine Subject: Sprinklers in Gas Cabinets SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH & SAFETY (SEHS) GRAPEVINE
Just looking for any points of interest regarding sprinkler installs in gas cabinets. We are installing a new silane line and are talking about installing the sprinkler in the cabinet. I am looking for recommendations, cautions, or any guidelines that may govern or help with this install. As always your input is greatly appreciated. Thanks, Joe |
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