Brand Peter, Lenz Klaus, Reisgen Uwe, Kraus Thomas
Institute for Occupational and Social Medicine, RWTH Aachen University, Pauwelsstr. 30, D-52074 Aachen/Germany.
Ann Occup Hyg. 2013 Apr;57(3):305-13. doi: 10.1093/annhyg/mes070. Epub 2012 Oct 1.
Studies in the field of environmental epidemiology indicate that for the adverse effect of inhaled particles not only particle mass is crucial but also particle size is. Ultrafine particles with diameters below 100 nm are of special interest since these particles have high surface area to mass ratio and have properties which differ from those of larger particles. In this paper, particle size distributions of various welding and joining techniques were measured close to the welding process using a fast mobility particle sizer (FMPS). It turned out that welding processes with high mass emission rates (manual metal arc welding, metal active gas welding, metal inert gas welding, metal inert gas soldering, and laser welding) show mainly agglomerated particles with diameters above 100 nm and only few particles in the size range below 50 nm (10 to 15%). Welding processes with low mass emission rates (tungsten inert gas welding and resistance spot welding) emit predominantly ultrafine particles with diameters well below 100 nm. This finding can be explained by considerably faster agglomeration processes in welding processes with high mass emission rates. Although mass emission is low for tungsten inert gas welding and resistance spot welding, due to the low particle size of the fume, these processes cannot be labeled as toxicologically irrelevant and should be further investigated.
环境流行病学领域的研究表明，对于吸入颗粒物的不良影响，不仅颗粒物质量至关重要，颗粒大小也很关键。直径低于100纳米的超细颗粒尤其令人关注，因为这些颗粒具有高的比表面积，并且具有与较大颗粒不同的特性。在本文中，使用快速移动粒径谱仪（FMPS）在靠近焊接过程的位置测量了各种焊接和连接技术的粒径分布。结果表明，具有高排放率的焊接工艺（手工电弧焊、活性气体保护电弧焊、惰性气体保护电弧焊、惰性气体保护钎焊和激光焊接）主要显示直径大于100纳米的团聚颗粒，在50纳米以下尺寸范围的颗粒很少（10%至15%）。具有低排放率的焊接工艺（钨极惰性气体保护焊和电阻点焊）主要排放直径远低于100纳米的超细颗粒。这一发现可以通过高排放率焊接工艺中明显更快的团聚过程来解释。尽管钨极惰性气体保护焊和电阻点焊的质量排放较低，但由于烟尘颗粒尺寸小，这些工艺不能被标记为在毒理学上无关紧要，应进一步研究。
