An economical and reliable system for the contained transfer of
particulates by means of a series of transfer containers facilitates the
particulate transfer without either exposure of the operating personnel
and the environment to the particulate, or environmental contamination of
the particulate itself. The system employs a multiple o-ring canister
assembly which can be attached to either the discharging port or charging
port of a piece of processing equipment. The canister has a series of
circumferential o-ring grooves which allows the attachment of a series of
individual transfer containers. In a charging mode, once the particulate
is charged to the processing equipment, a first transfer container is
collapsed and a second transfer container is placed in the next o-ring
groove, thereby containing the remaining contaminated section of the
first transfer container. The first transfer container is removed through
a bag-out sleeve which is an integral part of the second transfer
container. The process is repeated in a stepwise fashion by moving to the
next groove in the canister until the process equipment is completely
charged in a particulate contained manner.