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danf, you're quite close. I'm working at a chemical manufacturing plant. In this case the 'bag house' in question is part of one of the big enclosed packaging units used for sterile packaging of powdery materials (similar to sawdust, yea) . Imagine a giant sausage casing / crimper dealie. The bag house is where the casings (i.e. 'bags') come from.
Apparently in order to get all the fine powder from the final product container into the packaging chute, they attach a big, er, 'vibrator' to it. There is no more technical description than 'vibrator' on the drawings, either.
but indeed, overhearing that snippet out of context was rather, um...