Science Fiction Books

I read a book many years ago – say around 40 years ago – about commet dust that fell to earth and disabled all machinery by welding together anything that moved.

Any moving device, bearings, motors, etc. were welded together when they moved with the comet dust being present.

They finally developed a device that “swept” the atmosphere to cause the comet dust to fall out of the atmosphere where it was collected.

I don’t remember the author or the title.

Does anyone have any idea of the title or author of this book?