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Flawed and dangerous safety equipment puts lives at risk

15th November 2016

  

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Australian Diversified Engineering  (0.06 MB)

Safety is paramount in mine sites with mining companies seeking alternative solutions to outdated, flawed and dangerous equipment to avoid injury for their staff and contractors. This was the case for Downer when the immense pressure from a grease fitting dislodged a service persons safety glasses and hard hat resulting in injury to their right eye.

On a mine site, to keep the fleet running, service vehicles provide lubricants to all mobile equipment. One of the supplied lubricants, grease, can be supplied at very high pressure, up to 5000 psi.

A high-pressure injection injury often results in a serious medical emergency and can be common on mining sites, sometimes resulting in the amputation of limbs.

Downer saw this as a major risk for the company and as a result proactively asked Australian Diversified Engineering (ADE) to create a solution that would eliminate the hazard without adding any additional steps to the greasing task.

The solution had to be simple, cost effective and be fitted to the existing fleet of service equipment.

To design an effective solution, ADE researched all aspects of the task at hand including understanding the actions of the workers, the existing safety controls and the greasing hardware.

The research revealed the usual protective equipment, still currently being used on mine sites, was not protecting the workers and the standard process of removing the hose from a greasing nipple in the case of a blockage was intrinsically flawed and dangerous.

Eric Tomicek, Sales Manager ADE, said: “ADE undertook a thorough research of the protective equipment currently in use and found it to be inadequate offering very little protection to service persons”.

“Not only is this a big risk for service persons, but also highlighted a massive risk for mining companies who need to provide safety for their staff,” Mr Tomicek said.

The solution ADE provided is an easy-to-use device that removes the pressure from the hose, removing the hazard.

Daniel Kirk, Manufacturing Manager ADE, says the device design means it can be retrofitted to existing systems and is compatible with most industry standard components.

“We engineered a very easy to use grease pressure release device which is remote operated using a garage door style remote with green lamp indicating when the system is active,” Mr Kirk said.

Since completion, Downer has installed the Remote Grease Pressure Release System to their entire fleet of service vehicles.

The game-changing impact of the device was also recognised by the Queensland Mining Health and Safety Conference when the potentially life-saving invention was awarded Highly Commended at the conference’s Innovation Awards.

Downer’s commitment to providing Zero Harm in the mining industry is reflected in their decision to donate its royalties from the sales of each system to A Miner’s Legacy to help them continue to spread the word that there is nothing more important than going home unharmed to your loved ones at the end of you shift.

Interview opportunity
Eric Tomicek, Sales Manager ADE, and Daniel Kirk, Manufacturing Manager ADE, are available for an interview or further comment on mining companies seeking alternative solutions to flawed and dangerous safety equipment.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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