There’s more to safety than wearing personal protection equipment (PPE).
Of course, PPE has its place at every worksite, but safety awareness starts when an aggregate producer initially purchases a piece of equipment for a plant. Making larger investments in new and existing equipment can have a positive impact on both safety and a producer’s return on investment (ROI), says Mark Kenyon, industry manager for aggregate cement mining at Applied Industrial Technologies, during a 2019 AGG1 Academy education session.
“A lot of people think of safety as hard hats and safety vests and eyeglasses and steel toes – your standard PPE – but that only makes the risk safer,” Kenyon says. “What we’re trying to do is eliminate the opportunity for risk.”
Reducing the opportunity for risk requires producers to focus on the equipment they purchase and, from there, accessorizing, creating reliability, standardizing, and increasing safety factors and abrasion calculation.
A larger initial investment in a piece of equipment can go a long way in terms of both efficiency and safety, Kenyon says. A decision to purchase a piece of equipment should come from a long-term standpoint – saving money on a cheaper piece of equipment may not reap results in the long run.
For example, a 4-in.-diameter roller might work for a certain application, but choosing a 5-in.-diameter roller that costs about 10 percent more can give you 25 percent more life, Kenyon explains.
Kenyon also touched on how investing in smaller aspects of an operation can have a positive impact.
“We talked about different greases and oils,” Kenyon says. “If you can reduce the temperature, you can increase the life. And if you can increase the life of your greases, you’re not changing them as quickly, they’re not breaking down as quickly. So you’re going to have better grease for a longer period of time, which will just protect your equipment even longer.”
Careful plant design plays a critical role in reducing the risk of accidents or injuries, and in many cases, a larger initial plant investment increases ROI, plant life and employee safety.
