The Innovations in Safety Awards Task Force (of the Portland Cement Association's Occupational Health and Safety Committee) looks for examples of how the cement industry is making its plants safer places to work. The goals of the awards are:

1. To honor innovative practices, programs, and projects throughout the industry.
2. To communicate these ideas to members of the North American cement industry.
3. To raise the profile and importance of safety programs both inside and outside the industry.

More than 65 entries were judged by the task force, and winners in five categories — Quarry, Milling/Grinding, Pyroprocessing, Distribution, and General Facility — received a Sony PEG-UX40 Clié Personal Entertainment Organizer. These awards are co-sponsored by the Portland Cement Association and the Cement Association of Canada. All entries for this contest since 1997 are available online at www.cement.org

QUARRY

Ash Grove Cement Company Chanute, Kansas

The Ash Grove Cement Chanute facility had increased the size of its major limestone haulage equipment. There was a concern that the height of the truck and loaded raw material being transported might be greater than the physical clearance of the existing underpass structures. The plant devised a mechanical check to ensure the loaded trucks are able to clear the underpasses. A frame was built and is located just off the main loading point. Trucks simply drive through the frame to confirm the loaded material will safely clear the underpass structures. Used daily, there have been no issues associated with overloaded trucks entering the underpasses between the quarry pit and the primary crusher.

MILLING/GRINDING

GCC of America, Inc., Rio Grande Plant Tijeras, New Mexico

The Mill Maintenance Team at GCC's Rio Grande plant developed a system to minimize personnel exposure every time a ball mill requires a new charge or the addition of balls to the existing charge. Previously, after the mill shell access door was removed, barrels of balls were handled one at a time and carried overhead using the mill building bridge crane. Since the metal ball barrels are sometimes stored outside, they can develop unseen rust on the inside and bottom. The rusted barrels can burst when they are handled. The new system uses a concrete placement bucket with a clamshell gate. Barrels are now hoisted by a forklift with a barrel-gripping attachment and dumped into the concrete bucket. The mill building bridge crane hoists the bucket to the top of the ball mill. The bucket handles four barrels of balls at a time, eliminating the overhead conveyance of barrels in the work area. An unexpected benefit was realized when the time required to charge a mill was reduced by approximately 40%. Future ball mill charging projects will include a second concrete bucket to be loaded while the other is hoisted by the mill crane.

MILLING/GRINDING

St. Lawrence Cement Company Catskill, New York

The St. Lawrence Catskill facility is a wet process operation with two large slurry tanks. Each time the slurry tank is down for maintenance and cleaning, a 5,680-lb. door has to be removed. In the past, the door was rigged with a CAT 990 loader. Chains were used to guide the teeth of the bucket to the door, and the bucket would support the door while employees removed the bolts. The loader would then roll the door back. This process necessitated repair personnel working in very close proximity to the unbolted door and the loader's bucket. Occasionally, the door would get jammed and would have to be rocked back and forth with the loader until loose, creating yet another potential hazard.

To address these risks, the door was equipped with a set of quick-disconnect brackets, designed for a CAT 966G loader, which were mounted on the door just above the center of gravity. With these brackets, the door can be safely pulled and transported. It is also much safer for the repair personnel to remove and fasten the bolts. This low-cost modification has made the task safer to perform, reduced the time of removal and installation, and made the job much easier. Now, fewer tools, chains, and manpower are required. This improvement took less than a week to complete.

PYROPROCESSING

Ash Grove Cement Company Foreman, Arkansas

At the start of 2003, during brick jobs, the Ash Grove Foreman plant was having problems unloading brick from the #3 Kiln into the load-off trucks. Attempts to use a plastic chute tied directly to the kiln were unsuccessful because the chute kept coming loose. Substituting a plastic chute to a condor did not work either. Both of these methods resulted in inefficient loading and created hazards because brick not captured by the chutes would sometimes fall to the ground. There also was a problem with the anchor point on the chute coming loose due to the volume of kiln brick being loaded.

Plant personnel set out to find a way to unload the kiln brick more safely by means of a system that would ensure the brick would stay in the chute and the chute would stay attached to the kiln. The challenge was to provide adequate support at the brick discharge point, since the weight of the brick was determined to be the problem. A decision was made to place a large “brick funnel” at the discharge point. The first step was to install a support structure capable of supporting the weight of the brick funnel. Once completed, a prefabricated brick funnel was raised into place. The brick funnel has eliminated safety issues and has saved time. Since the brick funnel is permanent, it does not have to be installed and removed before and after each brick job, as was required in the past with the temporary chutes.

PYROPROCESSING

Lehigh Cement Company Union Bridge, Maryland

Water lances as long as 10 ft are inserted into the hot gas tower to cool the air prior to entering the baghouse. These water lances require frequent maintenance and the platform originally installed for this activity was only 3 ft wide and cluttered with hoses and other equipment. To improve employee safety, with engineering support, the platform was widened another 16 in. and a support ring was installed around the platform to assist the employee in balancing and controlling the long lance. The initial design called for widening the platform another 6 ft, but could not be implemented due to engineering concerns. Instead, the platform was widened to the maximum width possible using the existing supports, and then the support ring was installed outside of the platform handrail to provide an extended area that could be used to support the lance. With this extra support, employees can now safely rest the water lance on the platform handrail.

Prior to modifying the platform and installing the support ring, the cooling process would require two employees on the platform struggling to remove and control the long lances. After the modification, one employee can easily and safely remove most of the water lances. Due to their weight, however, two employees are still needed to manage the longer lances.

DISTRIBUTION

Lafarge North America Inc. Joppa Plant, Grand Chain, Illinois

The Lafarge Joppa plant receives 95% of its raw material via barges on the Ohio River. The raw materials are unloaded onto a conveyor system using a recently installed Equilibrium Crane (E-Crane) with an 8-cu-yd clamshell bucket. The E-Crane is mounted on a pedestal above a “captive barge” positioned between two cofferdam type cells. The pedestal acts as a lever arm that amplifies the force exerted on the captive barge by the E-Crane. When the E-Crane was first installed, the captive barge rocked back and forth violently, at times shifting more than 36 in., creating very hazardous conditions.

Besides the hazard concerns, the guides, which were designed to capture and control the rocking of the barge, wore quickly and had to be replaced every two to three months at considerable cost. Plant personnel working on the captive barge designed, fabricated, and installed a “stabilizer” using the air suspension from a road truck and common steel. The stabilizer reduced the barge's motion 75% and eliminated the violent rocking. The captive barge now rocks slower, providing a safer environment for employees to work. Also, the guides for the captive barge now last 9 to 12 months, roughly four times their original life. The total cost for the stabilizer was approximately $2,500.

GENERAL FACILITY

Texas Industries Inc. (TXI) Hunter Cement, New Braunfels, Texas

TXI — Hunter Cement designed and mounted a carrier for the blocks used for setting up its 55-ton crane. Before the carrier was installed, the 10 blocks needed to set up the crane were simply lifted up and set on top of the crane, a height of about 6.5 ft off the ground. These blocks weigh about 65 lb. each. Now, the blocks are set on the carrier, which is about 3.0 ft off the ground. This preventative measure reduces the lifting height, thus minimizing the risk of a back or other injury affiliated with lifting the heavy blocks. The total cost to build the carrier was about $100.

GENERAL FACILITY

St. Lawrence Cement Inc. Mississauga, Ontario

At times, the sheer size of the St. Lawrence Mississauga plant can cause problems in communication. For those unfamiliar with the plant, it is easy to get lost or to mistake one building for another. In case of emergency, this could be fatal. Therefore, an efficient and accurate way to direct both employees and emergency personnel to the scene of an accident, injury, fire, spill, or other emergency is required. An employee who wanted to improve communication between employees, vendors, and security suggested naming the roads in the plant and installing road signs. This would make it much easier to give directions or report the location of an incident. A committee was set up to select the road names, which were practical (e.g., Kiln View Drive) or named for an exemplary former employee (George Zulauf Ave., named after a former general manager). The road names were introduced to the employees at the 2003 Plant Meeting. Road signs were unveiled, and maps were handed out to all staff and security.