Safety At and Around Shredding Plants

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Safety At and Around Shredding Plants

• April 2013
• Scott Newell
• Chairman CEO
• The Shredder Company, LLC
• Newell Recycling Co. of El Paso

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• To watch a shredder in action the first time can
  be a frightening experience. I have shared the
  experience with a number of people over the past
  fifty years and each time I look at the machine
  through their eyes I see it as being a large
  noisy, dangerous looking, and sounding machine.
• However, we all soon get jaded to the effects of
  the shredder and after having been around one for
  15 minutes it starts looking like a tame animal
  and we are no longer frightened by it. Sometimes
  we even get to the point where we take the
  machine and it's safe operation for granted and
  we forget to pay sufficient attention to the safe
  operation of that equipment.
• After all, we think, the machine has been in
  operation for a number of years and no one has
  ever been hurt there. I must confess that even as
  manufacturers it is easy to become complacent.
  Every day it seems that we are faced with more
  pressing problems than the problems of safety,
  especially since the safety-type problems do not
  appear gradually.
• They come upon us with a great rush in some
  catastrophic type of an event. One does not have
  to be a fortune teller to be able to look into
  the future and see that if pieces of scrap steel
  are bouncing out of the shredder and are falling
  around in the scrap yard, that someone could be
  injured. And, yet, because no one has been
  injured we do not take sufficient steps to
  prevent the possibility of that occurrence.

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• The fact that all of you are here today gives
  evidence that you are concerned with the safe
  operation of your shredding equipment. I believe
  that by following some thought-out practices and
  procedures, we can all operate much more safely
  than we have in the past and I believe that this
  will bring benefits not only to us but to our
  employees and customer alike.
• There will be a number of areas of concern that
  will be discussed. Included are
• Explosions,
• Flying pieces of steel,
• Electrical safety problems,
• The guarding of conveyors, sprockets, chains,
  gearboxes, and other moving pieces such as the
  driveshaft.
• Safety equipment for operating personnel and
  safety practice for maintenance personnel
• Adequate warnings and signs necessary in order to
  keep people out of areas that should remain
  personnel-free and to warn people of danger.
• None of these things will make it certain that we
  will never have another accident around the
  shredder but if these recommendations are
  followed there certainly will be a dramatic
  decrease in the possibility of accidents and a
  dramatic decrease of the incidence of injury to
  personnel.

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EXPLOSIONS

• An explosion is certainly the most noticeable
  event that can happen around a shredding plant.
  There can be tremendous noise, plume of flame,
  clouds of smoke, and general disarray. Once
  again, there is a problem for those of us who are
  around shredding plants. I can remember one
  situation during the start up of a new shredding
  plant, when there was a explosion. I had
  automatically dropped to the floor of the control
  tower. When I stood up again, within about two or
  three seconds and looked around the plant, I
  could see the employees still running away from
  the machine. Since they had never seen an
  explosion before they did not know what was going
  to follow next. They thought that, perhaps
  another explosion would follow.
• Contrast that to the same plant two years later
  when I was at the plant site and there was an
  explosion, this time no one panicked, no one
  moved away very far, each man went to his
  assigned position and repaired an explosion panel
  and the machine was running again within 15
  minutes.
• The danger of this is that people (including
  managers) tend to get used to these small
  explosions and to accept them as an everyday
  ordinary course of events, type of thing. The
  problem of this is that by accepting them as
  normal we sometimes get lax in the prevention of
  these explosions and someday a much larger
  explosion than has ever occurred may take place
  and in that event it is possible to have
  personnel injury or damage to the equipment.

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• It has been my observation that in some plants
  where they have had a series of small explosions
  with no damage, that the personnel become more
  increasingly careless and then one day they have
  a large explosion which scares everyone and then
  inspections are tightened up, procedures are
  followed more carefully, for a while, until
  people forget again just how bad that explosion
  was. I see it as the responsibility of management
  to continually impress upon people the danger of
  explosions and the need for those explosions
  prevention.
• Obviously, the best cure for an explosion is to
  prevent that explosion and to prevent that
  explosion means that the explosive material must
  not be introduced into the shredding machine.
• It must be eliminated from the feed stock before
  it gets to the shredder. Such items as gas tanks,
  propane bottles, paint thinner cans, and various
  other containerized explosive-type material have
  all been put into shredders with resultant
  explosions and sometimes damage.
• It is important for each plant to teach
  inspectors how to find and eliminate the above
  materials before they get to the pile from which
  the shredder is being fed.

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• A more difficult and more dangerous item are the
  explosives, like plastic explosives, dynamite and
  similar items.
• The most damage ever done to a shredding mill, of
  which I am aware, was caused by a half-case of
  dynamite that was left in an old automobile that
  a contractor was using as a storage shed and
  which was later stolen. This car was flattened
  and taken to a shredder and when the material was
  processed it caused an explosion that lifted the
  mill housing apart. This type of material is very
  difficult to detect and is very dangerous when it
  causes an explosion in a shredding mill.
• It is a very rare explosion indeed that causes
  damage to the mill housing.
• There was never a more appropriate place to apply
  the old adage that "an ounce of prevention is
  worth a pound of cure" than in the elimination of
  potentially explosive materials from being
  introduced into a shredder.
• No matter how good the inspection systems are,
  there seems to be the possibility that some
  material will eventually get into a shredder that
  will cause explosions. If that fact is
  acknowledged, then it becomes important for us as
  manufacturers and processors to design our
  equipment and to operate that equipment in such a
  way that potential explosions will cause minimum
  damage and will give maximum protection to the
  personnel operating that equipment.

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What happens in an explosion

• In order to understand what must be done to
  prevent explosion damage, it is necessary, I
  believe, to try to understand something about
  what happens in an explosion. At this point I
  should make it clear that I am not speaking as an
  export in the dynamics of explosions, I have
  however, observed many explosions and have
  discussed this matter with a number of people who
  are qualified by virtue of their study of
  explosions.
• It seems that when explosive material is
  introduced into the shredder, and for the purpose
  of this illustration let's assume that a gasoline
  tank with some liquid fuel is introduced into the
  shredder, as that gasoline tank passes the anvil
  or cutting edge as it goes into the machine, the
  gas tank is ripped open and the fuel vaporizes
  and becomes a potentially explosive vapor present
  in the shredder.
• As we all know, there are tremendous sparks
  caused by friction where the hammers are hitting
  pieces of scrap inside of the shredder at all
  times. It seems a miracle to me that every fuel
  introduction does not cause a tremendous
  explosion. It has been my experience, however,
  that not every single time does an explosion take
  place.
• This leads me to believe that the proper amount
  of fuel and air must exist in order to sustain
  that explosion.
• This is one of the things that I believe is
  improved by the use of a Smart Water System (SWS)
  that puts water into the shredder with compressed
  air in proportion to how much scrap is
  beingshredded at any one time.

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• The SWS puts water into the shredder which keeps
  things cooler but it also creates a creates a
  steam that displaces oxygen and from long
  experience we know for certain that the SWS
  reduces the incident and the severity of
  explosions.
• It is my unproven theory that in the absence of a
  SWS explosions from combustible fuel are
  reinforced by finely dispersed organic pieces of
  cloth from upholstery, seats, and etc. It is my
  thought that the SWS water injection removes many
  of those particles and allows them to exit the
  shredder with the shredded scrap. This material
  is then separated from the magnetic material by
  magnetic separation and by air separators that
  are located away from the shredder. As a
  consequence, the severity of any explosion is
  dramatically reduced.
• Another advantage of the SWS as compared to the
  older system of removal of air from the shredder
  by an fan and cyclone and perhaps scrubber or bag
  house, is that if the small particles are not
  entrained in the air stream, those same particles
  do not have to be removed by extensive further
  treatment.
• In jurisdictions where it is still required to
  remove the steam from the shredder instead of
  venting to atmosphere, we find that by moving
  much less air from the shredder we are able to
  reduce the size of the equipment and at the same
  time we can be much cleaner with the particulate
  matter that is eventually released to atmosphere.
  We have been able to meet less than 20 ppm of
  particulate matter and we believe that it is
  possible to reach a goal of 10 ppm of particulate
  matter by use of the SWS along with the air
  system from the shredder.

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• If an air system is connected to the shredder, it
  is important to put the proper explosion relief
  panels on the equipment so that in the event of
  explosion (which we know will happen), it is
  important to release the pressure wave into
  atmosphere at a pressure that is less than the
  tearing strength for the duct work, cyclones,
  fans, scrubbers or bag houses. Hopefully, the
  explosion will be released to the atmosphere
  straight up at low enough pressure wave values so
  that no one is hurt and damage to equipment will
  be minimized.
• When an explosion occurs, there is a very rapid
  oxidation of the fuel and a release of energy.
  This energy travels in a pressure wave and as the
  pressure wave takes place in an uncontained
  atmosphere it dissipates rather quickly.
• However, if that pressure wave is inside of a
  contained area, the pressure builds up until it
  has built up as far as it can or until the
  pressure wave has sufficient strength to rupture
  the vessel that it is enclosed in. If the
  enclosing vessel has ductwork or a cyclone then
  the cyclone may rip apart with great force and
  pieces of steel can be thrown away from the area.
  It is important that the explosion panels release
  the pressure wave before the pressure wave has
  sufficient time to build up to the point of the
  tearing strength of the steel.
• A formula has been developed that seems to work,
  and that is that there should be one square foot
  of explosion panel for every ten cubic feet of
  enclosed volume and that explosion panel must
  release at three pounds per square inch.

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• You may be interested to know how this formula
  was developed.
• At first, we put explosion panels only on the
  mill section and then we had an explosion that
  destroyed a cyclone.
• It occurred to us that if we put some explosion
  panels on the cyclone that perhaps the pressure
  would go away and leave the cyclone alone so we
  added panels to the cyclone.
• This seemed to take care of the next few
  explosions without a problem and we were
  congratulating ourselves on having solved that
  problem.
• Then we had a large explosions and again the
  cyclones were damaged. It only seems natural to
  us then that we should put further explosion
  panels on that system.
• About that time we contacted a University
  professor who did some calculations and assured
  us that one square foot for each 30 enclosed
  cubic feet would probably do the job so we did
  some calculations and put one square foot for
  every twenty cubic contained feet but we did not
  put an explosion panel that released at a low
  enough pressure.

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• After the next series of explosions and further
  conversation with the theoreticians it was
  decided that we needed an explosion pressure wave
  release system that released at a lower PSI and
  that we needed more explosion panels.
• At the present time, we have found that one
  square foot for every ten cubic feet with that
  explosion panel releasing at 3PSI seems to
  eliminate almost all damage from explosions.
• It is important to place all of the explosion
  panels so that they release upward and away from
  any area where personnel might be located.
• If all of the above precautions work correctly
  then the chance of the equipment suffering damage
  will be relatively minor. This is very important
  because when the equipment is not damaged and
  when the explosion forces are vented upward into
  the atmosphere the chances of personnel being
  injured are minimized and this is, after all, our
  major consideration.
• Every-thing else is replaceable except that human
  being who could be injured in this type of an
  event. The most important thing to remember
  regarding explosions is that the personal safety
  of our employees and our customers is paramount

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• To that end, we must be diligent in the
  inspection of the material that is introduced
  into the shredder and then we must see that the
  shredder has proper explosion relief venting and
  that our people are properly trained to stay out
  of high risk area. While the machine is operating
  there are a number of areas that should be listed
  as being "off limits".
• Specifically, the area on the discharge side of
  the shredder must be personnel free at all times
  the shredder is operating.
• The other area of major concern is the area of
  cyclones and scrubber. In the event of an
  explosion it is always possible for some piece of
  steel or other material to fall as the result of
  the explosion and of course there is the
  explosion wave or the pressure wave that can
  cause damage to a person.
• The control tower as it normally sits looks down
  into the feeding area of the machine. In the
  event of an explosion there is generally a
  pressure wave that comes back up the feeding area
  and affects the control tower. The control tower
  should be built very sturdily and should have
  bullet proof glass such as LEXAN installed as
  windows in that control tower. Those windows must
  be installed securely so that they do not come
  out and injure people in the control tower.
• A growing number of shredder plants are being
  operated remotely with the use of cameras and
  screens and we will not be surprised if this
  trend continues and gains strength. It is not
  only for the safety of the operator but for more
  efficient use of personnel time and energy.
  Modern shredders are operating more automatically
  all of the time.

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Proposed locations for explosion panels
EXPLOSION PANELS
EXPLOSION PANEL
EXPLOSION DUCT
EXPLOSION PANEL
EXPLOSION DUCT
ADD EXPLOSION PANELS TO BAG HOUSE (CHECK WITH
MANUFACTURER FOR SIZE AND LOCATION)
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This is what the SWS looks like inside of the
shredder. This reduces the number of explosions
and reduces the severity of explosions.
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FLYING PIECES OF STEEL SCRAP

• All shredders about which I know anything, have
  the possibility to emit pieces of steel scrap
  back out of the feeding device. You will note
  that I have used the term flying pieces. If you
  have ever been in a court room with a plaintiff
  attorney asking if you were responsible for the
  creation of the shrapnel that injured his
  client you might understand my desire to properly
  characterize the scrap as flying pieces.
• It seems logical that an opening into a shredding
  mill large enough to let an automobile into the
  shredder also has an opening large enough to let
  a small piece of steel scrap be propelled out of
  the machine.
• We all know that this can happen but all too
  often we fail to check the continuation. If a
  piece of steel scrap can ricochet out of the
  machine and fail in the scrap yard or on our
  neighbor's property, it stands to reason that
  someone could be hurt by that piece of steel
  scrap. That piece of scrap can by heavy or light,
  it can be twisting or it can be just falling.
• A check of continuations will show each of us
  that the possibility of extensive damage is very
  real and this problem must be addressed by all of
  us.

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Modern Shredders have enclosures

• Sims Adams Plant at Terminal Island

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• TISCO, in Taiyuan, China, worlds largest
  stainless steel producer with 3 Million tons of
  Stainless and 7 Million tons of carbon Steel.
  This is a 10,000 hp shredder with the shredder
  itself inside of a room to control sound,
  emissions and flying pieces.
• Note that the operators control room is just
  outside of the building.

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Safety shield over feeding device

• Grossman Iron and Metal

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• Note that the shield extends down to very close
  to the DFR feed area.

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Newell Savannah shield being installed about 5
years ago.
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Drawing showing shield between the shredder and
feeding system.
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ADELCA, Quito, Ecuador. Note the rubber curtains
to deflect flying pieces from USO area.
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Photo showing proper handrails, kick boards,
shielding around head and tail pulleys . At
ADELCAs steel mill in Quito
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Drive shaft guard to reduce consequential damage
in case of failure.
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• The exact mechanics of how that piece of steel
  scrap comes out of the machine are not known, but
  it seems that the hammers traveling at about
  15,000 feet per minute can impart a sufficient
  velocity to a piece of steel scrap so that it can
  possible ricochet once, twice, perhaps even three
  times and still leave the machine with some
  amount of velocity.
• Certainly not a very high percentage of pieces
  ever leave the machine in this matter but when
  you are handling millions of pieces a day, a
  statistically very small percentage can amount
  to a large number of pieces.
• In order to combat this problem a number of
  deflectors and operating techniques have been
  designed that minimize the possibility of those
  pieces coming out of the machine.
• First of all, the operator is instructed to keep
  the feed roller in the down position as much as
  possible and to keep scrap material in the
  feeding device. We have all seen what happens
  when the feed roller is lifted high when the
  machine is processing material, when there is no
  material in the feeding device a large number of
  pieces can ricochet from the feed opening,
  therefore, it is important for the operator to
  keep the feeding device low and to keep scrap
  material in the feed hopper.
• Modern shredder that are being operated by a
  Smart Shredding System (SSS) made by us or by
  other manufacturers, keep the feeding device low
  and in contact with incoming scrap at all times
  because the SSS only raises the feeding system
  when there is a requirement caused by an increase
  of pressure to the hydraulic system. This only
  happens when scrap is under the roller so this
  minimizes the flying piece problem.

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• Normally, this will prevent any pieces from
  emerging, however, sometimes it is possible for a
  piece to ricochet off of the anvil or the feeding
  area and bounce straight up. Therefore, a shield
  is designed to fit between the shredding mill and
  feed roller. This shield must be kept in good
  repair so that it will deflect upward ricocheting
  pieces.
• No matter how well the shields and deflectors and
  enclosures are designed, it might be possible for
  piece of flying material to get out of the
  shredder and the enclosures and to land in the
  area adjacent to the shredder or behind the
  shredder, therefore it is important to maintain a
  personnel free area around the equipment during
  operation.
• The entire scrapyard should be a hardhat area so
  that if the safety precautions fail the chance
  for a serious accident will be minimized.

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Unshreddable Items

• We have already discussed the importance of not
  introducing into the shredder any explosion
  producing material and now we should discuss the
  other items that should not be put into the
  shredder for fear of causing damage and injury.
• All shredders operators know the damage that can
  be caused by an unshreddable piece going into the
  machine.
• Normally, we do not consider this to be a safety
  problem in terms of damage to people but it
  should be realized that a very real danger does
  exist when an unshreddable piece goes into the
  machine.
• No one knows the extent of damage that can be
  caused. But we know that a driveshaft could
  possibly break or there could be other structural
  damage.
• It is a fact that while we do not know exactly
  what can happen we do know that it is certainly
  possible for someone to be hurt. Massive
  unshreddables should be kept out of the shredder
  for all kinds of reasons.
•  

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Massive unshreddable identified in entry chute
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The worlds most highly paid maintenance guy
(George Adams) shows how to safely and correctly
remove that piece. Note he is in safety harness
and is properly clothed with all safety equipment.

• Unshreddable safely removed!

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Massive unshreddable caused serious damage,
including broken bearing housing, bearing and
drive shaft damage.
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Broken draw bar and broken yoke bearings on Drive
Shaft. This was a 100,000 massive unshreddable
but it could have been worse. It could have bent
the rotor shaft, which would have made it a
500,000 unshreddable.
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Removal of a massive unshreddable after the
10,000 HP shredder, but this time lucky with no
damage, as the piece was removed by operation of
the reject door.
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More unshreddables
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Special Concern for wire rope

• Something that is not often mentioned but which
  is a serious danger is the processing of wire
  rope in lengths beyond 5 meters.
• When a length of wire rope or cable of any kind
  is strung out through the incoming scrap and part
  of it gets fed into the shredder, a contact with
  a hammer can accelerate that length of wire rope
  from zero to 15,000 feet per minute instantly.
  This can cause a whip like action of the wire
  rope that can damage the equipment or even worse
  it can cause serious injury or death.
• In one very sad situation, a wire rope
  accelerated and threw a bar over the top of the
  shredder and the bar hit an employee working on
  the picking conveyor after the magnets. The bar
  went through the protective cage and hit the
  employee in the side of the head and killed him
  instantly.
• In all of our sales literature, we specify that
  wire rope or cable longer than 5 meters should
  not be processed by shredding.

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PROPER OPERATION OF ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT

• There have been several accidents at shredding
  plants of which I am aware, where improper
  operation of electrical equipment has caused
  serious injury to personnel as well as extensive
  damage to the plant.
• Electrical equipment should only be operated by
  properly trained personnel and should never be
  patch fixed. If something is wrong it must be
  fixed properly.
• Operating instructions for starting gear must be
  followed precisely and the operating people need
  to develop a healthy respect for the damage that
  can be caused by electrical failures.
• The most common serious electrical accident
  involved opening the high voltage starter which
  has 4160 volts while the motor was under load.
  This causes a heavy flashover and damaged the
  equipment and seriously injured the person who
  opened the switch.
• It has also been my experience that operators
  tend to patch-fix something if it happens during
  the middle of an operating shift, believing they
  can wire around fuses, bypass safety devices
  until the end of the shift. This is very poor
  practice and has led to some extensive damage and
  some personal injury.
• When there is an electrical problem, it needs to
  be fixed correctly and immediately.

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Very dirty filter at electrical controls.
Checking found that dirty air was entering the
electrical room through the cable trench!
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• This is another piece of electrical equipment
  that was being subject to dirt coming into the
  room from the conduit trench.
• The point to emphasize is that the electrical
  motor room has to have cool clean air at all
  times.
• There are numerous examples of electrical failure
  caused by air filled with fine iron particles
  causing a short circuit and serious problem.

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Some examples of what not to do! Open electrical
boxes are bad, bad for safety and bad for
operations.
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Safety and maintenance nightmare!
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 PROPER SHIELDING OF MOVING EQUIPMENT

• While the equipment that we are going to discuss
  in this section is not as spectacular or as
  obvious as an explosion or flying piece of steel,
  you may be surprised to realize that more
  injuries and more deaths have been caused by
  improper operation of conveyors than any other
  piece of equipment around the shredder.
• This is an area that has been specifically
  covered by OSHA regulations, but too often these
  regulations are ignored or not followed
  completely.

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Note the chains to prevent entry to an area where
there is rotating equipment. Also note the fire
extinguisher present.
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All pinch points at conveyors must be
protected by proper shielding. Also note that
Pancho is wearing hard hat, glasses with side
protection, bright vest and hard toes shoes.
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Belts and pulleys must be totally guarded
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Belts and pulley covers are requried.
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Safety during Maintenance ProceduresPancho
Rojas, Shredder Manager at SAR TI, uses a model
of his shredder to explain to the maintenance
team what they will be doing during a scheduled
procedure. In this photo he is getting the team
ready to change a back wall casting, which is
never easy. The team gather around and go
through the plan step by step before going to the
shredder.
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Please note the removable catwalk which is added
when working inside of the shredder. Please note
the cover for the rotating positioning device on
the end of the rotor.
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Hammer Changing

• It is important to have a safe place to stand
  while connecting a lifting device to the hammers
  and pin protectors that must be held while the
  pin is being withdrawn hydraulically.
• The rotor needs to be held in position so that
  when some castings are removed from the rotor
  that it will not try to turn because of the out
  of balance situation.

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Note catwalk and handrails complete with kick
boards. All rotating equipment has been
protected with screens or by other shields.
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It is important to identify confined spaces and
to apply the correct safety procedures when
working inside of these areas.
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Pinch points are shielded and there are barriers
to prevent employees from getting caught by
conveyor belt and or rollers.
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All electrical and hydraulic rooms at SAR plants
are kept in very, very clean condition as a
matter of company policy.
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SAR TI have photos on each of the pieces of
hydraulic equipment in the hydraulic room showing
the equipment that each powers. This helps the
employees to properly lock out the equipment
before starting work on that piece.
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(No Transcript)
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Warning signs and labels help employees to
recognize what they are doing and provides
information and motivation to do it correctly.
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Safety Alert to warn maintenance people of the
dangers, in this case of very high pressure oil
leaks. This is a photo of someones hand who
simply pointed to a very high oil pressure leak
in a pipe. The oil entered his hand and cause
extensive damage.
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SAFETY DURING MAINTENANCE PROCEDURES

• It may or may not be surprising to you to realize
  that a large percentage of the accidents that
  result in injuries to personnel occur when the
  shredding plant is shut down and maintenance is
  being performed. It is important to be aware of
  the type of problems that can occur and the
  preventive methods that will keep them from
  happening. (photo of SAR model)
• Some of the things to look for are as follows
• The electric motor that powers the shredder mill
  itself must be
• able to be locked out so that there is no chance
  of this motor being started while people are in
  the shredder.
• All modern shredders are opened for maintenance
  and therefore must have safety blocks to insure
  that the mill will stay open while personnel are
  in the area.
• It should be remembered that no one should work
  alone at the shredder because of the danger of
  injury due to slipping, dropping something on
  one's self, etc. If a person is alone he may not
  be able to get help.

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• 2.) The rotor should be held in place while it
  is being worked on. While changing hammers the
  rotor becomes unbalanced and if the wrong type of
  safety hold is being used the rotor could turn
  quickly injuring someone.
• 3.) Changing hammers can be a dangerous
  operation . When the
• hammer pin is being changed with a hydraulic
  system, there is considerable pressure required
  to move the pin and there is
• always the danger of something breaking or
  slipping and when
• there is that amount of pressure available,
  something can fly.
• Injuries have occurred when changing hammers and
  it
• requires diligence on the part of the supervisor
  to keep people in an area where is something
  fails it fails to the safe side.
• When more than one worker is welding, care must
  be taken to avoid
• flash burns as the welding is being done in a
  close proximity and
• it is quite often a problem in that one welder
  will catch a flash-
• burn from a welder working nearby. This problem
  can be solved but, again, it requires diligence
  on the part of the supervisor to keep the men
  properly spaced.

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• 4.) The men should have proper tools for the job
  that they are
• working on. Injuries have occurred because
  someone tried to do
• something with a tool that did not fit. He tried
  to improvise, tried
• to stack pieces on top of each other in order to
  use a hydraulic
• jack when a jack should have been placed in
  another position. The proper tools should be
  available and should be used.

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• 5.) Extreme caution must be exercised when
  cleaning out ductwork
• And cyclones. Several people have been injured by
  the failure to
• Lock out an airlock while working inside a
  cyclone.
• Electrical switches should have the ability to be
  locked in an open position so that there is no
  chance of an accidental equipment start-up.
•  
•  
•  

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The following are a series of warnings
appropriate to post at your shredding plant.
Observance of these warnings will make your
shredding plant a safer place.

• 1. WARNING
•  
• Exclude from processing all items that can cause
  explosion or fire. Examples are items such as
  gasoline tanks, propane tanks, paint thinner
  cans, and closed containers of any kind.
• Extreme caution should be exercised in order to
  prevent explosives such as dynamite or plastic
  explosives from ever entering into the shredder.
  It should be noted that the above list is not
  intended to be exhaustive but rather contains
  examples of items to avoid.

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• 2. WARNING
• Exclude from material to be processed all types
  of massive unshreddable material such as steel
  billets or ingots, heavy steel shafts large
  gears, or large electric rotors.
• The above list is not intended to be exhaustive
  but rather contains examples of items to avoid.

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• 4. WARNING
•  
• In order to minimize the danger of pieces of
  materials flying back from the mouth of the
  shredder, the feed roll should be kept as close
  as possible to the feed ramp at all times during
  shredder operations.
•  

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• 3. WARNING
•  
• Exclude from material to be processed all types
  of long pieces of wire rope and other types of
  long stringy items. Attempts to shred this type
  of material may cause the long pieces to
  accelerate very quickly allowing that long piece
  either to strike someone or to throw some other
  type of scrap material around the scrapyard which
  may strike someone.

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• WARNING
•  
• Despite careful operation particles of scrap
  material may occasionally be ejected back from
  the shredder with sufficient force to cause
  injury to persons or damage to property.
• Do not operate the shredder while any persons is
  within the designated hardhat area.

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• 6. WARNING
•  
• The rotor and hammers will continue rotation for
  a full 30 minutes after motor shutdown. All
  precautions observed during the actual shredder
  operation should be observed during this
  additional period.
• 7. WARNING
• Do not operate the shredder unless it is certain
  that all deflectors are
• in proper operating condition in order to prevent
  emissions from the shredder. This includes proper
  operation of the feed roller, checking the
  deflector between the mill housing and the feed
  roller, checking the rubber curtain behind the
  feed roller.

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Manager's Check List of Safety Items

•  The following items should be verified on a
  periodic basis
•  
• 1. The entire plant should be a hard hat area.
•  
• 2. During shredder operation the personnel
  free area (adjacent to the shredder and cyclones)
  must be properly observed.
•  
• 3. Scrap must be inspected for explosive
  material before processing.
• Inspector must know where to look for fuel tanks
  on different makes of automobiles and must
  exclude from scrap to be processed all types of
  explosive materials.
•  
• 4. Scrap must be inspected or wire rope, cable
  and other long stringy items and these items must
  be excluded from the shredder.

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•  
• 5. A warning horn should be sounded before
  equipment starts in operation so that personnel
  will know to stand clear.
•  
• 6. The explosion relief panels should be
  checked to verify that
• there are sufficient numbers of them and that
  they are working properly.
•  
• 7. The electric motor room and other
  electrical equiment should be clean and neat and
  all monitoring equipment should be in good
  working order. Personnel should be properly
  trained before being allowed to operate the
  electrical equipment.
•  
• 8. The drive shaft and rotor should be
  protected so that personnel can not come into
  contact with them while they are rotating.
•  
• 9. All pinch points at conveyors should be
  guarded.
• 10. All chains and sprockets and all belts and
  pulleys should be guarded.

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• 11. All machinery should have electrical
  equipment that can be locked out during
  maintenance procedures.
• 12. All personnel at the shredder should be
  wearing hard hats, safety shoes, gloves and
  proper clothing.
•  
• Explanation for items checked and NOT OK along
  with corrective action taken
•  
•  
•  
• WARNING This list is not intended to be
  exhaustive but rather it is intended to be a list
  of the type of things to look for.

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• The following questions are a good reminder and
  the person responsible should ask these often
• First, note whether or not proper personnel free
  zones are being maintained while the machine is
  in operation.
• Secondly, note if the appropriate hard hat,
  proper shoes, and eye protection areas being
  enforced.
• Next, are all moving machinery parts adequately
  protected? This means that all sprockets, all
  belts, sheaves, pulleys should be protected so
  that a man can not get his hand into the moving
  parts. All pinch points on conveyor belts should
  be properly protected to keep someone from
  getting hand or clothing caught in the moving
  conveyor.
• Are all electrical boxes properly closed?
• Are all areas around those electrical boxes clean
  and free from oil and water?
• Are there warning signs located appropriately?
• Do the employees on the scene have the proper
  safety equipment? It seems to be necessary around
  the shredder for all employees to have on a hard
  hat and for them to be wearing eye protection and
  hand gloves.
• It is also important that loose clothing be
  prohibited and that long hair must be protected
  by being under a cap or by being held back so
  that it cannot become entangled in machinery.

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Summary

• There are a great number of things that can go
  wrong at a shredding
• plant and many of them can cause injury to
  personnel. Efforts to reduce the chances of such
  an occurrence are worthwhile and will certainly
  pay large dividends.
• Our people must be trained and then motivated to
  make these efforts and then we must go back to
  see that programs for safer operations are
  consistently implemented. It takes great effort
  to keep people from becoming lax. It seems that
  we must all be constantly reminded.
• I think that it is very important for each of us
  to implement the philosophy and the policy of
• Safely or not at all

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• This paper will be posted to the downloads
  section of the web site
• www.TheShredderCo.com
• If there are any questions or comments please
  contact
• Scott Newell
• Chairman CEO
• The Shredder Company, LLC
• ScottNewell_at_TheShredderCo.com
• 1 915 276 3900

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