An initiative at Lafarge Cement's Hope Works in Derbyshire is setting new safety standards for people working at height at the company's plants across the world.
The Hope initiative centred on how steel grinding balls, which are almost 10cm (four inches) in diameter and weigh 3.2kg (seven pounds), can be loaded into the mills to grind down the raw material used to make cement.
John Evans and Jamie Saxon ca
me up with the idea.
John said: "In the past we were using a combination of manpower and machinery to load these balls into the mills.
What do you think? Post your comment below."We set out to design and prove a new loading system What we came up with was a system using a hopper and chute which could be loaded using a Bobcat shovel and deliver the grinding balls directly into the mill door.
"We had to make some tweaks to our initial designs to ensure the safety of the operators – we changed the shape of the hopper to make it easier to empty."
The initiative was given major recognition through a presentation given by Lafarge's deputy national safety manager Andy Smith and Hope Works manager Ashley Bryan at the recent Lafarge Group European regional performance meeting.
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