furnaces. With that all
companies have to acknowledge the importance of scrap inspection prior to
accepting the material. Here is a recent incident emphasizing the hazard of scrap
contamination.
An
European recycling company that has made a name for itself with the processing
of aluminum scrap suffered a fire. A high-tech sorting system for aluminum
scrap developed at the(ir) site has also attracted international attention. The
company buys the aluminum from aluminum lightweight packaging, which is sorted
out of the yellow bags, but also from suppliers in the car and beverage
industry. The company prepares between 40,000 and 50,000 tonnes of valuable
materials each year and delivers them to other companies for further
processing.
The
fire broke out in the storage area one night during the first week of August
2019 - without human or machine intervention, according to the company. It is
assumed that a lithium battery contained in one of the valuable (aluminium)
bales ignited itself. According to company spokesman, this potential
circumstance is currently a major topic: "The industry has been discussing
intensively for months that improperly disposed of end-user batteries pose a
great danger." For security reasons, the company premises today are likely
to enter only emergency services and company employees. The police initially
ruled out at least negligent or intentional arson as a cause.
The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog is proud to report that no injuries
were suffered in this incident. An amazing number of fire fighters were used to
extinguish this tough fire. News reports state over 250 fire fighters were used
throughout the operation. Congratulations to all of the emergency management
personnel who were present and supported those fire departments who were
occupied at this aluminium recycling plant.
We chose not to include the company name because we plan on
criticizing the recycling company. So here it is. The issue of lithium
batteries is an issue our industry is grasping with. Some aluminium companies
have taken a proactive position in educating their scrap suppliers. These
companies have had success in mitigating the contamination in the scrap they
receive. The best method we have observed on our travels is when an aluminium
company rejects a load of scrap due to contamination. Eventually the scrap
dealer will learn. Unfortunately, there are reports of one aluminium company
rejects a scrap load but the next aluminium plant accepts it. Long ago in the
USA there was a scrap rejection notification program to prevent this from
occurring. But, due to inactivity the program was ended.
The Aluminum Association has an informative document titled: “Guidelines
for Aluminum Scrap Receiving & Inspection”. It can be found here.
Lastly, we cannot emphasize the importance of scrap inspection. We
have posted numerous incidents that may have been prevented if the aluminium
company they inspected their scrap before accepting it.
Please comment.
No comments:
Post a Comment