maintenance worker gets trapped, molten metal spills onto him....

If allowed to speak to only one department at an aluminium plant. Our choice would be the maintenance department. Why? Because no other department suffers more injuries and fatalities than the maintenance department. Here is a recent example.

An automotive parts plant had an incident involving an aluminum melting tank injuring two workers one day during the week of February 23, 2020 in the Middle East .

In an automotive spare parts factory a machine used to pour the materials from the aluminum melting boiler to the (casting machine) molds failed. When the two workers entered between the machine and the boiler to fix the malfunction, the machine suddenly moved. As the workers trapped molten aluminum at 680 degrees of temperature fell on them.

There were burns to the body of workers trapped them. (The two workers) who were removed from their location with the help of other workers, were taken to a nearby hospital. It was learned that the injured workers condition was serious.

We pray that the injured workers recover fully from their burns. From other news media articles confirming the machine malfunctioning. The maintenance worker went between the boiler (furnace) and casting machine. At which point in time there was movement. It was either the furnace door or the casting machine. Either way the maintenance worker was pinned against the boiler. The second worker came to his rescue and during that time molten metal flowed onto them. One worker was burned over his body while the second worker received burns to his right hand. Regardless, we are thankful that both workers survived.

Prior to working on any machinery. Lock out tag out/ safe isolation needs to be performed. The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog recommends after instituting lockout tagout to simply push the start button of the machine(s) that are being isolated. This simple act will confirm that they are isolated.

In addition, we strongly recommend that a customized device is placed in such a way that if all lock out tag out methods fail the machine can not physically move.

That may sound confusing. Let’s continue and hopefully clarify our recommendation. Regarding lock out tag out of devices that have hydraulic cylinders. It is our experience where the cylinder moved even though the lock out tag out procedures were carried out properly. It is in these incidents that a customized bar, pipe, beam may have prevented the injury, decapitation, fatality.

Please note that there is not a universal device for every machine. Each machine would need it’s own last ditch safety device. Each machine needs to be inspected and the hazards identified to what could happen if the machine engages when a worker is maintaining it. What to use? We like old crane rail. A proper inserted piece of crane rail may stop a machine from engaging if all safety mechanisms fail.

We do caution that if your plant institutes these “last ditch safety devices” we recommend that enforcement of safety procedures be instituted before they are installed. The last thing we would every want is for a maintenance worker to ignore current safety procedures and install the ldsd and perform their procedure. That is why we tell all plants that if they are going to institute this procedure they have to confirm that their maintenance personnel are following all of the safety protocol prior to installing the device(s).

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