"Excitement this morning ...."

Hidden hazards are present in each and every aluminium plant. They are made known when an incident occurs. Here is an example of a common hidden hazard:

Excitement this morning in the industrial park in Germany. A hydraulic system burned in a production hall at Aluminum. Apparently, the oil had ignited. The fire alarm system immediately sounded the alarm and the sprinkler systems put out the fire. Almost 40 firefighters had to make sure that the smoky hall could be ventilated again. Two (aluminium company) employees have come to the hospital to be on the safe side. The fire brigade in (local town) also says that the operation went off lightly. There are regular fire protection exercises on the company premises. This experience paid off today.

The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog prays that the injured workers recover fully from their injury. The hidden hazard in this incident is a common hazard that the APSB has posted numerous incidents about. That hazard is flammable hydraulic fluid. This company’s facility is an extrusion plant and we assume that one of the extrusion presses had a hydraulic fluid leak that ignited.

We ask the reader. Does your plant have flammable hydraulic fluid? If you can not answer the question, don’t fret. But, find out! Ask your plant manager, ask your maintenance manager, ask your safety manager. Ask anyone who might know if your plant has flammable hydraulic fluid in use. If you do… start the process to replace it with non-flammable hydraulic fluid.

The Aluminium Times magazine had an article on this hazard. It can be downloaded here:

 

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