"helmet and glasses were thrown off his head in the explosion...."

The over the road transportation of molten metal has expanded rapidly over the past decade. No doubt our industry has acknowledge the hazard transportation of liquid metal over the roads and highways. But, there is also a hazard in filling and empty the over the road containers. Here is a recent incident highlighting this hazard:

One evening during the third weekend of August at 9:15 p.m., a metal processing company in Germany suffered a deflagration.

A 53-year-old worker drained hot aluminum from the furnace through an open pipe into another container. This may have caused a deflagration due to residual moisture in the pipe. The 53-year-old's helmet and glasses were thrown off his head in the explosion. He got a small burn wound on his forehead. Since the injured person probably got aluminum splinters in his eyes, he had to be taken to a clinic in (210 kilometers away).

We pray that the injured worker recovers fully from their burns. Getting burned on the forehead and getting solidified metal in their eyes makes us wonder if the worker was wearing safety glasses. 

We did want to comment on the news article stating "deflagration". It was an explosion. 

All too often we have observed companies downplaying or ignoring the hazard associated with molten metal transfer. If this worker was wearing primary clothing (like we would recommend) this worker’s injuries would have been greatly reduced or eliminated. We pray that the worker’s eye are not affected by the solidified metal.

Back to molten metal transfer into and out of over the road transport. Companies are playing Russian roulette if they do not take seriously the loading and unloading of the over the road containers (otrc). The Aluminium Plant Safety Blog has posted incidents in the past involving incidents related to transfer. Companies need to be very cautious where they fill the otrc’s. The area where the filling of the otrc needs to be designed in such a way to contain the entire contents of the otrc if a catastrophic container failure occurs. If companies do not do this, the potential issues that could arise are horrible. It should go without saying that in the transfer areas all concrete, steel, and stainless steel surfaces should have Wise Chem applied. That way when (not if a molten metal) spill occurs the Wise Chem will assist in preventing the molten metal explosion that would result if molten metal came into contacted with a painted surface or bare substrate. Information can be found here.

The Aluminium Times Magazine had an article about the hazards of liquid metal transport a few years ago. It can be downloaded here:

 

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