Archive for March, 2010

Managing Rig Brake Systems

Posted by proforma on March 30, 2010  |  No Comments

In this instance, an oilfield driller didn’t know the correct valve position for water supplied to the auxiliary hydromatic brake. Unfortunately, the valve wasn’t labeled to indicate open or close positions, either. So after accidentally shutting off the water supply to the auxiliary hydromatic brake, he found the drawworks brakes were overheating; the blocks and the elevators struck the rotary table, bending the joint of pipe in the elevators.

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Filed Under: Workplace Safety

Imperial Sugar Rebuilds Facility on the Ashes of 2008 Catastrophe

Posted by proforma on March 30, 2010  |  No Comments

On February 7, 2008, at about 7:15 p.m., something ignited sugar dust in Imperial’s refinery in Port Wentworth, Georgia, resulting in blasts and subsequent fires that destroyed much of the facility and killed 14 people. This article in the NFPA Journal®,March/April 2010, talks about the  tragedy, which the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) described as “entirely preventable.” Poor maintenance, housekeeping, and equipment design were identified as factors in the catastrophe. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) reported scores of “willful” and “particularly flagrant” safety violations. Imperial Sugar has made the commitment to build a safe, modern packaging facility and the solution has been a system and functional design for the new plant that emphasizes the concepts of separation, isolation, and suppression. At Port Wentworth, this has included relocation of the huge sugar storage silos, more stand-alone buildings, and inclusion of fire walls within buildings. Most important, it’s included a major overhaul to employee attitudes toward safety. Click on the link above for details.

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Filed Under: Workplace Safety