Manual handling is a crucial yet hazardous part of the mining industry. While essential to daily...
Storage and materials handling solutions that improve safety and efficiency on mine sites are what we do best!
Read the story behind our Conveyor Roller Lifting Devices and discover how they're preventing manual handling injuries.
Problem
Our client’s mining operations rely on the use of conveyor equipment to move their heavy and bulky materials from one location to another. These material handling systems allow for safe, efficient transport and reduce the need for manual labour.
But the rollers in these conveyors get dirty and damaged and eventually need replacing. Changing these rollers is a high-volume job and the loading and unloading of rollers into their boxes/bins reintroduces a lot of manual handling. This presented a problem to our client as the maintainers were prone to ‘line of fire’ injuries to their hands, repetitive strain injuries on their backs, trip hazards and fatigue.
Our team was approached to come up with a safer storage and materials handling solution that would address these factors and reduce injuries.
Solution
Our team visited the client’s site to consult on the problem with the key stakeholders. It was highlighted from the front line that a floor in the boxes that could be raised would solve the problem. A raised floor would stop the need to bend over, improving posture and decreasing strain on the maintainer’s backs. It would also decrease the risk of ‘line of fire injuries’ when unloading these boxes.
In close collaboration with the client we designed, certified and fabricated new heavy-duty boxes with a hydraulic lift-up floor.
Features
- Lift-up floor with hydraulic foot pump operation for easy access to rollers inside bin
- Heavy-duty steel construction
- Designed for safe handling of conveyor rollers and other awkward items
- 1000kg WLL (clearly painted on two sides of the bin)
- Engineer Certification & Non-destructive Testing
- Extra-large 220mm Width x 100mm Height forklift pockets at base
- 4x swivel lifting points on each corner of the bin for lifting by overhead crane
- High-quality 2-Pak painted finish in blue
We supplied the client with ten of these devices to be put in use and tested for their fit for purpose.
Result
The trial was a success. The hydraulic lift-up floor was easy to use and significantly improved the posture of maintainers and reduced risky manual handling. The heavy-duty construction of the boxes also proved themselves in the tough, harsh conditions of mining environment. Our solution reduces worker fatigue and downtime, increases time on task, and reduces the time taken to complete the job.
Our Conveyor Roller lifting Device has been rolled out as the standard materials handling solution for maintenance tasks. The device was also shared with the client’s shut down crew and other departments for safer handling of other awkward items.
Another job well done!
If you're interested in learning more about our Conveyor Roller Lifting Devices, check them out here.
And if you have your own unique storage and materials handling problem you need solved, get in touch!
