STOCK CHEST CLEANING: WET, COLD, UNPOPULAR.
Not any more!
‘Making Paper Safely’ not only reduces hazards. It can also be more
efficient, quicker and less wasteful – while doing away with unpleasant
jobs that no one enjoyed doing.
At their Barrow-in-Furness mill, Kimberley-Clark applied the spirit
of the Health & Safety Executive initiative to the cleaning of pulp
stock chests, replacing manual cleaning operations on seven stock
chests and four water tanks with automatic cleaning by means of a
single Spraying Systems motorised tank wash unit, Model 190A.
The complete air-driven unit weighs less than 7kg, so one man can
easily move it between vessels and install it unaided.
When the mill switched to automatic cleaning the main objective
was to improve safety, and in particular to eliminate any potential
risk arising from staff having to enter process vessels to perform
routine cleaning operations. Previously the work was done by a 2-man
team – one man outside the tank in support of another working inside
with a high-pressure hand-held spray gun – a wet, cold and unpopular
job. Cleaning each stock chest this way took up to 2 hours, not including
time taken in isolating the agitator and other safety precautions.
By contrast, the Spraying Systems washer (a single unit with integral
air motor, drive shaft and rotating spray head) is set up in minutes
from outside the tank. The operator inserts the spray head through
a 95mm diameter port in side or top of tank, locks it in place with
flange bolts and attaches air and water lines. Twin solid-stream
nozzles then give progressive 360° high-impact coverage of tank surfaces
as the spray head rotates in two planes. In 30 minutes working three
full cycles are completed, while the operator attends to other jobs.
Improved safety was the mill’s original concern, but having run the
automatic cleaning system for a year or more Kimberley-Clark also
reported other benefits.
Average actual cleaning time for one stock chest was cut to half an
hour, while preliminary tasks and re-start procedures were also shortened.
Water usage was reduced because automatic cleaning is less wasteful and
because the 190 Series unit has high cleaning efficiency in relation
to water volumes.
For the paper machine staff, conversion to automatic cleaning
transformed the operation from a time-consuming, unpleasant 2-man
job into a shorter task for one man, working in a cleaner, dry and
safer environment. No complaints were reported!
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Safer (and drier) outside!
At Barrow-in-Furness, Kimberley-Clark switched to cleaning pulp stock
chests automatically with a Spraying Systems motorised tank washer.
Light enough for a man to carry from tank to tank, then setting it in
working position through a 95mm port in the vessel wall – it avoided the
need for staff to enter the stock chests for routine cleaning operations. |
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