Let us talk about Basic conveyor safety as it is just like being around all moving equipment will be guards of one type or another. It may be to prevent people from falling into the equipment or, in cases where there is a danger of equipment failure, the guards may be designed to contain parts and pieces that may fly off of them. The problem with conveyor belts was that a system had to be designed that would protect the worker and still provide the necessary access to keep the conveyor open for clean-up. What was developed was the safety trip cord. This cord is situated along the sides of the conveyor. It is placed at least level with the conveyor belt or possibly a little above. Its purpose is to shut the conveyor down if anything should hit it. At the trip switch will be a metal flag that will drop into the tripped position once the cord has been pulled. It is there to indicate to the operator that it is tripped and requires resetting. The operator should always visually check the conveyor before starting it back up. You never know, maybe your foreman or helper is caught in the conveyor but managed to grab the cord to shut the belt down. As you can imagine a single cord does not give one hundred percent safety coverage, and conveyors are dangerous. To keep the danger to a minimum there are a few rules that should he followed.
- when cleaning a head or tail pulley never stick a bar or shovel into the pulley. If it should get caught, which is easy to do, it will pull you in so fast that you won’t have time to let go. The conveyor should he shut down to clean these pulleys.
- Always shovel in the direction that the conveyor is travelling. In other words when shovelling onto a belt he sure you are facing towards the head pulley. If you are facing the other way, there is a danger of getting your shovel caught in the load or the conveyor itself. The shovel will then he propelled towards you like a spear.
- no riding on conveyor belts. More than one operator has fallen into fine ore bins or transfer chutes by not being able to get off in time.
- Whenever you are working on or in any moving piece of equipment it should be locked out. Locking out equipment means. By following the procedures set down by the mine that you are working at, the operator places a personal lock on the circuit breaker that controls the equipment that he will be working with. Of course the circuit breaker must be “racked out”. This means the circuit is opened to prevent an accidental start-up. Once the circuit has been broken the operator should try and start the equipment to be sure that it can-not start-up.
Conveyor Safety Talk