Introduction
Many coil storage safety incidents are reported each year. Various incidents many times result in destruction to the coil(s) or property and can sometimes cause injury or death. These events are almost always caused by employee failure to follow the recommended storage procedures, structural malfunctions of wood storage blocks or chains, and the need for companies to double and triple stack coils when they demand increased floor space. If a company does not have a well constructed and maintained coil storage system, an operator is gambling that a catastrophic incident will not happen.
Understanding A Corporation’s Safety Culture
At Philpott steel service company’s locations throughout the world, excellence,the highest standards in less hazardous operational practices is not an option! Its foreign parent company implemented a culture of “safety first,” which radiates through to every employee and to every activity throughout the company. This firm’s internal processes require that they not only report safety incidents, they are also required to report any and every “close calls” to a very proactive safety committee. Their local area safety committee conducts root cause analyses for every incident from which a safety improvement initiative is developed, implemented and regularly monitored. The safety program statistics, lessons learned and best exercises implementation are watched closely by company headquarters. All associates who are involved with Philpott are made aware of management’s global “zero tolerance safe practices” requirements. In accordance with this policy, company management mandates the same stringent safety standards to be employed in every one of their internal practices!
Definition of the Issues
The decision to implement safe steel coil storage is not open for debate in the client’s “safety first” program. Processing in excess of 30,000 tons of steel every month in just one of their domestic facilities, the operation is always transporting coils to and from storage regions throughout its warehouse. This very high volume of activity numerically adds to the likelihood of an safety problem, thus requiring larger levels of attention to detail. The business’s culture of requiring constant safety program improvement was further bettered when the company recently went through a non-injury “near miss” safety accident when a chain bracing system malfunctioned and lead to a coil to become displaced from its wood storage timbers. Philpott’s extensive safety program required that this matter be fixed, and right away!
Researching Available Alternatives
The customer expressed a need to further optimize valuable floor space. He also discovered that utilizing wooden blocks and chain bracing was introducing safety hazards while also negatively impacting operations personnel performance efficiency. With these issues in mind, the facility operations organization embarked on a detailed analysis to figure out how to implement a coil storage system to reach the corporation’s “gold-standard” safety requirements. Via their industry-wide research process, the safety and operations teams received assistance from The Philpott Rubber Company, an internationally recognized leader in providing polymeric solutions for industrial usage. Philpott’s project team had many meetings with the operator’s committee and, together they, came up with criteria for coming to the desired storage solution requirements. The critical issues identified included:
• High reliability in safety for storing coils
• An extremely high return-on-investment from a long lasting coil storage system
• A system that would provide coil stacking without the requirement for chain bracing
• Safe stacking for up to 3-coils high
• Provide the protection of the outer coil wraps from damage during the handling and storage processes
• Provide increased storage capacity on a similar sized or less warehouse footprint
• The elimination of wood blocks that crush & absorb oil/dirt’
• Provide the simple installation by warehouse personnel.
• A modular design that would provide easy transportation of the storage system components.
Finding the Appropriate Solution
At the conclusion of working alongside with the operator’s task group for this project, it was clear that the company was serious about creating a cost-effective coil storage system that had a concentrated focus on safety. Philpott recommended a system made of an advanced polymer design, called RollStop™, which employs an easy to install, modular design. The RollStop system is built on two rails that run the length of each storage row, keep their parallel placement through the use of regularly placed spacers. The rails are placed in 13 foot lengths that are joined end to end using a specially designed, threaded connector. The RollStop blocks, whose placement can be replaced at any time based on the diameter of the stored coils, are added over the rails, four blocks per coil. The blocks secure themselves to the rails via the specially designed “mating rib pattern,” which destroys the need for separate mechanical fasteners. The angle of bevel on the RollStop blocks stops coils from rolling laterally as they can with wood timbers. Further, this design eliminates the need for chains, which are difficult and labor intensive to properly place and often hurt the coils. Keep our coils where we put them, it will also eliminate the strenuous task of chaining and unchaining our coils as well as chain related accidents.” This manager reported to Philpott’s team members that he was having his insurance company visit the facility in the near future. He was adamant that the obvious safety features and labor saving benefits provided by the RollStop system should earn his organization a reduction in its property and casualty insurance costs, which he said, “is a pleasant, unanticipated financial benefit!” Even though safety was the operator’s primary concern when they selected the RollStop system, it has also made a great improvement in the look and feel of the company’s coil storage areas. The manager explained that the system also allows them to store greater amounts of coils in the same building footprint, which should defer until a later date the need to expand the warehouse facilitybuilding, thus preserving precious working cash. A organization manager explained, “We have always viewed our facilitybuilding” as a show place when our many customers come to visit. This RollStop system has placed a new luster on what we were already proud of!”
Our Summary
The installation of the RollStop system at this facility accomplished a long list of the operator’s stated goals. These objectives included:
• Greater safety
• Flexibility for multiple coil ODs
• A rugged, long lasting design.
• Improved 3-high stacking capability.
• Riddance of chains & related accidents.
• A 100 ton per coil load bearing capacity.
• Elimination of wood timbers: Oil, weather & splinter resistant.
• New easy washable components.
• Installation ease.
• A new increased storage capacity.
• The ability to easily remove, store and relocate storage system.
• Large returns on capital employed.
Meeting these stringent project requirements indicates that the RollStop system should be considered by operators throughout the industry with similar, safe coil storage needs and concerns.
