INDUSTRIAL SAFETY

EXPERIENCES OF THE CHEREPOVETS PLANT IN PROTECTING WORKERS

AND THE ENVIROhrMENT

A. E. Mager and A. S. Grigor'ev

Recent years have seen a significant improvement in working conditions at our plant. The mechanization and automation of production processes and the reconstruction and modern- ization of equipment as well as the introduction of new methods of cleaning industrial wastes have made it possible for us to improve working conditions for 5012 workers in the last 2 years and reduce dust emissions into the atmosphere by a factor of almost four com- pared to 1972.

The plant places much emphasis on protecting its workers and cleaning up the environ- ment. A total of 254 projects were included in the comprehensive plan for 1977-1978; 231 were fully completed and 23 are nearing completion. More than 2.5 million rubles have been spent directly on industrial safety in these years.

For example, to establish normal working conditions in the sinter plant, large sums of money have been spent from the plant development fund. Aspirators have been installed in the coke section of the plant and work is being completed on installation of aspirators in the charging section of sinter plant No. i. Aspirators will also be installed at the discharge ends of sintering machines Nos. 4-7. All these improvements will provide more helpful work- ing conditions for about 120 sinterers.

The Kharkov institute "Giprostal'" has begun work on the design of equipment for the reconstruction of sinter plant No. 2. Agreements have been concluded with the VNIIAvtoprom in Rustavi on developing and installing automatic devices for batching materials by weight at the sinter plants, as has been done successfully at the Nizhni Tagil combine.

Many measures have been implemented on improving working conditions during the repair and reconstruction of blast furnaces Nos. 1 and 2. A bath type vibrating trough has been installed. Sinter fines are now being screened and the degree of hermetization has been improved -- materials are now transported primarily along closed conveyor systems. An as- piration system has become operational in the stockhouse for blast furnace No. 3.

Mechanizing tamping of the linings of the main troughs with vibrating tampers freed furnacemen from manual labor and increased iron trough life from 8-10 to 18-20 days. The use of grabs and scrapers to remove smelting products and debris from the trenches has speeded up this operation and mechanized the labor of more than i00 furnacemen.

Ferroaluminum is now used on the two-bath steelmaking furnace for killing steel. It is supplied to the ingot molds from hoppers designed by the Institute of Ferrous Metallurgy in Dnepropetrovsk. Rimming steel no longer has to be capped. In the open-hearth shop, seven of the ii charging machines have been equipped with stationary cabsj thus improving working conditions for machine operators.

Air conditioners in the cabs of the pouring floor crane operators have been replaced with water coolers developed in conjunction with YUVenergochernet (Rostov-on-Don). One such cooling unit can take care of two-three cranes. Use of a salt solution in the units significantly reduces air temperature in the cabs: Room temperature is maintained inside when the outside temperature is plus 80~ The units are convenient to use and do not pose dangerous vibration problems for the cranes. Such units have also been installed in the OH shop, primary mill and teeming composition shop. In the rail yard 19 diesel locomotives have been equipped with second control panels allowing the engineer to work without an assistant and drive the locomotive and train in bad weather and from the left side of the locomotive. Installation of a mirror on the left side of the cabin allows an engineer on

Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant. Translated from Meta!lurg, No. I, pp. 37-38, January, 1979.

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the right side to observe traffic on the far side. Such mirrors have been installed in the cabins of 90 locomotives.

The switches in the Cherepovets-2 and Prokat-2 stations have been electrically cen- tralized. The low-power portable radio sets of the "Tyul'pan" series have been replaced by sets of the "Sirena" series, which are used in conjunction with ZhRU-type radio sets and provide stable communications between the dispatcher, originator, and locomotive engineer.

Facilities are being introduced to direct electric overhead traveling cranes from the floor instead of the cab, with a reduction of 120-150 men in the number of crane operators and service personnel to be achieved in the first stage of this project alone. Elevator- type warehouses have been constructed in the foundry and machine shops and stacker cranes have been installed. Containers at the warehouse are secured to a vertical conveyor or are placed on and removed from vertical shelves by the cranes. Valuable shop space is saved in both cases since the entire area from the floor to the trusses is used.

A conveyor has been installed in mechanical repair shop No. 1 to remove snow from the building roof. This has eliminated manual labor for 25 men. Working conditions in the foundry have been considerably improved for mold cleaners by the introduction of the elec- trohydraulic unit "Iskra-30" developed jointly with scientists at Nikolaev. The use of special machines for the water-jet cleaning of deposits and scale from within underground power mains (pipes and equipment) freedhundreds of workers from an unpleasant task.

In conjunction with the Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys the plant has introduced a new method of cleaning effluent waters at the 2000 mill. The new reagent is absolutely harmless, convenient to use and improves the elimination of harmful substances in filtered water by a factor of 15-20 compared to the old reagent.

A total of 35-40% of the technical measures implemented yearly are connected directly or indirectly with industrial safety. During the last five-year plan and the first 2.5 years of the current plan accidents at the plant have been reduced 32% and about 12 million rubles have been spent on industrial safety. There are now more than 4500 flue gas pumps, smoke screens, air conditioners, water coolers, heaters, and ventilation units at the plant, 265 drinking fountains, etc. Measures introduced under collective agreement and the com- prehensive plan are systematically monitored by the chief engineer of the plant and leading specialists in the shop and voluntary organizations.

Together with institutes, the plant is introducing measures to reduce harmful emissions during the operation of equipment producing convective and radiant heat, harmful vapors and gases, dustD noise, vibrations, ultrasound, and other harmful elements. Emulating the ex- perience of the Zaporozhstal' plant, the sinter shop in the fourth quarterof 1978 introduced a unit of unique design to burn llme that includes aspirators. In blast furnace practice, reconstruction of furnaces Nos. 1 and 2 not only increased pig iron output by over 300,000 tons a year, but thanks to comprehensive mechanization of hearth work, significantly im- proved working conditions for furnace personnel as well. One more iron notch will be in- stalled on the furnace and a device is being provided to monitor overheating of tuyeres,

etc.

In steelmaking practice, a planned increase (at least threefold) in the amount of elec- tric and OH steel teemed using slide gates and the use of compositions to mechanize the lining of the 100 and 300 ton steel ladles in place of refractory brick will ease the work of pouters, refractory workers, and workers in other specialties.

Water coolers have been installed in the cabs of the pouring floor cranes and the cab of new crane No. 13 to improve the microclimate within. Stationary cabs have been installed on two charging machines. The remaining three machines will be converted before 1980. Air- driven tractors of an original design have been put to use in the steelmaking shops to clean checkerchambers and in the rolling mills to mechanize the removal of ash from reheat fur- naces. Two hot-scarfing machines will be installed in the section mill to mechanize product conditioning. The installation of binding machines and the mastering of new equipment to turn the surface of rolled rounds in the section mill will reduce the time spent on these operations and improve product quality.

Thus, the introduction of measures on industrial safety in 1978 will improve working conditions and make work easier for more than 1300 men.

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