Feed mills, pet food plants and grain facilities present safety hazards including fires and explosions from grain dust accumulation, suffocation from engulfment and entrapment in grain bins, falls from heights, and possible severe injuries from grain handling equipment.
Keeping your plant employees safe from these hazards should be at the top of your priorities.
Implementing automated control systems throughout your plant can help prevent these incidents from happening.
Automated emergency stop controls
While you plan to have your plant run smoothly, there are inevitably going to be times when employees need to quickly stop production without warning.
If employees are frantically moving throughout the mill to manually stop the machines, there is a greater chance for error or for someone to forget to follow safety protocol and cause serious damage.
To avoid this, Repete automated control systems offer Emergency Stop Circuitry that will stop all equipment with the press of one emergency button, eliminating the risk of employees injuring themselves while manually turning off machines.
There are also times when production only needs to be stopped in one process area of the mill.
Repete control systems offer a Process Stop which stops selected pieces of equipment in one area, while production continues normally throughout the rest of the facility. Just as quickly as you press these stop buttons, you can press another button to restart production in an instant.
Given the size and power of machinery in these facilities, it can take time for the machine’s momentum to slow down and come to a complete stop.
Repete offers zero speed sensors ensuring that not only has the device been turned off, but it has physically come to a complete stop and finished coasting down. This sensor prevents someone from opening the door while the equipment is still moving.
Safely accessing machinery
There are various moving parts of machinery inside these processing plants that can be hazardous if not accessed in a safe manner.
If someone is unaware of the status of a machine and opens the door while it is running, they can be seriously injured. When these machines are equipped with door switches, Repete systems can monitor the door status, and display on screen if the door is open or closed.
If a door is open, the equipment will not be able to start. Additionally, if a door somehow opens during production, the Repete system will automatically stop the machine.
Fire sensors measure temperature increases
Fires are also a major concern for feed mills, pet food plants, and grain facilities. Fire sensors, bearing temperature sensors, and belt alignments measure the temperature of machines, as well as material coming out of the coolers to ensure that it doesn’t exceed safe temperatures.
If a machine is too hot, the Repete system will automatically stop the routing of material to prevent spreading a fire risk throughout the facility.
Similarly, vibration sensors will measure the vibration of each machine to make sure they are running smoothly and safely.
These are just a few examples of the many preventable safety hazards that exist in today’s process manufacturing plants.
Learn more about how automated control systems can help combat these hazards and keep your plant employees safe.
