Equipment maintenance is necessary for all industries to ensure optimum performance and productivity. A conveyor belt is of no exception. If you are an equipment manager, it is your task to inspect your equipment regularly. This will prevent breakdowns in production, damage, and unnecessary expenses to your company.

Why maintenance is necessary:

• A regularly inspected conveyor belt will result in peak efficiency. It ensures that you meet your productivity goals for the day. A malfunctioning belt will slow down your production, throw off a whole day’s operation, incur huge costs, and cause unnecessary delay.
• It will save you money. If you don’t want to spend on repairs or the cost of buying a brand new belt, inspect the one you currently have regularly. Know how to clean the conveyor belt properly and fix minor problems to lengthen its service life and keep it in top working condition.
• Workplace safety. A well-maintained belt spells safety for your workplace and employees. Take the time out to check the condition of your equipment. Some parts may need to be replaced or cleaned to ensure its proper working order. A malfunction caused by faulty parts may result in an accident or even death.

Keep a close eye on your belt to catch small problems before they escalate into bigger issues, which take more time and money to repair. A simple ocular inspection of visible parts and surfaces is enough. Be vigilant, check your conveyor belt for any sign of wear and tear, and know when a detail is out of the ordinary.

Some common issues to look out for are belts that do not run straight, broken bearings, damaged fabric, blocked rolls, or a belt that is regularly slipping or catching. Check the bearings or other parts of the belt to see what is causing the problem. If these are in good condition and yet the problem is still there, check each part of the machine carefully.

For more information about conveying equipment and all your conveyor belt needs, check out KC Supply’s website.

Personal Protective Equipment is commonly known as PPE. It is worn to reduce exposure to workplace hazards that may cause illnesses and injuries. These may come as a result to contact with radiological, physical, mechanical, chemical, or other workplace dangers. This protective gear may incorporate items such as safety glasses, and shoes, gloves, respirators, earplugs or muffs, vests, coveralls, full-body suits or gowns.

Proper use and maintenance

All of your protective gear should be carefully designed and constructed. It should be maintained cleanly and decently. It should be of a correct and comfortable fit, which encourages workers to use it. If it does not fit well, it spells the difference between being covered safely or dangerously unprotected. Employers must provide PPE to their workers and train them regarding their proper use. Employers should also ensure that each worker knows:

• When it is necessary to wear the PPE
• What kind of PPE is necessary
• How to put it on, wear, adjust and take off
• The limitations of the PPE
• Care, maintenance, service life, and proper disposal

Likewise, a PPE program should be established. The program should address the workplace hazards present; selection, use, maintenance of PPE, employee training, program monitoring to ensure its effectiveness.

PPE in the time of COVID-19

The World Health Organization has also released recommendations about the use of PPE’s this time of COVID-19. In this context, Personal Protective Equipment includes medical masks, gloves, face shields or goggles, gowns, respirators for specific procedures (N95 or FFP2 standard, or it’s equivalent) and aprons. These are intended for healthcare workers or anyone else treating COVID-19 infected patients.

Use of PPE

Health care personnel in direct contact with patients should wear the following: gloves, gowns, eye protection (face shield or goggles), and mask. For aerosol-generating procedures, health workers should wear eye protection, gloves, respirators, gowns, aprons must also be worn if gowns are not fluid resistant.

For your personal protective equipment needs, check out KC Supply’s website today.

A Handy Grain Bin Entry List 

A grain bin is used for storing grain, which has been dried. The grain can be used for human or animal consumption and sometimes for fuel. Meanwhile, silos are used for storing silage. 

Grain Bin/Silo Entry List

Although grain bins and silos are different, they share one thing in common, and that is safety precautions during entry. There are instances when workers must enter these facilities to perform maintenance of checks. Proper protocol must be followed during the entry to ensure the safety of the worker. 

The following is a brief checklist that can be used when a worker is going to enter a grain bin or a silo:

• All equipment producing mechanical energy is turned off before the entry of the worker.
• The electricity should be turned off as well as all equipment running on power before the worker enters.
• All pneumatic tools must be turned off.
• Is there a procedure in place if a worker gets engulfed in waist-high grain?
• If there is a bridging condition, then the worker shall not enter or if there is grain on the side, which can bury the worker inside the grain bin.
• Is there a procedure in place in case there is a leak of combustible or poisonous gases? Has the facility been checked for such leaks?
• Is there another person monitoring the entry of the worker?
• There must be rescue equipment specially suited for entry on standby in case of an accident inside.
• Is the person monitoring the entry capable of leading a rescue or is trained to conduct a rescue?

These are just some of the things that must be checked before a worker enters a grain bin or a silo. Remember that these precautions are in place because of the real hazard involved during entry.

For more information on safety materials, don’t hesitate to ask KC Supply Company.

Grain Elevator Housekeeping Checklist 

A grain elevator is a facility specifically designed for storing grain. Grain elevators provide storage spaces for farmers until they are ready to sell their grain in the market.

Before the grain is stored in the elevators, their moisture content is checked first. Too much moisture content could cause mold growth while it is stored. It is not just the grain itself that must be checked before it is loaded into the storage facility.

The storage facility itself must be cleaned and checked for contamination. All of its parts, from the loading area to the storage bins, must be free from pest infestation. 

Here is a housekeeping checklist that can be followed for a grain elevator:

• For the basement, you have to make sure that the boot pits are cleaned. The floor should also be cleaned and pumped, and all the machinery found there is checked and swept.
• The tunnels must be swept clean, and there should be no debris left there.
• Clean the floor of the power room and check all the switch boxes, and buttons are wiped clean.
• The truck receiving area should receive special attention when cleaning since it may be the likely source of contamination in the grain elevator.
• For the rail loading and unloading area of the grain elevator, the grain spills should be cleaned, and the spouting must be free from holes.
• The bin tops, walls, and floors in the head house must be cleaned thoroughly. The electric motors there and the ledges should be swept.
• Check for leaks in the grain dryers. The control panels and fan room should be wiped clean.
• For the dust systems, you have to make sure that the grain oil systems are working and the filter systems are functioning.

You must follow this checklist before loading the grain elevator so contamination can be avoided. If you are interested to know more, you can ask KC Supply Company for more details. 

When you work with a grain bin, one of the things you need to be careful of is grain entrapment. Did you know that you could be up to your waist in grain in as quickly as 10 seconds? And did you know that you could be completely entrapped in grain in as little as 25 seconds?

Entrapment scenario

Experts have noted these two scenarios that could lead to grain burying people in a bin:

• When grain is pulled out from the bottom of a bin, the grain shifts and forms a funnel that can trap a person.
• When grain forms a crust, it could create an air pocket. Grain entrapment could happen if a person breaks the crust and falls into the hole. The rest of the grain could shift to fill the uncovered space.

Statistics show that one to three people in Nebraska die each year due to grain entrapment. Many more people in other areas like Kansas City are at risk of this deadly situation. So how do you prevent such a situation from happening? Here are some ways you can do so.

Store grain properly

Proper management of stored grain is the best preventative measure. This makes sure that the grain you keep does not form a crust or go out of condition. This reduces the risk of grain entrapment. You will not have any reason to enter the bin to move things around.

Use tools

If the grain does form a crust, use tools to break it instead of letting a person enter the bin. A long rod is a good tool to prod and break the crust from outside the container. You can also use a grain vacuum.

Practice safety precautions

If you need to enter the bin, make sure that the worker has a safety harness for security and emergency measures.

For more questions or if you need to buy some safety equipment, contact KC Supply Company. We provide a wide range of monitoring and safety equipment that you need for your business.

In what is fast becoming an annual tradition, agricultural professionals and industry leaders join forces in support of Grain Bin Safety Week, to be held on the 16th to the 22nd of February, 2020.

Gear and Training for First Responders

This year’s celebration will feature a Nominate Your Fire Department Contest, running from the first day of the year all the way to the 30th of April. Grain rescue tubes and life-saving training will be awarded to nominated departments and will be vital in preventing accidents in grain bins and silos. This contest is sponsored by KC Supply, the National Education Center for Agricultural Safety, and several other allies in the crusade for safety.

To date, more than 2000 first responders have benefitted from the training and supplies provided by the contest, representing members of fire departments from more than 20 states. The skills and tools were put to good use in 2015 when a man was saved from a grain bin by the Westphalia Fire Department of Kansas.

 How To Participate

To nominate your local fire department, simply state in writing how your local fire department and community would benefit from having a grain rescue tube and grain bin entrapment training. Answers can be sent via email to agcontest[at]nicc[dot]edu, or directly to the event website. Answers can also be sent in via physical mail, addressed to NECAS, Grain Bin Safety Ag Contest, 8342 NICC Dr., Peosta, IA 52068.

To be valid, nominators must provide their name, job, contact number, email address, and home address, along with the name, phone number, and address of the emergency rescue team or fire department to be nominated.

To further spread the word about the importance of safety in and around grain bins and silos, promotional materials can be made available upon request. While national statistics for the relative safety of the agricultural profession in general, and grain storage units in particular, seems to be improving, death and serious injury remain real possibilities to be guarded against.