Surface Preparation & Safety

+ 1 jpclPAINTSQUARE.COM JOURNAL OF PROTECTIVE COATINGS & LININGS A JPCL eResource SURFACE PREPARATION & SAFETY © 2005-2015 Technology Publishing Co. i + Surface Preparation & Safety Copyright 2005 by Technology Publishing Company 2100 Wharton Street, Suite 310 Pittsburgh, PA 15203 All Rights Reserved This eBook may not be copied or redistributed without the written permission of the publisher. © 2005-2015 Technology Publishing Co. ii Contents v Introduction 1 Safety Monitoring and Remote Control Systems 3 OSHA’s Proposed Rule for Silica Hits the Streets By Alison B. Kaelin, CQA, ABKaelin, LLC 5 Shipyard Regulatory Update By Alison B. Kaelin, CQA, ABKaelin, LLC 10 On the Time Between Blasting and Priming 11 Safety Considerations for Abrasive Blasting Operations 15 Setting Up Air Blasting Equipment 19 Surface Preparation: Adventures in Frustration By Peter Bock, CorrLine International © 2005-2015 Technology Publishing Co. 1 © 2005-2015 Technology Publishing Co. v Introduction This eBook features articles from the Journal of Protective Coatings & Linings (JPCL) about surface preparation and safety. All information about the articles is based on the original dates of publication of these materials in JPCL. Please visit www.paintsquare.com for more articles on these and other topics. © 2005-2015 Technology Publishing Co. 1 Safety Monitoring and Remote Control Systems for Blasting in Shipyards last cleaning is a critical process to remove mill scale, The Safety System Features slag, and pre-existing coatings on steel surfaces and to The complete safety system is composed of three sub-sys- prepare substrates for the subsequent application of a tems: the monitoring system for checking the blast worker’s protective coating. Dry abrasive blast cleaning is known safety, the remote control system of the blasting nozzle(s), Bto provide the best surface roughness for an ordinary and the special bone conduction ear-set system for voice organic or inorganic coating, although it is considered a very communications among workers and managers. Addition- dangerous process. ally, the safety system has a function to analyze the actual In shipyards, dry abrasive blast cleaning is especially dan- result of a blast cleaning job. gerous. Modern shipbuilding practice is to construct vessels as a series of “blocks,” coat these, and then join up to finish the build. Workers must contend with a very poor environ- In shipyards, dry ment because of a mist of paint debris, spent abrasive parti- cles, noise, and the danger from blasting media traveling at abrasive blasting a high speed. Also, their work can involve moving through is especially dangerous. narrow access holes (600 mm x 800 mm hole) in the steel blocks. Moreover, blasters work alone for a long time. There The Safety Monitoring System is virtually no visibility inside these steel blocks during blast- The safety monitoring system features emergency call sig- ing, so developing a safety system for blast cleaning workers naling, sensing vibration data, and checking location data for is more essential than for many other types of projects. blast cleaning workers in the blasting cell. Basing a remote workers’ safety and contact system on When the worker with a 2.45GHz RFID active tag is work- wireless technology is more difficult to develop than such ing in the blasting cell, the safety system works as follows: a system for other work areas because of the possibility at information about working conditions is transmitted from shipyards of wireless data transmission errors by reflection, the active tag through a network to the monitoring system, refraction, and diffusion of the radio waves in the blasting where the manager can check workers’ safety using comput- area (cell). There are also technological limits in building er-analyzed emergency signal data with the workers’ loca- the safety system for shipyard job areas, but developments tion information. in IT (Information Technology) and RFID (Radio-Frequency The monitoring system consists of three functions to Identification) technology have made remote control safety check workers’ safety and to send the emergency signal to systems possible. the manager. First, it’s a function for storing and analyzing This article summarizes work carried out by Won-Jun information; second, it’s a function for monitoring workers’ Yun, Byung Hun Lee, and Dong-Min Kim of Hyundai Indus- location and their safety information; and third, it’s a func- trial Research Institute, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Co. Ltd. tion for sounding a buzzer and sending SMS (Short Mes- Korea, and Young-Shick Ro, School of Electrical Engineering, sage Service) to the manager. Also, it can give an alarm by University of Ulsan, Korea, into such a system. The summa- analyzing the vibration sensor on a worker, including direct ry will concentrate on the features of such a safety system, emergency calling. Finally, it can monitor remaining battery rather than on the technical aspects. capacity of the active tag and temperature of the working The summary is based on a presentation given at PACE conditions. 2010, the joint conference of SSPC and PDCA, held Feb. 7–10, 2010, in Phoenix, AZ. The full paper is published in the The Remote Control System for Blasting Nozzles Proceedings (www.sspc.org). The remote control of blasting nozzle(s) is integrated with © 2005-2015 Technology Publishing Co. 2 the safety monitoring system to cut compressed air when an Operation Procedure of the Safety System emergency situation occurs. Managers also can check the To confirm workers’ safety, there are three ways to check the blasting nozzle status and turn it off remotely using PC when emergency signals from workers in the blasting cell: sensing emergencies occur. The remote control system can control the active tag emergency call, analyzing a sensed danger the blasting nozzle valve directly after checking the condition signal automatically by vibration sensor, and using voice of blasting nozzles one by one or altogether. communication with a special bone conduction ear-set. The monitoring system can sense various emergencies, The Special Bone Conduction ring alarms, and send the information about the emergen- Ear-Set Communication cy to managers. After the manager checks the SMS or the The special bone conduction ear-set system with neck mi- emergency signal on the monitoring system, he or she crophone is necessary to communicate about blast working can reconfirm the worker’s safety by having a conversa- conditions in the cell with a person in the managing office. tion through the bone conduction ear-set. If an emergency Working conditions in the blasting cell and protective occurs, the blasting nozzles can be controlled remotely by a clothes for blast cleaning work are not conducive to easy manager. Also, actions can be taken for workers to be safely voice communication. So it is more difficult to communicate evacuated from the life-threatening emergency, as well as using normal methods inside the steel block. Thus, a special for the urgent rescue of nearby co-workers. Emergency sig- system that the worker can use while wearing a mask, ear- nals can be transmitted to all managers to prevent sudden plugs, and a helmet had to be developed. accidents and to inform them of the rescue process. For communication among workers and managers during This innovative safety system for workers blasting in ship- the blast cleaning job, the special voice communication yards allows managers to communicate with workers in real system using the existing infrastructure with TRS (Trunked time and thus also allows managers to properly distribute Radio System), which can communicate with a group, was the workload and make a contribution to the improvement in used. Workers wearing masks and earplugs can still listen productivity. with the aid of the bone conduction mechanism and speak using a neck microphone, which makes communication possible through the vibration of vocal cords. Because blast cleaning workers must pass through small access holes to work in the steel block, the developed system is small and has the added conveniences of portability and noise interception. © 2005-2015 Technology Publishing Co. 3 others discussed in the proposal: abrasives such as mineral slags as well as sand, paints, concrete, portland cement, silicates, and soil. As part of the rulemaking, OSHA performed an extensive analysis entitled “Respirable Crystalline Silica—Health Effects Literature Review and Preliminary Quantitative Risk Assessment.” The available evidence indicated that employ- ees exposed to respirable crystalline silica at concentrations well below the current PELs (of 100 and 250 µg/m3) have OSHA’S Proposed Rule an increased risk of lung cancer and silicosis. Occupational exposures to respirable crystalline silica also may result in the development of kidney and autoimmune diseases and in death from other nonmalignant respiratory diseases, includ- for Silica Hits the Streets ing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Summary of the Proposed Rules By Alison B. Kaelin, Among the aspects of the proposed rule that may be of inter- CQA, ABKaelin, LLC est to the coatings industry are the following. • Requirements to comply with applicable ventilation standards (e.g., 29CFR1926.57) for abrasive blast cleaning. While the ventilation standards have long been in place, they have n August 23, 2013, the U.S. Occupational Safety and not been fully implemented in many containment systems. Health Administration (OSHA) unveiled its long-expect-

Load more