ABHR looks at the reasons key bulk handling sectors are turning towards elevators to handle their requirements for working from heights.
Falls from any height can sound innocuous, but a worksite fall can quickly move from an accident to a fatality.
Earlier this year, workplaces across Victoria were left shaken after six recorded falls left workers either injured or, tragically, in one case, deceased in March.
“It might be easy to think that a tragic incident will never happen on your site, but if safety is not the top priority every day, then the chances are high that it will,” WorkSafe Executive Director Health and Safety Narelle Beer said.
Working at height is one of the largest threats to worker safety on any worksite. From 2015 to 2019, Safe Work Australia’s research indicated that falls from a height accounted for 13 per cent of worker fatalities.
Increasingly, more bulk materials companies are investing in vertical access solutions, like the ones provided by Alimak, to support worker safety and address common worker issues, including fatigue, medical emergencies, shutdown, and injury risk.
After all, office workers are not expected to climb stairs with their laptops and keep cups, so why should bulk materials workers, in harsher environments, be expected to juggle tools while climbing stairs?
“In a medical emergency when every second counts, getting a patient to the ground or enabling emergency services to get to a patient in a timely manner could mean the difference between life and death,” Alimak sales manager Andrew Mercieca said.
“A site with a stretcher-capable elevator can save lives. If an employer is ever asked, ‘Have you made your workplace as safe as possible in the event of an emergency?’ then providing an elevator is a big tick in that box.”
Alimak’s rack and pinion elevators, seen everywhere from ports to iron ore plant systems, help alleviate these concerns.
Rio Tinto engaged Alimak’s services to improve vertical access to its iron ore operation at Cape Lambert in Western Australia. Alimak designed, manufactured and installed Alimak SE 1200kg industrial elevators for the mine’s processing facility.
It marked a significant milestone for the company as they were the first permanent Alimak elevators installed on Rio Tinto’s iron ore screenhouse in Australia. However, they were also crucial to Rio Tinto’s expansion program, which the company undertook to increase the site’s production capacity. The industrial elevators helped ensure materials, equipment and personnel were transported efficiently and safely within the plant. According to Alimak, this resulted in decreased production downtime and enhanced safety.
Across the country, Alimak was engaged to design, manufacture, and install a custom elevator solution for the Williamstown Shipyard at Nelson Pier, Victoria. The solution had to comply with specific requirements for maritime operations and be able to integrate into the shipyard’s infrastructure, which was undergoing a multi-million-dollar upgrade.
The company installed an Alimak SE rack and pinion industrial elevator to serve as the primary access point for the hulls of docked ships. This upgrade marked a vast improvement in safety compared to the previous setup. The industrial elevator provided emergency stretcher access, which suited the safety protocols of the maritime operation and suited for emergencies, including evacuations and responses.
“Shipyards and ports around the globe use Alimak elevators on ship unloaders to ferry crane operators to the driver’s cabin, often over 30m in the air, cutting fatigue, potential stress injuries from climbing stairs and improving overall efficiency from having a well-rested workforce,” Mercieca said.
Alimak has been designing, manufacturing and advising on elevator solutions across various industries since it was established more than 70 years ago. The company has installed more than 23,000 vertical access solutions globally, some of which are still operational after 25 years.
Mercieca said safety was one of the main reasons these organisations chose Alimak’s solutions.
“Workers are often climbing stairs with tools and parts and it can be hard to maintain the three points of contact while doing this,” he said.
“With Alimak’s elevators, maintaining the three points of contact is no longer an issue for workers or management, which promotes a safer workplace.
“It can also help aid efficiency, reducing worker fatigue, during working situations like shutdowns and when moving parts and equipment. An elevator also assists older, more experienced workers, who may be susceptible to chronic knee and hip injuries, to keep working in their role.”
Tailored safety
As a manufacturer and designer of elevators, Alimak has evolved its designs to be at the forefront of the sector. Over time, Alimak has adjusted and added the latest technology and innovations to its range to ensure they suit many industrial environments, which are often in harsh conditions. The elevators feature three independent braking systems, electrically and mechanically interlocked carriages, and landing doors. The rack-and-pinion drive system has no wire ropes, requiring only one single trailing cable.
The gravity descent feature ensures the elevator can be safely lowered in case of a power failure. The elevator can be lowered at controlled speed to lower levels without activating the emergency brake, which has its own pinion separate from the drive system.
“With the ability to manually lower the elevator should there be a fault such as loss of power, the Alimak rack and pinion elevator offers many advantages over a wire rope elevator,” Mercieca said.
Due to its streamlined design, Alimak has designed its solutions to work in a relatively small footprint. There is no need for a supporting elevator shaft as the elevator travels through penetrations in the floor, access shafts, or outside of the structure.
Businesses are also not required to maintain a separate air-conditioned machine room.
Alimak designs all elevator machinery and electrical equipment to be located on the carriage’s roof. These safety features are ideal for companies in the bulk materials sector.