[Leethal]

Thanks very much OB, very much appreciated. I’ll absorb as much as I can and have a chat to the boss when I fly back up on Friday.

Thanks again 👍

 

[Leethal]

OB I gave you a bum steer, the ball mills are 11kV not 3.3.

But anyway…

So by the time I get back to work on Friday there may be some, um, involuntary unemployed individuals.

@62woollybugger @Overboard @Haggie You‘ll appreciate this…

So the underground mine, at the surface near the winder they have these huge chillers and fans to feed cold air down 1.3 kilometres to the bottom. The fans are these huge barrel shaped units, need a confined entry permit to access. Occasionally they get an imbalance fault, usually a build up of dirt on the blades apparently (Haven’t seen it personally, I’m surface maintenance and have nothing to do with the underground knuckle draggers like Kimba). So nightshift have isolated it and got permits and cleaned blades etc and restarted it, but needed more work, so re isolated it and continued work. Handed over to day shift who noted the feed was locked out in the racked IN position. Apparently a new bloke was given the opportunity to rack in and out a few times to,get the feel of it before it was locked out. Or not.

So guys were inside the housing of this 3.3kV fan … while it could be started with the start button.

Heads will roll.

Then, the second last nightshift of my last swing (I was on dayshift) one of the guys isolated a sump pump so fitters could repair a pump. The gold room sump, amd drive in sump are adjacent and apparently poorly labelled, pump was deemed ok, deisolated, then they noted a bearing was noisey. Someone reisolated pump in sub, disconnected motor and left phases bolted to earth, bagged and tagged. We came in on dayshift, control noted pump was healthy for a start other than float switch tripped. My boss said no it’s isolated, control said not according to DCS it isn’t, and further investigation revealed wrong pump was isolated. When tested for dead at field end, of course there was no voltage as it was turned off, but not isolated.

Given the potential prospective fault current of this unit, and there is no earth leakage on this one (nuisance tripping from VSD I guess?) you can imagine the possible consequences here and the number of ways it could have gone pear shaped.

So I’m guessing I will return to work with two sparkies short from when I left….

We’ll see what happens…

 

[Overboard]

wrong pump was isolated.

I'd say this is generally a much greater problem than it should be and two such **** ups on the same swing prove that. I've seen it several times and it is also the reason that as well as proper isolation, you should put your own tag on the local stop button of any item you are working on. Certainly not a reliable method of isolation but it can prevent stupid mistakes turning into disasters.

As an apprentice, when isolating equipment, I was taught to read ALOUD the item description and tag number from the work order in my hand and then off the isolator I was about to lock. This simple practice of vocalising what you are looking at causes the brain to concentrate individually on that particular issue at a time when the whole job you are about to start is whirling round inside your head.

 

[rgren2]

My daughter is all excited about applying for a job through this mob.

Mining Jobs - Mining Australia

Mining jobs in Australia. We cover everything from dump truck jobs to admin and labouring positions. Mining is still hiring.

www.australia-mining.com

Are they as dodgy as I suspect?
She’s pretty gullible and easily tricked.

 

[GUEY]

My daughter is all excited about applying for a job through this mob.

Mining Jobs - Mining Australia

Mining jobs in Australia. We cover everything from dump truck jobs to admin and labouring positions. Mining is still hiring.

www.australia-mining.com

Are they as dodgy as I suspect?
She’s pretty gullible and easily tricked.

Tell her to keep her guard up. Although that advice is applicable to any job in any sector.

Report reveals extent of sexual harassment and assault at WA FIFO sites

A parliamentary report has laid bare the disturbing extent of sexual harassment and assault faced by women at Western Australia's FIFO sites.

www.9news.com.au

You need to watch out for the g banger stealers too... hey @Leethal

 

[rgren2]

It’s the employment company that I’m concerned about. They appear to be a little shady. I read some reviews that weren’t very complimentary. I’ve already advised her against them, was checking to see if any of our brethren here know about them.