Prevent fires on mine sites! Take ownership of maintenance

Due to a series of recent fires on mine sites, we’ve decided to focus this article specifically on the fire risk associated with using fuels and oils in an industrial setting. Banlaw team members spend well over 100,000 hours a year designing, building and maintaining dry break fuel systems, processes, and infrastructure. Our service teams spend the majority of their hours on site, auditing fleets and facilities, training operators, delivering preventative maintenance, or analysing the data that’s been captured on mine sites to find improvements. We’ve seen pretty much every conceivable way that a fire can be caused in a fuel facility or on mobile plant. Below is what we’ve learned about avoiding fires over the last 37 years.

Tank Overfill Prevention – Are your tanks spill free?

Are your generators, vehicles, plant equipment or stationary tanks overfilling? There are numerous ways to manage the risk of tank overfill, and in this blog article, we’ll lay out some of the most common, along with the pros and cons of each. Your first question is probably ‘Why should I care?’, and you’d be asking the right question. It all comes down to risk; what is going to happen in each specific situation if an overfill occurs? Does your current risk management program consider the variables of each application, specifically those variables which may determine a hazard? The ALARP principal is often used in the regulation or safety-critical systems, and requires that residual risk is reduced “as low as reasonably practicable”. If you overfill a small storage tank used for water, it may be that plants will get watered, and ‘people could get wet’. With liquid hydrocarbons, it’s often more of an issue. Soil and water become contaminated, tanks are ruptured, critical machines burn down, explosions occur; people can die.

Banlaw receives HSE Innovation Award from major miner

Banlaw service teams have recently been recognised by a large global mining client for reducing the risk associated with the manual handling of fluid calibration equipment. Flow calibration is a critical activity for companies that need an accurate fuel management system to account for fuel usage in their operation. Calibration Meters are known to be bulky, awkward, and heavy. Moving Calibration Meters from job to job and correctly positioning them on site carries a significant risk of staff injury. As part of Banlaw’s continuous improvement approach to onsite Hydrocarbon processes; this situation was recognised as an opportunity to improve. Banlaw teams analysed the risk profile, then designed and fabricated a new Calibration Rig solution.

Zero Lost Time Injuries for 5 years at Banlaw

Safety is first among Banlaw’s core values. Ahead of everything else, we aim to send our guys and girls home safe when the work is done. During these five years Banlaw teams have delivered fuel and resource management projects in 33 countries, and manufactured hundreds of thousands of products. Thank you to our staff, and our valued customers and distributors for creating an environment where we can all expect to go home safe at the end of the day.

Machining and Assembly

We have our own in-house machining and assembly expertise, ensuring that products are of the highest quality and enabling us to incorporate additional safety, efficiency and user-friendly features.

Engineering

With more than 35 years’ experience, Banlaw has a thorough understanding of the challenges and barriers to fuel management, monitoring and reconciliation. Our team of experienced engineers can assist you to solve your refuelling and fuel handling problems, minimising risks and improving your bottom line.

Site Maintenance

Your refuelling and fluid management systems need to be properly maintained to ensure you gain the maximum benefit from our solutions. Regular inspections are also a legislative requirement in some countries. Let our expert team make scheduled maintenance cost effective and efficient. We can also provide complete site audits on actual fuel usage and workplace practices in relation to fuels and fluid handling. We offer routine inspections, maintenance, meter calibrations, and reporting on the condition of facilities, equipment, and machines.

Top 10 Fuel Issues

Banlaw has spent three decades refining the functionality of the refuelling area. We understand the particular challenges you face with scale, speed and harsh environments. We have outlined the top ten issues our customers come up against with their fuel and hydrocarbon storage, management and use, and how Banlaw can help you to swiftly overcome these issues with tried-and-tested methods and proven cost-effective services.

Safe Refuelling

As the Pioneers of Unified Fuel Management, Banlaw have spent three decades refining the functionality of the refuelling area to keep it safe whilst still achieving speeds of up to 1,000lpm. Our safety expertise covers fuel management as well as storage and use of other hydrcarbons. Outsource your safety consulting to save time and money whilst keeping your employees and equipment safe. Our staff value the same safety policies as you and can help you meet all relevant safety criteria. We are proud of our safety record and the piece of mind it gives you on your site.

Drive-Away Prevention Solutions

Drive-aways from fuel bays are unfortunately an all-too common occurrence, and can cause serious injury, spills, equipment damage and environmental impact. Not only that, it costs a small fortune to repair and creates unnecessary downtime. Is your site equipped to withstand this type of accident and save you thousands of dollars should damage occur? What can you do to make sure this doesn’t happen again on your site?

Safety