A Protective Plate for a Secure Work Environment

The Engineering department, together with employees from Alma Works’ Gas Treatment Centre, conceived and designed a protective plate to help employees do their work in complete safety. The goal of this project was to reduce the risks when workers install ceramic panels on the reactor conduit’s walls. The protective plate, which was successfully used on 8 November, will also be used for other similar work in the near future.

Pierre-Luc Côté, Supervisor, Gas Treatment Centre, said, “This is the first time that this plate prototype has been used as part of the project to protect the conduit walls by covering them with ceramic panels. The fresh alumina that is injected into the reactor conduits corrodes the walls, wearing and puncturing them over time. To ensure the safety of our workers, we needed to find a way to protect them from the scale build-up that can fall off the reactors’ walls.”

The issue inspired the teams to create a metal mesh plate that is inserted at the end of the conduit to make the area safe. This protective plate prevents debris from falling and ensures that employees can work on their tasks in complete safety.