Project Overview

Due to the accumulation of batching materials, the furnace ventilators became clogged and
ineffective, leading to corrosion of the sheeting. The resulting impurities compromised the quality of
the final glass product, forcing the recycling of rejected items and incurring extra costs.

The project encompassed the following scopes and services:

● Complete removal of surplus batching materials, which comprised:
○ Silica sand
○ Dolomite
○ Soda ash
○ Limestone
○ Roch
○ Iron anthracite
● Replacement of the corroded IBR sheeting.
● Replacement of the corroded purlins.

Safety systems

To ensure secure access to the different ventilators, temporary lifelines and movable walkway systems were installed.

● For proper waste management, rubble chutes were set up to safely discard the batching
mixture into a designated bin.
● Every employee was equipped with the correct personal protective equipment (PPE) required
for the task.
● Since the project was executed in extreme heat, special measures were taken to ensure the
continuous hydration of the workforce.

Method and Approach

Our approach was to tackle the ventilators by servicing SP3 first. The batching material had to be
chipped off using jackhammers and spades. All of the debris then had to be moved in bucket loads to
the rubble chute for disposal.
The SP4 ventilator had to be cleared by using the same method. After removing all the debris from
SP4, the replacement of corroded purlins & sheeting commenced. Due to the steep angle of the
ventilator structure, rope access was utilized to replace the damaged side cladding. Furthermore,
the installation angle of the sheeting caused the process to be time-consuming.

Challenges and solutions

The ventilators were mounted above the SP3 & SP4 furnaces which resulted in high risk working
areas. Working with the batching material created a lot of dust and made the roof areas very
slippery.At the SP4 ventilator, replacing the corroded side cladding proved challenging due to a very
steep angle, which required rope access technicians to install their ropes with absolute precision.
Throughout the work, employees had to maintain high alertness and stay properly hydrated to
ensure no safety incidents occurred.

Conclusion

We take great pride in the exceptional standard of workmanship, quality, and safety maintained
throughout this complex and challenging project.
Our team successfully cleaned both ventilators and replaced 200m² of Chromadek IBR sheeting,
along with 16Lm of 150x75x20x2.5mm purlins.
Importantly, the entire project was completed with zero safety incidents.

GALLERY