ORGANIZATION OF WORK ON S A F E T Y

E N G I N E E R I N G AND LABOR P R O T E C T I O N

(UDC 669.1:614.8)

V, V. G r a b i s h e v s k i i a n d A. S. G r i g o r ' e v

Cherepovets Metallurgical Plant

Translated from Metallurg, No. 9,
pp. 36-38, September, 1964

The Cherepovets Plant is one of the youngest metallurgical enterprises of the country. The department of
safety engineering has developed together with tile plant and at present has the following structure (figure).

All regional engineers are on the staff of the department, in the shops of the plant there are no specially
selected persons occupied with problems of safety engineering, with the exception of the coke-by-product and rail-
road shops, where there is one staff engineer in each. The entire work of safety engineering in the shops is directed
by a regional engineer.

At the plant great attention is devoted to preventive work. The work is carried out according to plans developed
by the department of safety engineering, which are approved by the chief engineer. In the shops the administration
together with trade-union organizations and medical workers work out quarterly plans for technical, medical, and
organizational measures directed to improve the labor conditions. In addition, a complex plan of measures with res-
pect to safety engineering, labor protection, and industrial sanitation is compiled for the plant at the beginning
of the year.

The preventive work includes the following.

1. Organization and carrying out of a three-step inspection to detect and eliminate places where accidents
could occur:

1) An every-shift round of the departments of the shop by shift workers who note in the shift logs (oncoming-
shift tog, control logs) the places they found where accidents could occur;

2) A weekly round of shops or departments by a commission consisting of the shop or department chief, mech-
anic and electrician, a worker of the health center, and a representative of the trade-union committee (minor in-
fractions noted during the round are eliminated, larger infractions are noted as measures to be taken in a special !og,
where the shop or department chief notes the period for fulfilling them and the responsible persons;

3) A monthly inspection by the main specialists of the plant, who are allotted certain shops and services.

2. Supervision of the timely and proper conduction of all types of instructions on rules of accident prevention,
as well as introductory instructions for all newly arriving workers.

3, The outfitting of the plant and shops with all types of illustrations on safety techniques.

4. Deliberate checking of individual services and types of industrial work as to their condition and conformity
to established rules: maintenance, transportation, and operation of oxygen cylinders; gas lines; storage and trans-
portation of acids and other toxic reagents, pressurized vessels; operations with isotopes, etc.

5. Preparation of the projects of the plant director and of the chief engineer concerning accidents, inspections,
and other problems of labor safety and supervision of their fulfillment.

6. Special night rounds to check the illumination of the plant and the fulfillment of the rules of labor safety
by the night-shift workers.

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 A l l new workers at the plant receive mandatory instructions in their professions; much attention is devoted
in the programs to a study of safety methods. Moreover, a list has been c o m p i l e d of workers servicing units whose
operation demands extreme caution. The persons on this list are taught safety rules and they are issued a certificate
which allows them to operate and work on these units. The workers on this list are tested annually.

We have done much work to m a k e the lifting mechanisms, boilers and boiler equipment, pressure vessels, gas
lines, and pipe lines conform to the ruies of Gosgortekhnadzor. At the plant persons have been selected who are re-
sponsible for the operation of the equipment as a whole for the plant and for individual shops.

The scope of the responsibilities of the regional engineers includes investigation of accidents which have
occurred during the past and during the current 24-hour periods. For the investigation of accidents tile regional
engineer enlists the shop chief or his assistant, the senior public inspector, and together with the foreman, brigades,
and workers of the shift where the accident occurred e l u c i d a t e the causes and circumstances of the accident. An
e x a m i n a t i o n is held at a m e e t i n g of the workers and an official record is drawn up concerning the investigation
of the accident.

The instructions of the shop chief are added to the statement of the accident, in which the causes are given
in detail and the guilty parties, measures of punishing them, and measures to prevent such accidents are indicated.
These instructions are worked out with all workers in the shop. In serious cases, with grave consequences, the investi-
gation is carried out by the plant commission.

Particular attention in safety engineering is devoted to combatting infringements of the rules of accident pre-
vention. The infringers are usually entered in special logs, The plant has set up a procedure, according to which each
person who has violated the instructions on accident prevention is subject to a random check; those who show unsat-
isfactory knowledge are transferred to another, less dangerous job until they master the instructions. In certain shops
a review of infringers of labor discipline and safety prevention is held at meetings of the shop committees in the pre-
sence of the relatives of the infringer. Workers who have been at such a m e e t i n g generally do not permit violations
any more. Specific violators are fined as provided for in statute 88 of the Code of Labor Laws of the RSFSR. Ali the
forementioned methods yield definite results.

Every month the shop chiefs c a l l together all engineering and t e c h n i c a l workers for a d e t a i l e d review of a c c i d -
ents that occurred in the previous month, and measures to improve working conditions are n o t e d a t these meetings,
T h e chief engineer of the plant also discusses monthly with the shop chiefs the results of the work to reduce a e c i d -

l C h i e f e n g i n e e r Of plant
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[l Chief
railroadof shop
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X \ . . . . . .
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| o f blast- ] ] limestone- | ] shop, eomp. engineer Iof dep't of [ of shops of Statistician-
]furnace and tl dolomite, and I Iprep. shop, ] c h i e f power en~ dep't of chief | typist
easting shops I| pile-driver | l a n d furnace of rolling Igineer and of / mechanic
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Organizational chart of the safety engineering service at the Cherepovets M e t a l l u r g i c a l Plant.

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ents in the previous month, and periodically checks t h e progress of fulfilling the m e a s l e s of the complex plan
for labor protection,

Shop supervisors who have unsatisfactory accident records report at a conference on the measures that the shop
has taken to improve labor protection and accident prevention. The minums with the adopted resolutions are
published on the results of the conference.

Culprits who practice accident prevention unsatisfactorily are noted in the orders of the director on the results
of the work of the plant for the previous month.

The daily control reports drawn up by the chief engineer of the plant always begin with a report from the chief
of the safety engineering department concerning accidents and comments on labor protection during the previous
and current 24-hour period,

The accident prevention system at the plant, the latest units with a high degree of mechanization and auto-
mation, and the transportation method for delivering the basic raw materials from shop to shop have enabled us to
systematically reduce accidents,

But unfortunately there are still individual faults at our plant in the area of accident prevention.

T h e designing organizations do not thoroughly think out the order of travel in the plant area, Even at those
places where there are pedestrian sidewalks, they are inadequate for the entire flow of people, especially at the
change of shifts, and quite a few workers are forced to move along the main thoroughfare, which is dangerous. At
many m e t a l l u r g i c a l enterprises there are above-ground crossover bridges for convement and safe travel about the
plant area and for access to shops.

Many years of practice have shown their advantage. There is no doubt about the need for constructing such
bridges in the area of our plant, however their construction is being held up.

T h e problem of periodic washing of windows is also unsolved. Industrial buildings have large glassed areas
requiring systematic washing, This is e x t r e m e l y laborious work. Unfortunately little is being done in this direction,
C e n t r a l i z e d manufacture of washing equipment has not been organized and there are no devices and mechanisms for
performing such work.

A good placard is of great value in the organization of accident prevention work. Certain demands are made
on this type of graphic c a m p a i g n at m e t a l l u r g i c a l plants: the e m o t i o n a l effect, clarity, longevity, the possibility of
its l o n g - t e r m content without loss of clarity, and the possibility of showing it in the direct v i c i n i t y of the working
places, Placards made on sheet iron best satisfy these requirements. Such placards were made for the plant by
l o c a l artists.

Experiments were carried out on supplying the plant area with placards measuring 0.8 " 1.0 m manufactured on
canvas using c a s e i n - o i l colors (tempera) with a further protection coating of lacquer. The first data obtained permit
the conclusion that such placards can last 2-3 years in the area of a m e t a l l u r g i c a l enterprise. The placards were
made by the Moscow Department of the Center of D i a g r a m - M o d e l and Artistic Decoration Works of the Artists
Fund of RSFSR.

There is no need to mention the importance of special working clothes and protective devices for preventing
accidents. Unfortunately there are many shortcomings concerning this question. We have issued to the workers of the
pouring bay of the o p e n - h e a r t h shop capron colorless glasses to protect the eyes against sparks, in addition to the
usual blue glasses or frames. This has m a d e it possible to virtually e l i m i n a t e eye burns caused by sparks from molten
m e t a l . The hearth attendants of the open-hearth shop used plexiglas shields to protect the eyes against sparks.

Many workers associated with loading materials receive toe accidents from falling bricks. These categories of
workers were issued shoes with m e t a l toes. As a result of this the number of toe injuries was reduced almost sevenfold.

Respiratiors are used at the plant to protect the respiratory organs from dust. Experience has shown that the
most suitable of the existing types of respirators, e s p e c i a l l y when working in hot shops, is the valveless anti-dust
respirator ShB-1 "Lepestok." Workers willingly use them. The ShB-1 respirator under ordinary circumstances (without
radioactive dust) can be used from 8 to 12 shifts. But the plant cannot obtain the necessary quantity of 8hB-1 res-
pirators and is forced to use h o m e m a d e c o t t o n - g a u z e bands.

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 To combat vibration disease, workers who use air hammers have been issue special porous-rubber mats which
considerably lessons the vibration of the h a m m e r . We have made only the first steps in this direction.

Further work to improve working conditions and to reduce accidents must be carried out on a scientific base,
using the achievements and experience of research institutes of labor protection.

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