Tyco Services – Fire & Safety devised a new solution for the Port
Kembla Coal Terminal in Wollongong, New South Wales to safely lift heavy gas
cylinders for the fire safety system.
The Inergen gas cylinders are critical components of the fire safety
system installed at Port Kembla, which has a stringent fire safety protocol in
place. The fire system consists of 28 fire panels and more than 100 Inergen
cylinders located in switch rooms throughout the terminal.
As part of ongoing maintenance, up to nine very heavy cylinders are
required to be lifted from the ground level to a height of 20 metres on a
regular basis. Each cylinder weighs 121 kilograms.
Committed to delivering superior safety practices in the workplace, Tyco
Integrated Fire & Security staff working at the Port Kembla Coal Terminal provided
an innovative lifting solution for the cylinders.
To address the heavy lifting problem, Trent Green from Tyco’s Wollongong
team and Steve Caple from Tyco’s Technical Services team designed a specialised
‘Inergen cylinder lifting harness’ that enables heavy cylinders to be moved with
the use of a crane.
Trent Green, Fire Alarm – Leading Hand at Wormald explained that it took
three months of brainstorming, sketching, consulting and locating a suitable
manufacturer before a prototype for the safety system could be produced. Following
this, the system went through extensive testing and trials, with a number of
improvements and modifications made before the harness could be manufactured
and put into practical use.
The team’s efforts have now paid off with the Inergen cylinder harness improving
workplace safety at the site. The Tyco team has also been formally recognised
by Port Kembla Coal Terminal for their safe methods of work and efforts in
developing the solution.
The Inergen cylinder harness has been approved as a product and
incorporated into the Tyco Fire Australia Cylinder Handling Procedure. Several fire
branches in Australia have also purchased the harness and adapted the product for
use in other industries.
The Inergen cylinder harnesses are now available in three models to lift
CO2 cylinders and two different sizes to lift cylinders onto ships with low
ceiling spaces.