Chevron Case Study – Enersys Newport
Enersys is the biggest manufacturer of industrial lead-acid batteries in the world. 16 major manufacturing facilities across North America, Europe and Asia employ over 9000 staff.
In an industry that revolves around the handling of thousands of tons of lead and sulphuric acid, in the form of solid, liquid, fume and dust, the health and safety of those employees is taken very seriously.
Peter Dunn is Health and Safety Administrator at the company’s manufacturing
facility in Newport, South Wales. Complex and extensive Local Exhaust Ventilation (LEV) systems has been designed around the numerous operations involved in the manufacture and build of the high reliability batteries essential for so many aspects of modern life.
Peter explained ‘We were advised by the HSE that, if we didn’t have airflow indicators fitted, we needed to test the correct operation of every extract point at least once per month. This would have taken a lot of time and manpower, so I needed to find an airflow indicator that fitted in with our needs.‘
He looked into various types of indicator, ranging from the familiar mechanical dial type to rotameters, but when a local LEV test company told him about the Monitair Chevron, he decided to try it.
The first batch of 20 Chevrons was fitted in June 2014 and by November of that year 80 units had been supplied to cover the wide range and type of extract hoods in the Newport factory.
Is Peter happy with the Chevron?
‘As far as reliability is concerned we haven’t had any problem with the Chevrons. They are simple to fit, and they just carry on working. From time to time conditions change, so we simply make sure that airflow in the system is sufficient and then re-calibrate the Chevron, which is very quick and easy to do.’
Enersys was Monitair’s first volume user of the Chevron and has been an important indicator of reliability and robustness.
To date, it has proved itself up to the challenge.
Battery Life
Peter had originally intended to change the batteries in the Chevrons on a regular, probably annual, basis but decided instead to wait until the unit indicated that a battery change was needed.
The surprising result of this approach has been that, after 2 years continuous use, almost all Chevrons were still running on their original batteries!
To sum up:-
‘I know how well the Chevron performs, and if I need any more airflow indicators I’ll go for the Chevron again‘
Peter Dunn – Health & Safety Administrator – Enersys (Newport) – August 2016
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