Wherever you have mining operations, you have huge mining trucks moving materials around. To service these giant trucks and keep them running at maximum efficiency, you have truck shops on-site. Workers in mining truck shops are exposed to a number of hazards. HexArmor® gloves, chaps, jackets, and cut-resistant aprons protect them from the hazards of the job.
Armoring truck shop workers against fly metal injuries
The haul trucks that serve mining operations are vital to the industry. Therefore, maintaining the trucks that work in open-pit mines or run in deep coal, copper, and gold mines is an absolute necessity. Unplanned downtime is not an option, so mining operations must have people working in on-site truck shops to perform ongoing vehicle maintenance.
When truck shop workers are repairing, adjusting, or dismantling trucks, shovels, and other equipment, they use hammers to remove the pins holding the giant shovels in place. These pins are made of metal, and they can weaken over time.
Often, when the pins are hit with a hammer, they explode and become shrapnel that can pierce a worker’s body. This hazard is referred to as fly metal.
The right protection
To protect themselves against fly metal, truck shop mechanics wear HexArmor® cut-resistant body protection, such as:
The SuperFabric® brand material used to make these products provides the highest levels of cut and industrial puncture resistance available on the PPE market.
Fly metal is such a common occurrence in truck shop applications that some workers, like the one pictured here, end up with pieces of metal permanently lodged under their skin.
This may not seem as dangerous as, for example, getting crushed by a 400-ton mover. However, when a pin explodes, the fly metal goes everywhere – into workers’ stomachs, hands, arms, etc. Not only is this dangerous, but it has also been near-fatal.
One worker at a mine site in Arizona had a piece of fly metal miss his femoral artery by one-eighth of an inch. If that artery had been injured, the worker would have bled to death.
HexArmor® can help
Keep your truck shop workers safe with HexArmor® hand, arm, and body protection to help deflect and prevent injuries from fly metal.
Our PPE solutions are designed to help your employees work safely, comfortably, and efficiently, so they can keep the trucks your mines depend on up and running at all times.
Learn more about SuperFabric® brand protection
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