I recently finished a two-day safe grain handling course at the Asmark Institute in Bloomington, Illinois. This is part of our continuing efforts to learn more about grain, feed mill, and silo safety in our on-going efforts to assist in these areas. Cleveland Vibrator has manufactured and supplied vibrators to these industries for several decades but has never, until now, involved itself in the safety part of this industry beyond supplying vibrators as flow aides.

The training was eye-opening, to say the least. The instructors did an excellent job of mixing classwork with fieldwork coupled with having folks in the class who actually work and operate feed and grain elevators it was truly a learning experience. Safety is such a huge issue in the feed and grain industry that goes far beyond just adding vibrators to prevent plugging, ratholing, backups, jams, etc. Protecting employees from harm due to entrapment, auger injuries, electrical shock, and more is an everyday, every minute, every second battle. “Lockout/Tagout” was one of the safety points stressed at the training. Along with inspection of power tools to prevent injury and electrical shock plus possible explosive situations that can be caused by electrical sparking. One of the scarier parts of the training was a field exercise for rescue-recovery for entrapment inside silos or bins. We actually buried one of our classmates up to their waist and went through the rescue procedure which can be long and tedious in these situations. Obviously, there was a lot more to the training but those really had a profound effect on me. It also gave me some insight into how we may be able to assist material flow on grain bucket elevators. It was definitely well worth the trip!

If you would like to request information about what Cleveland Vibrator can do for you go to www.clevelandvibrator.com.