Dampier Salt enters prestigious industry awards

Three innovations from Dampier Salt were submitted into the Chamber of Minerals and Energy Safety and Health Innovations awards in 2009.

The awards recognise creativity and ingenuity in the workplace and aim to promote Health & Safety initiatives across the resources sector.

Dampier Salt's submissions were:

Centrifuge removal tool

Once to twice a year, the large centrifuge (used for separating water from the salt) at the Dampier plant needs to be replaced. In the past, replacing the equipment has been physically demanding, time consuming and potentially hazardous. The new centrifuge removal tool largely avoids manual handling as it rolls the centrifuge into position ready to be picked up by a crane. This innovation, designed and built in-house saves time, requires less people and above all else eliminates a potential safety hazard.

Manual tyre handler

A manual tyre handler has been designed to safely manoeuvre 1400R24 wheel assemblies that are used at Dampier Salt sites. This machine has eliminated the need to move large, heavy and unstable wheel assemblies around the workshop by hand. Almost anyone can now safely move wheel assemblies and perform tyre change-outs without the risk of injury.

Mobile visual workplace

Pre-start meetings are widely used as an effective means to deliver information, provide updates and encourage discussions on health, safety, environment, quality control and other job specifics items. These meetings are usually held in crib rooms, training rooms or portable offices on site.

At Dampier Operations, a mobile visual workplace has been created that has become an open-air central meeting point, not only used for pre-start meetings and shutdown inductions, but as a constant reference point for relevant on-the-job information.