TATA STEEL TURN TO LIMPET® FOR ACCESSING BLAST FURNACES IN INDIA’S OLDEST STEEL PLANT16 December 2014
Edinburgh based Limpet Technology has been working with Tata Steel in India to apply its award winning Limpet® height safety solution to the challenge of inspecting and maintaining the giant 40 metre vertical furnaces in Tata Steel’s plant in Jamshedpur, the oldest and one of the largest steel manufacturing facility in India. Up until now, the blast furnaces, which are inspected and maintained twice annually, have required scaffolding to be built from the bottom up, a task taking many days. Tata were looking for a solution that could be quickly rigged and de-rigged with no need for specialist rope access skills, was easy to use and which provided state of the art rescue capability. Liam Humble, lead trainer at Limpet Technology commented,“Make no mistake. This is a very serious industrial environment. The furnaces are enormous. The spaces are dark and there are various obstructions which have to be worked around. Even with the furnaces off, it is very hot.” He went on “Only systems that are absolutely reliable and which offer comprehensive safety features can be used in environments such as this.” Limpet’s partner in India, Unicare Emergency Equipment Pvt, laid the groundwork for bringing Limpet solutions to Tata Steel. Hemal Thakkar, General Manager, All India at Unicare commented “Tata Steel are a flagship company in India with a deeply embedded health and safety culture. We are delighted to be supplying them with Limpet® safety systems, and trust that other Tata plants will also see the benefits that Limpet® can bring to maintenance work inside their confined spaces.” |