News
At SCAFCO, nothing is more important than safety. SCAFCO’s Vice President, Dan Wambeke, has been deeply involved in the development of a safety standard for the entry of grain bins for the past 4-5 years, and his hard work is about to pay off.
Wambeke is the chairman of an informal organization called the Grain Bin Manufacturers Council. This group of manufacturers in the U.S. and Canada have come together to address issues in the industry. The Council recognized the need for an industry safety standard, and they have been involved in the development of this standard ever since.
Currently, it is required that someone entering a grain bin must be wearing a harness and be accompanied by another person to hold the safety line. The new standard will require manufacturers to include anchorage points near the inspection hatch to which safety equipment can be attached. Proper use of such equipment would reduce the risk of a user falling through crusted grain or being pulled into flowing grain if other safety instructions were not followed.
The standard will also encourage the use of walk-in-doors on commercial size bins, set a minimum size for roof hatches and access doors, and address specifications for work platforms, extrication devices, operational procedures, and safety signs.
This standard, in large part, is due to the efforts of Wayne Bauer, a pioneer in grain entrapment prevention education, and the Director of Safety & Security at the Star of the West Milling Company. Bauer has been promoting higher grain bin entry standards for years through the Grain Elevator and Processing Society (GEAPS). In 2011, Bauer initiated a Grain Entrapment Prevention Forum. The forum has become an annual event, and between events Bauer travels to grain bin manufacturing plants to teach about how to prevent grain entrapment. SCAFCO’s Dan Wambeke has participated, giving seminars at this 3-day event. Both Wambeke and Bauer, along with many others involved, used this forum as an informal meeting place to draft the new safety standard. Next year’s Grain Entrapment Prevention Forum is taking place on March 12-14, 2013, in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The Standard was submitted to the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE). ASABE is an educational and scientific organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food, and biological systems. Through ASABE, agricultural, food, and biological engineers develop efficient and environmentally sensitive methods of procuring food, fiber, timber, and renewable energy sources for an ever-increasing world population. Dan Wambeke has been a member of ASABE for 43 years, and he has served on both the ASABE Board of Directors and the Foundation Board. He is currently on the Standards Committee.
Now that the standard is endorsed by ASABE, it is expected to be finalized by the summer of 2013. The draft will be validated by a group of educational experts, government officials, manufacturing companies, and farmers. The expectation is that this will become a nationally-recognized standard that all grain bin manufacturers will be obligated to follow. Wambeke is excited about the impact this standard will have in the agricultural community, and once the standard is formally adopted by the industry, he will lead its implementation at SCAFCO Grain Systems.
To learn more about ASABE and this new standard, please visit the ASABE website, www.asabe.org.
To learn more about Wayne Bauer’s Grain Entrapment Prevention training and to see presentations from last year’s conference, please visit www.grainentrapmentprevention.com.
The December 2012 edition of World Grain Magazine, which features a SCAFCO Grain Systems ad on the back cover, contains a feature article titled Worth The Wait, about Kansas State University’s new teaching feed mill nearing completion. SCAFCO Grain Systems donated corrugated steel grain bins and hopper-bottom bins to KSU to be used in their new feed mill.
“In addition to the processing operations, the mill will also contain corrugated grain bins for ingredient storage and for conducting large-scale grain storage and quality preservation research. All hopper-bottom steel bins are being donated by SCAFCO of Spokane, Washington, U.S.”
You can read the full article online here.
As of this date, you can view a live webcam of the construction of the SCAFCO Grain Systems bins at the new KSU Feed Mill here.