Oct. 14, 2015 Railcar was unsafe for entry before deadly blast killed two workers, injured a third at Omaha cleaning facility Nebraska Railcar Cleaning Services cited for more than 30 violations afte
Full article: Railcar was unsafe for entry before deadly blast killed two workers, injured a third at Omaha cleaning facility
Source: OSHA News Release
Like many big cities, Birmingham was built where rail lines crossed a century and a half ago. Coal, ore and limestone are readily available in central Alabama, and by the turn of the century, steel production had made the city the industrial star of the south. Today the city quietly awaits the wave of gentrification that has loomed large for the past two decades, and few reminders remain of the steel era. The only sounds now heard in the mighty pig iron foundry at Sloss Furnaces are the occasional riff of a rock concert, or din of a festival. But there is still some steel in Birmingham that glows red-hot.
SMI Steel is a continuous casting mini-mill operation in downtown Birmingham, AL. After the installation of a new DC arc furnace and ladle metallurgy station, SMI saw the need to update their antiquated control system. Revere Control Systems, a Birmingham-based controls and automation integrator, stepped up to the challenge.
Revere engineers were challenged with modernizing an obsolete 3-level control system without interrupting casting operations. The new system required complete integration with the factory’s oracle database and network and sufficient toughness to withstand the harsh environment of a steel mill. A fiber optic network connects the level-two operator work stations with the level-three factory network, and the Reliance R-Net coaxial data highway connects the work stations to the level-1 PLC process control elements on the foundry floor. The workstations implement a sophisticated touch screen interface for streamlined control of continuous casting. The project was completed in 1996.
While touch screens and fiber optic data networks are commonplace in 2015, twenty years ago Revere demonstrated their ability to provide state-of-the-art solutions for even the most demanding applications. Today, Revere engineers and technicians are still at the top of their game, delivering customized control solutions to customer across the Southeastern United States.
The doors of Revere’s headquarters opened in 1980. Thirty five years later, the company is still privately owned and employs some 170 engineers, technicians, administrators and executives across five locations – Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and most recently Texarkana. In 2014, Revere posted $40 million in sales volume, a new record for the company. Bruce Koppenhoefer, the company’s Communications Director, attributed the boost in sales to some significant municipal contracts they secured in the Southeast. Fresh and waste water treatment facilities are big business, and Revere has executed more than a dozen unique installations over the past decade.
Koppenhoefer admits that the margins can be a little slim on municipal work, making precise adherence to development, construction and testing standards all the more critical. Even a small mistake can turn a profitable municipal contract into an expense. But the risks don’t deter Revere. Large public contracts keep cash flowing and employees busy. Industrial projects, like SMI steel, are more profitable and often represent the kind of challenges that keep engineers and technicians engaged.
The 64,000 square foot facility in Birmingham is the central manufacturing facility. Rows of in-process panels and enclosures lie on custom-made benches which tilt to give technicians easy access to all sides of the work piece. The worn-looking blue jigs were made in-house and have been around as long as some of the employees. Almost all of the work is done by hand, but three years ago, Revere added a CNC sheet metal cutter to the asset roster. The German machine uses digital drawings to drill holes in the metal enclosures which house the guts of a control system. The machine is fast, accurate, and remarkably quiet – cutting sheet steel with a drill bit creates a distinct booming thunder which kept the operation in the campus’s most remote corner.
Walking the floor of Revere feels more like a laboratory than a factory. Every inch of the facility is immaculately clean. Work pieces range in size from explosion-proof pressure vessels the size of a large throw pillow, to looming steel cabinets studded with knobs, buttons and screens. Bruce asserts that they are able to offer anything from basic assembly services, to turn-key solution design, and every step is completed in-house.
Revere is able to meet the needs of mining operations, gas processing facilities, water treatment plants, metal casting foundries, and food and beverage handlers among others. Keeping that much knowledge and expertise under one roof offers its own challenges. To combat the increasing scarcity of skilled labor, Revere instituted a co-op program to bring college students into the facility. Most recruits come from Auburn University, with some attending the University of Alabama Birmingham and others Mississippi State. After three successful years, the first co-op students are entering the workforce, and two are joining the Revere team full time.
Koppenhoefer has been thrilled by the results of the cooperative program. The quality of the new hires and of the students in general has been outstanding. Revere will likely need all the new employees is can get. As the manufacturing industry and municipal agencies recover from the recession of the mid-2000’s, deferred maintenance programs designed to keep companies and governments solvent are expiring rapidly. Revere’s long track record of lending new life to old equipment through advanced control systems and CNC integration means they are poised to cash in on the need to migrate legacy systems into the 21st century.
“People talk about Revere like a big family,” says Bruce, “we help each other out outside work, and we keep things casual.” For Revere, strong company culture, dedicated employees, and a broad skillset equal a recipe for long term success.
For more information, please visit:
www.reverecontrol.com
