Why Plant Operator Workshop?

Doctors are trained in medical schools. Engineers are trained in engineering schools. Airline pilots are trained in flight schools. All are responsible for the safe and knowledgeable performance of their jobs. In addition to their initial training, all receive periodic and regular refresher training to keep their knowledge current, and maintain proficiency. Where are asphalt plant operators trained??

Many operators are promoted from the ranks of grounds-keepers or loader operators, only to find themselves in front of very sophisticated equipment that impacts safety, energy consumption, production rates, quality of product, and maintenance. How do they acquire all this knowledge? How do they learn the proper procedures to follow in an emergency? Do they have the knowledge to operate the plant safely and correctly under stressful conditions? Under these stressful conditions they are susceptible to mistakes. at this point, all you can hope for from an untrained or poorly trained operator is a ‘miracle’!

Like any professionals, plant operators require formal training, and periodic refreshing and updating of their knowledge. The Clarence Richard Companies, with 25 years of focused energy and experience with asphalt plant operation, automation, and troubleshooting offers their Plant Operator Workshop to impart such knowledge. The workshop is taught by Clarence Richard, whose formal training includes graduation from Chicago’s DeVry Institute of Technology and United States Army Air Defense schools.

The workshop is a comprehensive three day educational opportunity for trainee and veteran operators. Trainees learn the practical ways to improve efficiency, preventive maintenance, electrical systems operation and troubleshooting, and procedures to operate the plant safely during normal and emergency situations. It is an opportunity for veteran operators to share their experiences, refresh their knowledge of information forgotten or never learned, as well as gain insights into the newest procedures and latest equipment and instrumentation available.

Introduction:

The first day begins with an introduction by the instructor and each student of themselves, their histories in the asphalt industry, the size of their facilities, the type of energy it uses, the manufacturers of their equipment, and the biggest problems they encounter with production, quality, safety, energy efficiency, maintenance, and pollution control. This introduction not only breaks-the-ice, but it gets the class participating immediately, and guides the instructor to address the interests and needs of each student. Before each student leaves after day 3, his particular problem(s) will have been addressed so he may have a new approach to its solution.

Day 1-Mechanical & Thermal

7:00 AM-Operators identify their plant’s problems.
8:00 AM- Burners & Combustion
9:00 AM- Exhaust Systems
10:00 AM- Drying & Heating
11:00 AM- Pollution Control & Plant Efficiency
Noon- Lunch
1:00 PM- Stack Test Preperation
2:00 PM- Mix Quality
3:00 PM- Operation Procedures
4:00 PM- Plant Maintenance and Calibration
5:00 PM- Operation Production Expectations

This science has been found to be the students’ weakest area of knowledge. Therefore, ten hours are devoted to improving understanding. The session starts with the basic foundation of Ohm’s law and builds onto this. the fundamental electrical components are taught in a way that relates them to experiences or knowledge operators have in other areas.

The afternoon session takes the theory into practical troubleshooting of asphalt plant electrical circuits on paper. in addition, safe electrical procedures are taught, and emphatically stressed.

The evening session now takes all that was learned earlier in the day, and challenges each student ( one at a time ) to troubleshoot different problems in live electrical circuits normally found at asphalt plants. During each problem, the operator is observed and prompted to follow safe electrical procedures, while the rest of the class helps analyze the symptoms uncovered by his systematic test meter probing of the circuit. So, not only have all students been exposed to live electrical circuits, but they have learned safety first-hand, and learned the correct use of a multi-meter.

Efficient use of energy has great impact on plant operation costs. not only does it lower fuel costs but can significantly improve production rates. A big cost of operating an asphalt plant is for energy. air flow and velocity, mix temperature, air temperature, combustion efficiency, exhaust fan efficiency are discussed individually, and then as a system.

Why do higher exit gas temperatures cause lower production rates? What are the optimal dryer exit temperatures going to the baghouse and out the stack? What is your Btu/ton? What should your Btu/ton be? What are the proper amounts of combustion and air flows? How does one troubleshoot and eliminate leaks? What do you do to prepare for stack testing? These and more are discussed in depth.

Training. We are perhaps the largest and best plant operation, maintenance training company anywhere. When you recruit people from within by promotion, training is often necessary. We teach the mind challenging fundamentals in a ‘hands on’ fashion to make your operation successful.

Day 2-Electrical & Safety

7:00 AM- Basic Electrical
8:00 AM- Meters & Safety
9:00 AM- Components
10:00 AM- Circuits
11:00 AM-Paper Troubleshoot
Noon- Lunch
1:00 PM- Live Troubleshoot
3:00 PM- Identifying equipment to lockout/tagout & confined space to permit. Writing procedures for lockout/tagout and confined space. PLUS- An introduction to our On-Line LO/TO and Confined Space Procedure Generator.
4:00 PM- Handling Asphalt Oil safely. Oil burns prevention and first aid. Preventing explosions and fire. Understanding and testing interlocks. Damage control.

Different forms of energy are used to produce asphalt. the safe handling of this energy is stressed through relating stories of accidents in asphalt plants, their causes, and how they could have been prevented by periodic testing and adjusting of safety interlocks in burner control, motor control, and process control circuitry. A portion of this day is devoted to first aid treatment of injuries caused by asphalt burns, electrical shock, physical shock.

Well maintained machines that perform predictably are an integral part of a safe, efficient operation. Consequently, planning maintenance schedules is emphasized, as well as frequency of attention to bushings and bearings, gears and sprockets, tires and trunnions, chains and slats, buckets and flights, bags and nozzles, wear plates and skirting, ducts and cyclones, impellers and blades, belts and pulleys, tips and liners, rollers and belting, motors and starters, screens and crushers. What repair supplies, vital spares, test instrumentation should be on hand? All part of the planning process, these are discussed in depth to encourage all to be part of well-organized businesses.

Quality Control: Quality control as defined by Webster "A continuous managerial system to ensure the quality of a product by a critical study of the processes and materials."

Mix quality is affected positively or negatively by variations in the processes and materials. Consider the following sources of variation:

Material suppliers
Mix production flow rates
Moisture and segregation in an aggregate pile
Drum size and drum slope
Calibration of asphalt flow meter, belt scales and feeders
Rate and consistency of dust feeding
Consistency of recycle composition
Amount of mix time
The non-linearity of feeder bins, feeder controls belt scales
Varying aggregate temperatures and control calibration
Condition of batcher paddle tips, screens, bin dividers
Segregation caused by bucket elevators, overcharged screens, bin dust slugging, gob hopper, and truck loading control.

The level of acceptable quality must be determined. Understanding the plant process and materials and how they interact is fundamental to quality control. If these variables are not controlled, quality can not be controlled effectively.

Operation: This portion of day 2 discusses plant operations at various capacities, startup/shutdown and bag house preheat/cool down procedures, and adjusting controls based on instrument observation and analysis.

Page design based on layouts from CobraRose Creations.