While traveling to and from a production site to solve a dust problem (the worst I have ever seen), I came across two very interesting things. Two of the most interesting yet odd and unrelated things I have seen in my travels.
I was wandering around the site looking for dust generation points, taking air measurements, and coughing when I saw an unusual loading gate across the yard. See the conversation that followed below:
Me: What is that unusual loading gate across the yard?
Yard Supervisor: That chute is in the process of being fixed because the welds cracked.
Me: Why are the welds cracking?
Yard Supervisor: They weren’t strong enough.
Me: What type of load is the chute seeing?
Yard Supervisor: Nothing unusual.
Me: What are the marks around the chute?
Yard Supervisor: Oh those, whenever it rains, the chute plugs and we can’t load out material. So our guys go out and hit it with a sledgehammer to loosen it up.
Me (in awe): Why don’t you put a vibrator on the chute to excite the material to flow better?
Yard Supervisor: That is a permanent change so it would come out of the plant budget and they don’t have the money. So we just repair it and it comes out of the maintenance budget. We will just keep doing it this way because the paperwork is a nightmare.
Me (to myself): Talk about stepping over a dollar to grab a dime.
I went on about my day and prepared my dust quote. I decided to throw on a vibrator with install. If they accepted, it would be sent to the attention of the yard supervisor. I left the sight and went back to the motel. I pulled into the lot and saw this thing of beauty.
Someone had taken a motorcycle that rhymes with Darley Havidson and put a V-8 truck engine on it. The thing can pull a car and get 3 miles to the gallon, but it exists. It has no practical purpose, but it exists. To quote Jeff Goldblum in Jurassic Park, (I know, this dates me) “Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could that they didn't stop to think if they should.” I guess the condition of the motorcycle and the chute have that in common!