Due to mechanical, electrical and central service failures (conveyor belt breakages), the company lost 148 working hours in the pellet area during the month of June, the equivalent of seven days of production.
Text: Francesca Diaz | Mail of the Caroni
Workers from the Orinoco Iron and Steel Company (Sidor) sent Mail of the Caroni graphics of the Logistics Management System of the state company, as support for the complaints that have been made, in relation to the state of the equipment and facilities of the Pellas Plant.
The report details and breaks down the causes of delays for the month of June, showing that 71% of production delays were due to mechanical failures and electrical problems in the equipment, including short circuits.
Examples of this are the data corresponding to Line A, in the System of Dryers and Line B, in the part of the Screening of Green Pellets that, in the period between June 1 and 30, presented delays due to failures in oil pressure and misalignment. Likewise, Line B was affected by the unavailability of ventilators, specifically, the BG-5011.
«When the delays are mechanical, it refers to the fact that the tape broke, bad connection of elements, stoppage due to rain due to water leaks… All of these are mechanical delays. Electrical failures are due to motor failures, power outages, or wiring problems. They can also be due to power failures, that is, when there is no light”, explained one of the workers who works at the Pellas Plant.
30% of delays are the result of electrical problems, among these, the most frequent are cables shorting motors and mishaps in the elevator system.
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“All mechanical failures are predictable. These are flaws that should be continuously inspected by prevention delegates. For example, if you have a car and the mechanic tells you that your engine is failing because you have to change the oil, you already know that you should change it as soon as possible. Of course, the last word rests with the manager, who should stop the plant to do the checkup, check for mechanical failures and prevent equipment from being damaged. Currently they don’t pay attention to that, they only think about production. When the equipment is damaged, there is nothing to do: it is unusable, “said one of the workers who sent the information.
Due to mechanical, electrical and central service failures (conveyor belt breakages), the company lost 148 working hours in the pellet area during the month of June, the equivalent of seven days of production.
“These are faults that could be solved if there were spare parts. We have been stopped by a nut that should be there. Without that spare, we can’t do anything. Why are we going to stop if we don’t have the spare part there? We are using spare parts recovered from directly equipped areas from the time of the Argentines. There is nothing left because everything is being used. One is assembled from three motors because you take pieces of one and the other to make one work. This happens a lot at Planta de Pellas. Line A has 70% disinvestment ”, denounced a worker who asked to keep his name confidential.
Regarding electrical faults, they explained that the most common are due to short circuits. In this sense, the workers assured that everything is the result of the poor condition of the wiring that should be changed from time to time, to guarantee the operability of the processes.
“Those cables haven’t been changed for years. There are basements completely full of dust that falls to the floor, when the water enters, it becomes a quagmire that reaches the basements where the main wiring of the plant is. That has been solved by tapping one cable with another to recover certain things. There are animals there, mice that eat the cables and make nests. They make short because they are nibbled and that generates accidents, “said one of the workers.
The prevention delegates are in charge of reviewing and monitoring this type of failure and generating monthly reports with suggestions and recommendations to avoid accidents. However, since 2021 the party members have denounced that all the workers who held these positions are under the figure of “not required”, consequently, outside the plant.
According to the deponents, the directive took this measure to avoid denouncing the unsafe conditions in which the workers are working.
Also read: “Those of us who live in a productive Sidor know that the company is not recovering”
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