56 MANUAL HANDLING www.ipesearch.com
FEATURE
Ballroom shouldn’t be
backbreaking
The ‘ballroom’ concept is the much trumpeted vision of the pharmaceutical ‘factory of the
future’, but does this development create new safety risks for employees? Hugh Freer looks
at some of the issues
WHEN COMBINED
with single-use
technologies, it’s
easy to see the
attraction of
‘ballroom’ production facilities. Flexibility,
fast changeovers, reduced CAPEX costs
and increased output are just a few of
the reasons the concept has taken hold
with many of the industry’s big players.
But central to the ballroom idea is the
need for process equipment to be
mobile. This fundamental change
brings with it increased risk, as
production staff are forced to resort to
muscle power alone when moving
process equipment around the
‘ballroom’.
The modern production facility today
contains a wealth of wheeled
equipment, with weights often
exceeding four figures. A typical 300 L
reactor will tip the scales at more than
800 kg and a 1000 L mixer will very
likely weigh more than 1,300 kg. With
weights like these, neither would be
suitable for manual handling, regardless
of whether the equipment
manufacturer has included handles.
So, what’s the solution? Well, contrary to
what many might think, it isn’t a pallet
jack. While every facility has got them
lying around, they’re designed to move
pallets. If you use a pallet jack to lift a
tank off the floor, you’ve immediately
raised its centre of gravity. At the same
time, you’ve lost the stability offered by
the tanks’ caster wheels. A far safer
option is to keep the tank on the
ground and use a mechanical aid that’s
purpose-built for pulling and pushing
heavy wheeled loads. That’s where the
pedestrian electric tug comes in.
Available in various capacities and
configurations, an electric tug is an
external drive system that can be
hitched to any piece of mobile process
equipment. Its function is to eliminate
the manual push and pull from moving
things like tanks or chromatography
columns. At the same time, a
pedestrian tug delivers a level of control
and precision manoeuvring capability
that simply can’t be achieved when
moving heavy loads by hand.
The ballroom concept: three things
to consider
Process equipment
specification:
If you’re buying new
1
equipment, it’s a great opportunity to
ensure compatibility with a tug at the
drawing stage. While modifying existing
process equipment is simple enough,
there can be no doubt that it’s easier
and cheaper to ensure that new
equipment is tow tug-compatible at the
specification stage.
Not all tugs are equal:
The last thing you want when
buying an electric tug is a
2
machine that doesn’t have the power
or the necessary grip to move the load.
There’s plenty of ‘optimistic’ tug
marketing out there for products that
claim to move heavy weights with ease.
An easy way to separate the good from
the bad is to look for tug manufacturers
who readily provide photo and video
evidence of their machines moving the
kind of things that you want to move in
environments that look like yours. You
can also ask them to cut the sales pitch
and provide an engineering
explanation of exactly how the
machine will achieve the required
power and grip to move your load.
New wheels can help … a
lot!
Not everything in the
3
ballroom needs a mechanical aid.
Swapping out caster wheels for high-grade
equivalents that reduce friction
can make a huge difference
ergonomically. As always, you get what
you pay for. Typically, higher-grade
casters will be more expensive, but
you’re paying for quality tyre materials
that will reduce friction and prolong the
life of the product. At the same time,
you’ll be getting bearings both in the
wheel and top plate that are designed
specifically to minimise resistance.
These simple tweaks involve cost, but
deliver benefits, both in terms of
ergonomics and product life.
Pedestrian electric tugs that are
purpose-built for cleanroom use
offer the perfect solution to
ensure speed and flexibility of
production while ensuring safety
for staff.
Hugh Freer is president of
MasterMover
For more information:
www.mastermover.com
Tel: 01335 347700
A pedestrian
tug delivers a
level of control
and precision
manoeuvring
capability that
simply can’t be
achieved when
moving heavy
loads by hand
/www.ipesearch.com
/www.mastermover.com
