The dust collectors

The team at Readymix’s Euston Road quarry in Toowoomba, Queensland, is helping the environment by replacing liquid spray with a customized dust collection system. The system, called Donaldson/TORIT DCE, reduces the amount of dust in the local environment - making it more environmentally friendly and helping to produce a better quality end product for customers.

“In the past, we used water to suppress the dust but this tends to turn fine dust into mud,” says Readymix cell manager Craig Bailey. “This in turn blocks screens, minimizes the open area or balls up and carries through to the final product - causing problems for the end user.

“If the product can be kept dry, it screens better, giving you a cleaner product - but this in turn generates airborne dust.”

There are many different ways of dealing with airborne dust produced in this way including having a wet plant or a totally enclosed plant. A wet plant was not viable for the Euston Road site due to a shortage of water. Neither was a total enclosure of the plant, as the area was too large to cover. Dust collectors were the only viable solution.

“All of these dust collectors require a good supply of compressed air, that is pulsed back through the filters to clean them,” says Craig. “Air is not what’s lacking out here - water is - so this system is helping us deal with our environmental responsibilities, while keeping our product up to the standard that is expected from Readymix.”

Safety calendars catch on in popularity

It is almost as tough these days to make the finals of the Rinker Materials safety calendar competition, as it is to make the final 12 in American Idol.

While it was once like pulling teeth to get people involved, it is now a highly anticipated event, with the children and grandchildren of Rinker Materials’ people eager to enter their safety drawings - vying to win one of the 12 monthly spots or the sought-after cover position.

“The first year we had to beg for enough entries to cover all 12 months,” says Lee Maguire, Rinker Materials Transport Division general manager in Miami and publisher of the calendars since 2002. “But the next year we had 60 entries and then 140. We even have customers requesting them!”

Talented artists and creative slogans like “Safety Rocks” and “Zero4Life - the only zero that really counts” make the competition standard high. There are age categories to keep the contest as fair as possible but judges agree it is very tough selecting the winners. Prizes include gift certificates, cash prizes, ribbons and Rinker Materials t-shirts.

Some calendar pages include small versions of entries so that even if a child doesn’t land one of the coveted 12 spots, their drawing, their name and their parent’s name are still included in the calendar. At Rinker, everybody wins with safety!

For more information, please contact Transport Division’s Lee Maguire, Florida Materials’ Terri Starcher or Hydro Conduit Concrete Pipe and Products Division’s Callie Heiser.