Microwaves

Twenty years ago, whilst working for a machine tool business, I had to go to a company in South Wales who manufactured Berylliium insulators, when I arrived on site I was asked if I had any clothes that could be destroyed and because I didnt I was issued with a paper suit, breathing hood and sealed gloves. The machines in the building were in negative pressure cabinets and were loaded by the operators through glass doors so air was drawn into the box. I had to fault find and replace circuit boards on a surface grinder with thick rubber gloves and when I finished I was hoovered down as I left the machine cabinet and then had to remove the suit and shower before putting my clothes back on.

When is was leaving site I asked the customer what happened to the machines when they were worn out and he pointed to JCB and a derelict site, all old plant was buried in the ground as they were not allowed to sell the machines because they couldnt guarantee that they were clean.

The next time the machines had a problem we would send spares and fix them over the phone as our company wouldnt send anybody else after me to fix them.

Martin P

Put a spare magnet on the rack where you keep your supplies of steel, then you can identify the stainless that got in with the mild by mistake.

Voice of experience calling ...

Tim

When I was involved with estimating a request for a quote arrived which required, amongst other things, the machining of Beryllium. At that time (early 1990s), the safety requirements were very, very extensive, to the extent that it wasn't worth our while setting up for what was basically a fairly small job. So I made some enquiries, there was no-one in Australia who was able to machine the material, i.a.w. the requirements. In fact the only place that I could find who would be prepared to take on the task, was the company that requested a quote from us!  As this rather defeated the point of the quotation, work on it was stopped at that point!

cheers

Bill

Edited By Bill Pudney on 15/04/2015 05:23:44