Document av9jk0xm5zm2Ym8EBY9dvzLe

\' 9 . .. i ( ' ' c *nr t. -P. Norris W. C. Thurber J. E. Walsh KC-File NF-Fi le I wt \ W< IUW UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION P.O. Box 579 Niagara Falls, N.Y. 14302 By H. B. Rhodes Date i/t/75 Full Name Address U. S. Gypsum 1*500 Ardine St. Southgate, CA 90280 . Mfrs. of Interviewed Rich Usack - Production Sup., Paint Dept. Cris Chamberlen - Project Eng. Boise McBride - Eng. Superintendent Mort Higgs OBJECTIVE This meeting developed out of U. S. Gypsum - Southgate's.request for consultation on ways to handle their asbestos dust problems and for a visit to King City to see what UCC did regarding dust control. OBSERVATIONS We met initially at the Southgate plant and observed their operations. Both dry-mix and ready-mix TJC are manufactured. The dry used Canadian asbestos and SG-210 is used in the ready-mix. It became evident in the initial discussions that they were aware of the field toxicology problems in the TJC area but were not too concerned. Their main interest was to get their own plant operations well in complience with the 2 fiber limit. Strangely enough they have not yet been 0SHA inspected. In the Southgate plant hoods have been installed where asbestos is dumped. They have been modified once and although exact levels were not revealed, they seem to be getting more than 2 fibers and somewhat less the 10 fibers. The operator dumps steadily for an 8 hour shift and now wears a respirator. At the present,the bag is cut and dumped and then stuffed into a large plastic disposal bag attached to one side of the hood. Dry material in the cone of the hood is pushed down with a short-handled brush. Inlet air velocity is 100 fpm and goes to 200 fpm at a set of baffles towards the back of the hood. It looked like the main problem was that the.operator puts his head into the hood during bag disposal and brushing. We discussed the possibility of some modifications with Plexiglas to keep his head out and a longer brush. Mr. Usack also felt that the use of 35 lb. bags which had eliminated the need to cut a bag and set part of it aside for the next batch had removed one of their problems. They will undoubtedly request that we continue to supply them in 35 lb. bags. ' Report of Call U., S. Gypsum -2- 1/7/75 Their other problem area vas the dry-mix bagger. The valve-pack bags are filled vith an auger packer which reverses and has a long modified tip to help clear the bag spout. There vas a small vacuum pickup at the nozzle. In spite of this they still have the bag spout "dribble" problem that ve do. . This is a fairly slov moving operation vith the bags hand stacked on a pallet. The bags were not packed hard. It looked to me like a tuck-in sleeve would clear things up. Following the L.A. meeting all of the U. S. Gypsum people except Mort Higgs visited the King City plant. Bob Kronkhyte gave us a well-conducted tour of the plant vith a detailed examination of the dust control equipment. Both the bag and pallet shrink film equipment was in operation and were quite impressive. They took quite a few notes and said they had picked up a number of ideas that could be applied to their situations. During the course of the ..meetings we discussed the possibility of the use of pellets. They had looked at this in some detail several years ago and were a little vague on details. In general it appeared that SG-200 was too gritty and HPP worked but was too expensive. There is now a new set of conditions,however, regarding dust, and they took samples and plan to review the entire situation. Some interest vas also expressed in automatic bag openers. The names HBR of 3 prospective manufacturers were supplied. I agreed to see what I could find out about the performance of the Taunton Engineeringmachine. RECOMMENDED ACTION U. S. Gypsum does not appear to me to have a serious in-plant problem at Southgate and they seem to be moving to handle it. This meeting and the time spent looked like a lot more effort on their part than was needed but ve responded to a large customer and they were most appreciative. It is suggested that we plan to follow regularly on the dust control problem and should also pay close attention to the pellet situation. Note to J. E. W. Rich Usack was suprised to hear of our sales problems in their Dallas plant. He will call Hugh Cameron and talk to him. Added Note They also like the pallet overwrap and feel that it takes care of their car unloading problems and leakage problem in the storage area. No dust counts to verify this have been made, however. typed 1/15/75 mlv