Pyroban is increasing safety at a Scottish whisky distillery with arrival of explosion-proof electric lift trucks.
Chivas Brothers is introducing the adapted Hyster E3.5XN to its facilities in Tormore, near the Cairngorms National Park in the country that makes drivers aware of flammable whisky vapours and shuts down the machine automatically if necessary.
Featuring Pyroban’s system 6000 which continuously monitors the direct environment around the lift truck using infrared gas-detection technology targeting ethanol.
Rob Vesty from Pyroban explains: “When a mixture of potentially flammable vapour in the air is detected it initially gives an audible and visual warning to the driver but if the vapour and air mix approaches potentially explosive levels the system shuts down the protected equipment automatically.”
Gas detection is combined with various other explosion protection methods, such as restricted breathing enclosures and surface temperature cooling to ensure the engine, motors, brakes, electrics and other components remain below the auto-ignition temperatures of flammable materials. In this case T3 (200degC) temperature limitation for ethanol.
The Pyroban protected Hyster® E3.5XN complies with ATEX 2014/34/EU*** and is built in line with the latest EN1755:2015**** standard. This means that static, an ignition source, is now considered a “normal” occurrence in Zone 2 hazardous areas, so the tyres, seats, arm rests, hydraulic systems, and more are anti-static.
“Our number one goal is safety” says Sandy Taylor, warehouse manager from Chivas Brothers. “This architecturally remarkable site at Tormore is both a distillery and storage facility, and due to the high volume of ethanol from the whisky maturation process, it is a COMAH* operation with Zone 2** hazardous areas.
“Lift trucks are central to the handling operation in our maturation warehouses, but they need to be specially protected to eliminate the risk of ignition in case a flammable atmosphere forms,” he says.
