Steel Mill Electrical Work

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Handy Andy

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Ashland, Oregon, USA
So I was contracted to set up a new service in a local steel mill, and they require a hard hat with a Phenolic shell. I did some research and found the MSA Skullguard Safety Hat that is supposed to be good hat. I found one here:
(removed link)

But I was wondering if there was another option or if this is even the right hard hat for what I am going to be doing.

If anyone has some good info about hard hats and working in a steel mill...also, I wont be on this job site for very long...is it work getting a hard hat like this for a short term job? Or will my standard Hard Hat be ok?

 
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First off, welcome to the Forum!

If they told you that's the Hat you need welp that's it... The plastic or polymer does not take a strike as well as the fiberglass one does. Their Safety Officer can clear up any of your questions. You sure they didn't want you to have a full brim?

The fiberglass has a different burn rate then the polymer one. This is why they
want a certain hat. The polymer is better for electrical stikes, the fiberglass just explodes with an electrical strikes because of the air in the glass...

Frankly, I'm surprised they didn't have a longer and broader list for you that you might have a problem with if you never been in this type of enviroment!

Safety, is not practiced in a steel plant, it's lived moment to moment! There are way to many ways to get pinched, sliced, and cut to say it mildly.

You have to adopt their house Safety rules!
You and your crew can expect to be presented and drilled in safe personal practices besides just wearing all the correct PPE correctly at all times!

They will watch you'll like hawks and watch for someone to run-off the job! Area restrictions might well be put on you and your crew. You might also expect escorts.

They might also want to search your personal tool bags, daily or at any time!

Good Luck, be Safe!
 
Even a steel mill owned by third-worlders won't hire just anyone to install a new service. A contractor will need massive resources and beefy insurance. So, I believe there's something missing from the OP.

The mill will require all the contractors' personnel to sit through a safety orientation that will probably last half a day. You WILL be escorted and supervised by mill personnel. PPE specifications will be pretty exhaustive - flash rated clothing, boots with metatarsal protection, etc. For a new service, there will be an entire engineering department watching the job.

Likewise, there will be all manner of customer preferences. Rigid (not smaller than 3/4), conduit bodies next size up (1" bodies on 3/4 pipe), only stranded wire, etc.

And this guy's worried about the hard hat? There's something missing from this tale.
 
renosteinke said:
Even a steel mill owned by third-worlders won't hire just anyone to install a new service. A contractor will need massive resources and beefy insurance. So, I believe there's something missing from the OP.

The mill will require all the contractors' personnel to sit through a safety orientation that will probably last half a day. You WILL be escorted and supervised by mill personnel. PPE specifications will be pretty exhaustive - flash rated clothing, boots with metatarsal protection, etc. For a new service, there will be an entire engineering department watching the job.

Likewise, there will be all manner of customer preferences. Rigid (not smaller than 3/4), conduit bodies next size up (1" bodies on 3/4 pipe), only stranded wire, etc.

And this guy's worried about the hard hat? There's something missing from this tale.
Click to expand...

Good point. Kind of reminds me of the time I did some work for an FAA regional air traffic control center. The security was strict to put it mildly and the specs, well, I just don't know how to begin to tell you. I'll just say that that connecting, say, a simple piece of equipment may cost 50 times what it would in a commercial environment.
 
renosteinke said:
Even a steel mill owned by third-worlders won't hire just anyone to install a new service.
Click to expand...
The OP said they were going to 'setup' a new service. Maybe they were going in to commission a power monitoring meter and planned to be on site for just a few hours. Over the past 30 years, I have been into many small steel mills and foundries and have always been able to use my normal PPE during my normal activities.

Let's hear back from the OP.
 
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