Atex Safety – Per la versione in Italiano: https://www.stradeeautostrade.it/attrezzature-e-componenti/grandi-opere-e-sicurezza-atex-dal-colore-green/
Explosion proof and fumes purification in state strategic works: how and why
Everyone is aware of the debate on the need to reduce our Country’s infrastructural gap with decisive and, in some cases, long overdue interventions. The large construction sites are strategic projects, at the service of the community and can contribute to the Italian economic and employment development thanks also to the chain of Companies involved.
Despite the ongoing pandemic crisis this expertise is considered among the best in the world and certainly represents the backbone of the Italian system and the driving force for solid future growth.
Webuild, thanks to Progetto Italia the Country’s infrastructure consolidation operation – the chain of 7,000 Companies collaborating with Webuild in Italy – has the opportunity to grow and become increasingly competitive in the Country and abroad with the creation of iconic works, for example the megaproject of the high-speed line in Texas for which the Group recently signed a $ 16 billion contract.
The realization of large construction sites implies having to operate in dangerous areas. The construction of tunnels involves important and colossal underground excavations.
There is a real risk of running into dust and gas pockets, in operating with large handling machines in underground or proxemic tunnel areas, such as the better-known firedamp, which can generate dangerous explosions with serious damage for the workers, the construction site itself and the surrounding natural habitat.
In these contexts, the challenge is to avoid potentially risky situations by putting in place all the solutions and precautions aimed at making the machines and devices in use safe according to the increasingly stringent regulations in force. This is the field in which Miretti operates: converting equipment operating in areas classified as being at risk into an explosion-proof structure.
The explosion-proof world is, in fact, an extremely specific sector and characterized by continuous updates on the standards and methods of protection to which producers, OEMs and end users must mandatorily adapt (in Europe, the best-known Directive is Atex 2014/34/EU).
As far as Safety is concerned, in the 1980s Miretti Group assumed the courageous role of forerunner thanks above all to the foresight of the Founder, Pier Carlo Miretti, a Company man who had a modern vision of “doing business” (https://miretti.com/it/prodotti/veicoli-antideflagranti-per-miniere-e-gallerie/).
In those years, the Atex-themed literature was almost non-existent; the were limited and unclear and the management of work in areas at risk of explosion inside tunnels was poorly regulated.
To clarify, Miretti lent its technical know-how to the service of the numerous institutional working groups. At the same time the Company began to supply the first Explosion Proof Systems and Catalytic Devices for vehicles operating underground, starting a collaboration with well-known Companies engaged in Major Works. The result was impressive, both on technological development and normative definition levels, thus making the foundations for the subsequent evolution possible.
The safety of operators and attention to the environment therefore constitute the dual objective, common to all the players involved in these complex projects. It’s also for this reason that the players of the Large Construction Sites are looking for competence, experience, and technical reliability. Each intervention requires knowledge of the most recent regulations, experience in the handling/underground sector and a specific engineering mastery.
More and more often it is required that these Atex Protection and Fume Abatement systems be designed and supplied in “100% custom” mode, therefore specifically made according to the characteristics of the single machine, maintaining ergonomics and performance as identical as possible to the original ones.
Webuild and Miretti, the collaboration between two italian brands with a strong international vision
This scenario includes the collaboration between the Miretti Group and the Webuild Group, which has always been attentive to sustainability and committed to the construction of large infrastructural works, including the Genoa San Giorgio bridge built in record time and which has become the symbol of “possible reconstruction” and the project – still in progress – of the Terzo Valico (Third Pass) work carried out by the General Contractor led by Webuild. The work, part of the Unique Projedect with the annexation of the Genoa Node, involves a highly specialized Italian supply chain which employs about 5,000 staff.
With the Terzo Valico (Third Pass), Genoa will become a new international hub, connecting it to Europe and Milan with an interurban metro line and represents a further step forward in the direction of sustainable mobility in Italy.
A collaboration that implies a strong responsibility since even with these supplies one contributes to maintaining the safety, respect for the environment and the operational continuity of these important Works. Webuild, after accomplishing many high-speed railway lines, from Rome to Milan and from Milan to
Turin, is currently carrying out 18 innovative infrastructure projects also from an environmental point of view with the aim of reducing emissions during construction and delivering to the future works that lead to an increasingly sustainable mobility.
In projects currently underway, more than 70 earthmoving machines have been affected by the Miretti Explosion Proof Conversions and more are planned for the future. On most of these machines, Innovative Kits for the Abatement of Harmful Emissions have also been set up, allowing a reduction in fuel consumption, a sign of a particular sensitivity towards climate change.
The vehicles involved in Miretti production are classic work vehicles, concrete mixers, concrete pumps, wheel loaders and excavators of various capacities up to more specific and complex machinery for traditional or mechanized excavations such as positioners, drilling rigs and milling cutters equipped with over a 15 m diameter.
Emergency evacuation machines must also be mentioned. The Atex systems installed have as their prime aim the daily protection of the many operators employed in these works.
The converted vehicles can therefore operate safely with respect to possible risks such as, for example, high engine temperatures, particularly hot exhaust gases, sparking devices. In addition, the anti-pollution kits make it possible to upgrade off-road machines through a “green upgrade” in terms of reducing emissions and fuel consumption.
Improving the combustion of engines also reduces the related maintenance costs. Converting such quantities of large machines into an Explosion Proof setting, equipping them with ecological kits at the same time, in compliance with the technical timelines of such important works, entails a high product risk.
Therefore, we need that solidity which, on a practical level, in the Miretti procedural process translates into operational structures, production spaces, quality controls and investment dimensions suitable for managing these projects in the best possible way not only in Italy but throughout the world. The Group’s internal R&D, Certification and Technical Department ensure the complete management of the project.
The expertise does not end with the Explosion Proof Conversion or with the supply of the Ecological Kit. It is developed into a wide-ranging, timely and multi-tasking quality service that guarantees, in agreement with the customer, continuous support, even on site, for the entire life cycle of the equipment, anywhere in the world.
Atex Safety – Per la versione in Italiano: https://www.stradeeautostrade.it/attrezzature-e-componenti/grandi-opere-e-sicurezza-atex-dal-colore-green/