Control of maintenance metal fragments from stainless cutting
Hi all, is anyone willing to share their procedure on control of metal contamination from stainless pipe cutting in a workshop and what they have in place to prevent it being taken into the processing area on their clothing & shoes. We have foot waterbaths at all entrances to the processing area but I'm thinking that it maybe not ok for possible metal contamination on shoes. I'm not sure how I need to go to protect their clothing as everything a suggest doesn't appear to be practical. Any help would be appreciated.
Carol :helpplease:
Hi all, is anyone willing to share their procedure on control of metal contamination from stainless pipe cutting in a workshop and what they have in place to prevent it being taken into the processing area on their clothing & shoes. We have foot waterbaths at all entrances to the processing area but I'm thinking that it maybe not ok for possible metal contamination on shoes. I'm not sure how I need to go to protect their clothing as everything a suggest doesn't appear to be practical. Any help would be appreciated.
Carol :helpplease:
Product - Packaging .xyz.....?
Process ?
Rgds / Charles.C
Sorry Charles I did put it in packaging as the site wouldnt let me open up any of the other options in the SQF section. But yes it is a process
Do you have metal detectors in your facility? Do you have a clean-up and pre-production inspection procedure? I think in order to be of greatest help, we need a bit more information.
Thank you!
Are we talking maintenance workers bringing in metal shavings of stainless steel that they had cut in a shop? If so I'd say there's a few things to look at.
1) You should have a procedure that verifies any maintenance work is inspected after being completed. The areas worked on should be cleaned and sanitized if needed and released by management/quality personnel. That verification should include visual inspection of foreign material.
2) Is this amount of metal that is possibly on someone's clothes a concern of significance? A risk analysis should be done possibly to see if this is of legitimate concern. To me it seems like small metal shavings present a very low risk (most metal shaving wouldn't even register going through metal detection and as a standard most pieces of metal/foreign material aren't considered high risk unless the size is that which could cause a safety concern)
3) If you do really find that there is a high risk of contamination you may want to add a procedure for maintenance to have an extra over coat to use when working in production areas with exposed product. Maintenance guys are usually full of grease and other contaminants and we had a specific program that they had to wear a dark maintenance jacket over their regular shop clothes if there was concern of product contamination. If you have foot wash procedures and you worry about metal shavings coming off the floor that might be a whole other issue because there shouldn't be a concern over product contamination from materials coming from the floor.
Just a few things to think about there but first off I would guess a risk analysis should be done to see if this is really a concern. To me it doesn't seem like anything that a quick visual inspection after maintenance work wouldn't clear up and put it as no risk to product contamination.
Do you have metal detectors in your facility? Do you have a clean-up and pre-production inspection procedure? I think in order to be of greatest help, we need a bit more information.
Thank you!
Yes a metal detector is in place. Also have filters & magnets throughout process line. During SQF audit it was noted that I do not have training for maintenance workers for chemical/phycial contamination. eg metal shavings that maybe carried into processing area on clothes & shoes. Had a looked at metal mats and they are very expensive as there are 3 exits from workshop. I think I have enough info to put something in place that will be accepted by my SQF auditor and to close off my risk accessment on our product. Thanking you for your imput