Au milieu des années 1960, nous avons produit un panneau de plancher de compartiment à bagages, Gillfab 5040, qui était fabriqué avec des peaux en aluminium et du balsa à grain final comme matériau de base. Dans le cadre du processus, nous avons pulvérisé les peaux d'aluminium et le noyau de balsa avec un adhésif solvanté sur la ligne 4. Ensuite, nous faisions passer le matériau le long de la ligne et chassions le solvant avec de la chaleur (lampes infrarouges). De temps en temps (en fait deux fois pendant que je travaillais à la production), l'un des tubes IR se cassait et jetait une étincelle. Cela enflammerait le solvant et les flammes parcourraient toute la longueur de la ligne de pulvérisation et finiraient dans la cabine de pulvérisation. Il y avait une surpulvérisation dans la cabine et cela s'enflammerait.
The first time it happened I rushed over to the line while someone called the fire department. Everyone in the building was fighting the fire. We ran around with the fire extinguishers, shooting them here and there as more solvent escaped from the balsa. When the fire department arrived, they hosed everything down with water and that put out the fire. There was some damage to the facilities and besides the scrap we’d lost a day’s production.
Later, reflecting on what had happened, I thought that our response had been disorganized and nobody had taken charge and as a result, there was more damage than there should have been. I decided that if that ever happened again, I would not fight the fire. Instead, I’d find a place where I could see what was happening and direct a coordinated effort from there.
A while later, maybe a year or two, I was sitting in my office on the shop floor and I heard the “pop” and “whoosh” and I knew we had another fire on our hands. I rushed out of my office and over to Line 4. There was a short stack of fiberglass cloth boxes next to the line and I climbed up on top of them and could see the whole production line and the fire.
By seeing the whole picture, I was able to take control of the situation and coordinate all of our efforts to fight the fire. It was a short fight and we won, easily. We decided to get rid of IR as the heat source and changed to a steam-heated radiator. There hasn’t been another fire on that line in over 40 years.
The key takeaway to me was, “When there’s a problem, don’t panic. Get an overall view of the situation and direct the response”. I have used that philosophy in many situations over the years and it has worked well for me.
La société Gill
4056 Rue Facile
El Monte, Californie 91731-1087 États-Unis
Téléphone : 626-443-4022
Télécopieur : 626-350-5880
E-mail: info@thegillcorp.com
