When taking up large or multiple incinerator projects, it is important to plan well in advance all activities including manpower, production, procurement, delivery, logistics, warehousing, commissioning, etc.  Planning is very important as it clearly lays down the requirements, fixes responsibilities on individuals and groups and sets up a time frame.

It is Victor Hugo who once said “Where no plan is laid, where the disposal of time is surrendered merely to the chance of incident, chaos will soon reign”.  How true these words are if one has to set about undertaking big projects without proper planning.

During planning, it is important to analyse problems and pitfalls, challenges and objectives, trials and tribulations simultaneously.  It will be good to anticipate certain issues before starting on the work and take precautionary measures in advance to eliminate these issues from snowballing.

The project plan is meant to  identify each and every activity,  material,  process and individual so as to make sure that everything and everyone is available and in place.  It is like cooking a meal really!  You have to have the stove, gas, utensils, veggies, grains, etc. and, of course, the cook, all available at one place within reach.

We are not going into the details of planning here but are looking at some of the problem areas which need to be addressed ahead of the project start up, if we want to avoid any delays, particularly when manufacturing incinerators.

Material handling equipment:  Incinerators and related equipment are quite heavy because they are lined with refractories which are quite thick.  Hence correct material handling equipment are not only required but have to be kept in ship shape condition without the danger of breakdowns midway.

These include overhead cranes of varying capacities in locations where the semi-processed equipment require to be moved from time to time such as fabrication shops, refractory area, blasting room and paint booth, not to mention the final assembly and testing areas.

Then there are fork lifts of different capacities to move goods where there is no overhead crane.

Fabrication equipment:  For the purpose of fabrication of steel and stainless steel equipment, a good number of welding power sources and other fabrication equipment are required.  These include;

• Welding transformers/rectifiers/generators
• MIG welding equipment such as CO2 and flux cored wire systems
• TIG welding equipment for stainless steel welding
• Air plasma cutting machines
• Hydraulic shearing machine
• Bevelling machine
• Radial Drilling machine
• Flange rolling machine
• Magnetic drills
• Hydraulic plate rolling machines
• Profile cutting machine
• Pug cutting machine
• Column & Boom welding system
• Welding positioner

It is very important these are in good running condition with required spares in stock.  It may not be out of place to mention that there should always be a standby system in case of issues with one.

Blasting & Painting:  Prior to refractory lining after fabrication, all steel items go through a surface preparation process called ‘blasting’ where steel grits are bombarded on to metal surfaces at high pressure to create indentations on the surface.  This provides more surface area and more paint which eventually give a good and long paint life.

The blasting activity is invariably a pre-requisite to painting as this helps anchoring the paint and we generally do this in conformance with NACE standards.

Compressor, nozzle, etc. used in blasting must be regularly maintained so that one does not run into a serious problem of not being able to blast.

Similarly the safety helmet (with air supply) and aprons should be well serviced.

In the painting booth, the filters and exhaust fans need constant check and maintenance.  It should not happen that the filters are saturated with paint causing the paint vapour to circulate within the paint booth.  Same is the case with the fans.

Refractory mixers:  Without these, it is not possible to do the lining of the incinerator chamber, chimney, etc.  A properly mixed refractory gives uniform distribution of the particles and hence good insulation and radiation.  Refractory cannot be hand-mixed as it would perform very poorly, resulting in failure of the whole system.

Production area: This must always be kept in good order with some clean house keeping practices, enabling identification of materials and safety to the workers moving about doing their work.

Stores: Stores plays a very significant role in the smooth functioning of all the above work as they need to keep

• All consumables (with minimum/maximum levels)
• Necessary tools
• Identifying parts and spares

Manpower: If materials and equipment are available, we need men to use/operate them as they become useless without people.  Qualified and trained manpower is the MOST CRITICAL ASPECT of planning.  Their availability, achieving set targets and doing quality work are the other criteria.  It is also necessary to provide for backup staff for key functions so that work does not suffer in the event of unexpected absence of people.

In summary, planning is not a waste of time, but is absolutely necessary to make use of all the resources available to man, especially TIME, being the most perishable of them all!