BP Shear Hopper Unloader (Fall 2006)

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Bp Shear Hopper Unloader (Fall 2006)

The refinery has a metal fabrication shop and various metal fabrication occurs on a daily basis. The project we are sponsoring is ergonomic improvement project on the metal shear located with the shop. The metal shear is capable of shearing plate steel up to 1/2" thick and 10 ft long. The plate that is sheared off falls into a hopper on the back side of the shear and accumulates in the hopper until the hopper is full. The current hopper is rolled out from under the shear and a craftsman manually pulls the individual pieces of steel out of the hopper. This requires leaning into the hopper, bent over at the waist, which is very poor ergonomic position. To reduce the exposure to this ergonomic problem the task is to redesign the hopper to minimize this exposure. The redesign will incorporate electric, hydraulic or pneumatic systems in order to remove the hopper from under the shear and raise the metal plates up to waist height for the operator.