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Human Factors
for the Design, Operation,
and Maintenance of
Mining Equipment
Human Factors
for the Design, Operation,
and Maintenance of
Mining Equipment
Tim John Horberry
Robin Burgess-Limerick
Lisa J. Steiner

Boca Raton London New York

CRC Press is an imprint of the

Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
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Contents
Foreword.......................................................................................................... xiii
Acknowledgements..........................................................................................xv
The Authors.................................................................................................... xvii

Chapter 1 What is human factors, and why is it important for

mining equipment?..................................................................... 1
1.1 What is “human factors”?....................................................................... 1
1.2 What are the aims of human factors?.................................................... 2
1.2.1 But … people differ in shape, size, ability, skill, and
motivation.................................................................................... 2
1.2.2 And … adding human factors to the design of a
product is often seen as unnecessary...................................... 2
1.3 Why is it important to consider human factors for mining
equipment?................................................................................................ 3
1.3.1 Safety and health........................................................................ 3
1.3.2 Productivity and work efficiency............................................. 4
1.4 History of human factors in mining...................................................... 5
1.5 Human factors and risk management................................................... 5
1.6 Key current issues, and future challenges with mining
equipment.................................................................................................. 6
1.6.1 Safety versus production........................................................... 6
1.6.2 Bigger! Stronger! Quicker! Safer! More reliable!..................... 7
1.6.3 Remote control and automation............................................... 9
1.6.4 An ageing workforce.................................................................. 9
1.6.5 Gap between mine site ergonomics knowledge and
manufacturer human factors design skills........................... 10
1.7 Why this book is necessary................................................................... 11
1.8 Structure of the book.............................................................................. 12

Chapter 2 Equipment design....................................................................... 15

2.1 The equipment design process............................................................. 15
2.2 The equipment life cycle........................................................................ 16
2.3 Safety in design....................................................................................... 18

v
vi Contents

2.4 Hierarchy of control, and control effectiveness................................. 19

2.4.1 Is the actual effectiveness of the controls more
important than where they sit on the hierarchy?................ 22
2.5 Equipment usability............................................................................... 22
2.5.1 Who benefits from a user-centred focus?.............................. 23
2.6 Human factors cost–benefit analysis and the system life cycle....... 24
2.6.1 Problems with human factors CBA in mining..................... 24
2.6.2 Benefits of using a structured CBA method......................... 25
2.7 Equipment standardisation................................................................... 26
2.7.1 Issues with standards.............................................................. 27
2.7.2 The standards process............................................................. 27
2.8 Potential barriers to using human factors in design......................... 28
2.9 Operability and maintainability analysis technique (OMAT)......... 30
2.9.1 The importance of designing mobile equipment for
maintainability and operability............................................. 30
2.9.2 The beginning of the Earth Moving Equipment
Safety╯Round Table (EMESRT)............................................... 31
2.9.3 Previous techniques for maintainability and
operability assessment............................................................. 33
2.9.4 The scope of OMAT.................................................................. 34
2.9.5 OMAT process........................................................................... 35

Chapter 3 It is not just about design: Mining equipment

operations and maintenance................................................... 39
3.1 Elements in the mining system............................................................ 39
3.2 Safety in the operation of mobile equipment..................................... 41
3.3 Different types of factors involved in mobile equipment
incidents................................................................................................... 42
3.4 Haddon’s countermeasure principles.................................................. 44
3.4.1 Principle 1: Prevent the creation of the hazard.................... 44
3.4.2 Principle 2: Reduce the amount of the hazard..................... 44
3.4.3 Principle 3: Prevent the release of the hazard...................... 45
3.4.4 Principle 4: Modify the rate of release of the hazard
from its source........................................................................... 45
3.4.5 Principle 5: Separate the hazard from that which
is╯to╯be protected in time and space....................................... 46
3.4.6 Principle 6: Separate the hazard from that which
is╯to╯be protected by a physical barrier.................................. 46
3.4.7 Principle 7: Modify relevant basic qualities of the
hazard......................................................................................... 46
3.4.8 Principle 8: Make what is to be protected more
resistant to damage from the hazard..................................... 47
3.4.9 Principle 9: Begin to counter damage done by
the╯hazard.................................................................................. 47
Contents vii

3.4.10 Principle 10: Stabilise, repair, and rehabilitate

the╯object of damage................................................................ 47
3.5 Conclusions............................................................................................. 47

Chapter 4 Manual tasks............................................................................... 49

4.1 Introduction............................................................................................. 49
4.2 Direct manual-task risk factors............................................................ 53
4.2.1 Force and speed........................................................................ 53
4.2.2 Body posture............................................................................. 54
4.2.3 Movement and repetition........................................................ 55
4.2.4 Duration..................................................................................... 55
4.3 Assessing manual-task injury risks..................................................... 56
4.4 The place of “training” in manual-task injury risk
management............................................................................................ 57
4.5 Conclusion............................................................................................... 58

Chapter 5 Workstation design and anthropometric variability......... 59

5.1 Workstation design: Overview............................................................. 59
5.2 Incorporating anthropometric data in workstation design.............. 59
5.2.1 Types of anthropometric data................................................. 59
5.2.2 Sources of anthropometric data............................................. 60
5.2.3 Use of anthropometric data in design................................... 61
5.2.4 Issues with the use of percentiles: The myth of the
50th percentile person.............................................................. 62
5.3 General principles of workstation design........................................... 62
5.3.1 Clearance requirements........................................................... 62
5.3.2 Access and egress, and fall prevention during
operation and maintenance.................................................... 63
5.3.3 Location and arrangement of workstation controls
and displays............................................................................... 67
5.3.4 Visibility..................................................................................... 72
5.3.5 Seating........................................................................................ 74
5.4 Digital tools for workstation design.................................................... 75
5.5 Conclusion............................................................................................... 75

Chapter 6 Physical environment and climate......................................... 77

Section 6.1 co-written with Robert Randolph
Section 6.2 co-written with James Rider
Section 6.3 co-written with Janet Torma-Krajewski
Section 6.4 co-written with Tammy Eger
6.1 Sound and hearing................................................................................. 78
6.1.1 What is sound?.......................................................................... 78
6.1.2 Hearing and age........................................................................ 79
6.1.3 Variables of noise exposure..................................................... 79
viii Contents

6.1.4 Noise protection strategies...................................................... 80

6.1.5 Noise: Summary....................................................................... 80
6.2 Dust........................................................................................................... 82
6.2.1 Breathing and dust................................................................... 82
6.2.2 Dust control in mining............................................................ 84
6.2.3 Respiratory protection and other personal
protective╯equipment............................................................... 86
6.3 Heat, cold, and climate control............................................................. 87
6.3.1 Extent of the issue..................................................................... 87
6.3.2 Overview of environmental heat stress................................ 88
6.3.3 Environmental heat stress in mining.................................... 90
6.3.4 Physiological responses to heat stress................................... 91
6.3.5 Heat stress indices and thermal limits.................................. 91
6.3.6 Controls: General...................................................................... 92
6.3.7 Controls: Specific to mining.................................................... 94
6.3.8 Cold stress.................................................................................. 95
6.3.9 Summury................................................................................... 96
6.4 Vibration.................................................................................................. 96
6.4.1 What is vibration?..................................................................... 97
6.4.2 Consequences of vibration...................................................... 98
6.4.2.1 Motion sickness........................................................ 98
6.4.2.2 Visuo-motor performance...................................... 99
6.4.2.3 Health effects: Peripheral vibration....................... 99
6.4.2.4 Health effects: Whole-body vibration................. 100
6.4.3 Controlling whole-body vibration risks associated
with mining equipment......................................................... 102

Chapter 7 Vision, visibility, and lighting.............................................. 105

Co-written with Tammy Eger
7.1 Vision and lighting............................................................................... 106
7.2 Illumination and vision performance............................................... 108
7.3 Standards for mine lighting.................................................................110
7.4 Recommended lighting levels.............................................................110
7.5 Lighting used in underground mines................................................111
7.5.1 LED cap lamp...........................................................................113
7.5.2 Visual warning system (VWS)...............................................113
7.5.3 Wireless visual warning system (VWS)...............................114
7.5.4 LED area lighting.....................................................................114
7.6 Visibility and equipment design.........................................................114
7.6.1 Accident statistics....................................................................115
7.6.2 Strategies to improve line of sight from
mobile╯equipment....................................................................116
7.6.3 Cameras....................................................................................116
7.6.4 Other visual aids......................................................................116
Contents ix

Chapter 8 Controls and displays............................................................. 119

8.1 Controls and displays: Overview........................................................119
8.2 Control design principles.....................................................................119
8.2.1 Control resistance................................................................... 121
8.2.2 Control sensitivity.................................................................. 121
8.2.3 Control order........................................................................... 121
8.3 Reducing control errors: Guarding, feedback, mode errors,
coding, and directional control–response relationships................ 122
8.3.1 Inadvertent control operation............................................... 122
8.3.2 Mode errors............................................................................. 123
8.3.3 Operation of incorrect controls............................................. 123
8.3.4 Direction errors....................................................................... 131
8.4 Display principles................................................................................. 139
8.4.1 The importance of visual information................................ 139
8.4.2 Types of visual information.................................................. 140
8.4.3 Warnings and alarms............................................................. 140
8.4.4 Key display design principles................................................141
8.5 Case Study: The EMESRT controls and displays
design╯philosophy................................................................................ 144

Chapter 9 Automation and new technologies....................................... 145

9.1 Why are new mining technologies and automation being
developed and deployed?.................................................................... 145
9.2 Levels of automation............................................................................ 147
9.3 The importance of considering human–machine interaction
in automated mining equipment....................................................... 148
9.3.1 Why consider the human?..................................................... 148
9.3.2 Approaches and lessons from other domains.................... 149
9.3.3 Some of the “ironies” of automation.................................... 150
9.4 Automation and human factors issues.............................................. 151
9.5 Case study: Collision detection and proximity-warning
systems................................................................................................... 153
9.5.1 Uses of collision detection and proximity-warning
systems..................................................................................... 154
9.5.2 Types of detection technologies........................................... 155
9.5.2.1 Example 1: Underground mining........................ 156
9.5.2.2 Example 2: Surface mining................................... 156
9.5.3 Human factors issues............................................................. 156
9.6 Mining automation and people: What can we conclude?............... 158

Chapter 10 Organisational and task factors............................................ 161

10.1 Fatigue, shiftwork, and mining equipment.......................................161
10.1.1 What is fatigue?........................................................................161
10.1.2 Fatigue measurement and impacts.......................................162
x Contents

10.1.3 Working hours in mining...................................................... 163

10.1.4 Nightwork................................................................................ 164
10.1.5 Strategies to combat operator fatigue.................................. 165
10.1.5.1 Naps and coffee...................................................... 165
10.1.5.2 Fatigue management............................................. 165
10.1.5.3 Rest breaks.............................................................. 166
10.1.5.4 Fatigue detection technologies.............................167
10.2 Mental workload................................................................................... 168
10.2.1 Levels of mental workload.................................................... 168
10.2.2 Mental workload as an interaction of person, task,
environment, and equipment............................................... 169
10.2.3 How to measure it?................................................................. 169
10.2.4 Mental workload and new technology................................ 170
10.3 Occupational stress.............................................................................. 170
10.3.1 Is a little stress a good thing?................................................ 170
10.3.2 Effects of stress........................................................................ 170
10.3.3 Who are affected most by stress, and what helps?............ 171
10.3.4 Stress measurement................................................................ 172
10.4 Distraction............................................................................................. 172
10.4.1 The importance of driver distraction.................................. 172
10.4.2 Definitions of driver distraction............................................174
10.4.3 Internal or external distraction..............................................174
10.4.4 Distraction minimisation...................................................... 175
10.5 Conclusion............................................................................................. 175

Chapter 11 Training..................................................................................... 177

Co-written with Jennifer G. Tichon
11.1 Why train?............................................................................................. 177
11.2 Human factors in the design of training........................................... 177
11.3 Expertise and training......................................................................... 179
11.3.1 Sensation and perception differences.................................. 180
11.3.2 Decision-making differences................................................ 181
11.3.3 Action differences................................................................... 181
11.3.4 Attention differences.............................................................. 181
11.4 Issues associated with training.......................................................... 182
11.5 Use of simulation in training.............................................................. 182
11.6 VR simulation training in mining..................................................... 184
11.7 Conclusion............................................................................................. 187

Chapter 12 Conclusions............................................................................... 189

12.1 Summary............................................................................................... 189
12.2 Future general trends in€mining human factors............................. 190
12.3 Future human-related trends in mining equipment design,
operation, and maintenance................................................................ 191
Contents xi

12.3.1 The need for better human factors design and

procurement tools................................................................... 191
12.3.2 Error-tolerant equipment....................................................... 192
12.3.3 Design maturity...................................................................... 194

References........................................................................................................ 197
Index................................................................................................................. 213
Foreword
I am extremely pleased to have been asked
to write the foreword for Human Factors for
the Design, Operation, and Maintenance of
Mining Equipment. The book seems to be
particularly well timed because there is a
growing appreciation within the industry
that proper consideration of human factors
issues with respect to mining equipment is
of critical importance. For example, a quick
glance at the lost-time injuries, high poten-
tial incidents, and disabling injury statis-
tics collected in Queensland, Australia, or
elsewhere shows the importance of systematically considering the human
element in mining equipment. We continue to have too many fatalities
and serious accidents in this area, and we can no longer ignore this com-
ponent of the problem. Also, no other recent publication is available to
the industry that contains human factors knowledge regarding mining
equipment in a single volume; in a busy industry such as mining, having
easily accessible, user-friendly, practical, up-to-date, and comprehensive
information is vital.
In Queensland, the Mines Inspectorate is taking the lead with respect
to human factors and has just completed a twelve-month project which
has resulted in a mining-focused, human factors–based tool which will
be used as an aid in the investigation of accidents. As noted in this book,
human factors are also being examined in conjunction with the use of
proximity detection and collision avoidance on mining vehicles to
�minimise the interactions of vehicles with each other and pedestrians.
The Queensland Mines Inspectorate will continue to propagate safety
information of this type through all of the avenues available to us, and
publications such as this play an important role in this process.
One particularly pleasing aspect of the book is that it can be used as
a guidebook when searching for information about a specific human fac-
tors topic, or it can be read from cover to cover to gain a more complete

xiii
xiv Foreword

understanding of human factors issues. Because it is reasonably succinct,

careful reading of the entire contents is strongly recommended; such read-
ing will help provide an important appreciation of what “human factors”
are all about and their critical importance to safety, health, and efficiency
in the minerals industry.

Stewart Bell

Commissioner for Mine Safety and Health

Executive Director
Safety and Health Division
Queensland Mines and Energy
Australia
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to colleagues at the University of Queensland,
the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and else-
where for their assistance in many ways. We specifically acknowledge
peers who ably co-wrote three chapters in this book: Tammy Eger from
Laurentian University, Canada (Chapters 6 and 7), and Jennifer G.
Tichon from the University of Queensland, Australia (Chapter 11). Also
co-authoring in Chapter 6, we are grateful to Janet Torma-Krajewski
from the Colorado School of Mines (Climate), and James Rider (Dust)
and Robert Randolph (Noise), both from NIOSH Office of Mine Safety
and Health Research. Photo credit to Dr Gary Dennis for Figures 4.1B,
4.1C, 5.1, 5.2, 8.2A, 8.3, and 8.4. The invaluable backing and sponsor-
ship provided by Stewart Bell, Gerard Tiernan, Trudy Tilbury from the
Department of Employment, Economic Development and Innovation
(Queensland Mines and Energy), and Grant Cook from the Queensland
Mining Industry Health and Safety Conference were particularly wel-
come. Robin Burgess-Limerick’s contribution was supported in part by
the Australian Coal Association Research Program (project C18012). The
book draws on research projects undertaken by the authors funded by
the Coal Services Health and Safety Trust, CSIRO, and ACARP projects
C16013, C14016, C11058, C18025, and C17033. Finally, we offer our �greatest
thanks to our families for their unstinting and continuing support.

xv
The Authors
Tim John Horberry, PhD MSc MIEHF BA (Hons), is an associate pro-
fessor (human factors) at the Minerals Industry Safety and Health
Centre, The University of Queensland, Australia, where he is director
of research. Dr€Horberry has conducted research in transport and min-
ing human factors in Australia, the United Kingdom, and the European
Union. Tim has published his research extensively—including a recent
book, Understanding Human Error in Mine Safety (2009).
Robin Burgess-Limerick, BHMS (Hons) PhD CPE, is a certified profes-
sional member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia.
Robin also holds a fractional appointment as associate �professor in the
School of Human Movement Studies, The University of Queensland,
where he coordinates postgraduate programs in ergonomics. Robin has
�published more than fifty papers in international journals, and is the
immediate past president of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
of Australia.
Lisa J Steiner is a certified professional ergonomist in the United States.
She is team leader for the Human Factors Branch at the Office of Mine
Safety and Health Research, National Institute for Occupational Safety
and Health, Pittsburgh, PA, United States. She specializes in safety and
injury prevention, particularly with reference to mining environments
and equipment along with facilities planning and design. Lisa has her
master’s degree in industrial engineering and is currently undertaking
her PhD within the School of Human Movement Studies, The University
of Queensland, Australia.

xvii
chapter one

What is human factors,

and why is it important
for mining equipment?

1.1â•… What is “human factors”?

Everyone has some idea of what is meant by “human factors.” But to for-
malise things, and to provide some common ground, human factors (or
ergonomics) is defined here as the scientific discipline concerned with the
understanding of the interactions among people and the other elements of
a work system, and as the profession that applies theory, principles, data,
and methods to design in order to optimise human well-being, safety, and
overall system performance. Or, as the vision statement of the Human
Factors and Ergonomics Society of Australia (2010) puts it, “People-centred
environments, products and systems for all.”
As well as a scientific field and profession, human factors is also a
way of looking at the world which has as its focus the capabilities, limita-
tions, motivations, behaviours, and preferences of people. The aim is to
maximise efficiency, effectiveness, quality, comfort, safety, and health by
ensuring that systems are designed in such a way that the interactions are
consistent with people’s capabilities, limitations, motivations, behaviours,
and preferences. The emphasis is on changing work systems to suit people,
rather than requiring people to adapt to these systems. As the topic of this
book is mining equipment, the emphasis is on designing this equipment
and the broader work system to fit mining operators and maintainers. This
can be achieved by measures such as through more fit-for-purpose initial
design of equipment or by improving work procedures and processes.
The human factors philosophy implies a scientific concern with obtain-
ing information about the characteristics and capabilities of people, and
this is achieved by drawing on knowledge from the underlying �disciplines
and fields, including anatomy, physiology, biomechanics, �anthropometry,
neuroscience, social psychology, cognitive science, organisational psy-
chology, management, work study, epidemiology, public health, and
sociology. Another concern of human factors lies in design-based disci-
plines and fields such as product design, engineering, architecture, and

1
2 Human factors for mining equipment

computer science, where the opportunity exists to influence the design of

systems, equipment, and environments. Firmly within that framework,
this book addresses the role that human factors can play in the design,
use, and maintenance of mining equipment.

1.2â•… What are the aims of human factors?

Human factors can therefore be thought of as having two separate (but
not competing) aims:

• To improve work performance. This includes quantity of work (e.g.,

increased human machine integration leading to more ore moved),
quality of performance (including accurate fault detection in mainte-
nance work), and fewer errors, accidents, and/or near misses.
• To improve the health, safety, and well-being of the workforce and,
where possible, the wider community, for example through fewer
occupational injuries or health problems (e.g., noise-induced deaf-
ness), less job-related stress, increased usability of products, and
increased work motivation.

Of course, the underlying assumption is that using human factors data,

principles, and methods will lead to better designed jobs, tasks, products,
or work systems. This is often easier said than done. However, this central
theme (in various guises) will be present throughout this book.

1.2.1â•…But€… people differ in shape, size,

ability, skill, and motivation
This is true whether that is in terms of mental processes such as decision-
making or reaction time, or physical features such as the length of a per-
son’s reach. A key principle is that equipment, systems, and tasks should
be designed to accommodate as many potential users as possible. One
way to achieve this is through making parts of the equipment interface
(e.g., a seat or even a display screen) adjustable; however, adjustability is
only beneficial when it is done correctly to suit different individuals.

1.2.2â•…And€… adding human factors to the design of

a product is often seen as unnecessary
This can be for a variety of reasons, including the following:

• Designers sometimes think they can use their knowledge, com-

mon sense, and intuition instead, or they rely purely on designing
to standards.
Chapter one:â•… The importance of human factors 3

• Adding human factors may be thought to alter an agreed-on

design process.
• Similarly, an older version of a system may already be in place, and
piecemeal alterations are subsequently made. For example, consider
the road system around a mine site: it might be almost impossible to
simply stop using it and design it again from scratch using human
factors principles.
• The benefits and costs of using a user-centred approach for equip-
ment design are not clear.

All these issues will be considered in more depth throughout this

book. Needless to say, our view is that human factors is a key aspect to
consider in the design and use of mining equipment.

1.3â•…Why is it important to consider human

factors for mining equipment?
Based on the twin aims of human factors presented above, two broad rea-
sons are investigated here. Both are critically important.

1.3.1â•… Safety and health

As we will explore throughout this book, human performance prob-
lems can constitute a significant threat to system safety in mining.
It should be noted that in this sense mining is not unique, as other
domains such as road transportation, defence, manufacturing, and
maritime operations have broadly similar issues (Grech, Horberry, and
Koester, 2008).
Except in the utopian dream of a fully automated mine, humans—
whether operators, maintainers, trainers, supervisors, or managers—are a
central part of the mining system rather than an optional extra (Simpson,
Horberry, and Joy, 2009). Therefore, a full understanding of accidents
or incidents will only be obtained if the human element is viewed as a
�fundamental part of a wider work system, rather than considering the
system to be basically safe if it were not for the human part (Dekker, 2006).
Despite this, looking at incident or near-miss statistics (especially incident
narratives) indicates that human-related issues are somehow linked to
a majority of occurrences (Patterson, 2008). In a complex system such as
mining, it is usually far too simplistic to say that a single human failure
“caused” the incident (as they usually have multiple causes, especially
if probed far enough upstream), but they do at least indicate the impor-
tance of humans to the overall safety of mining work (Simpson et al.,
2009). Another way to look at it would be to consider how often mining
4 Human factors for mining equipment

personnel “caused safety”—for example, by their actions they “caused” a

task to be safely performed 999 times out of 1,000—rather than focusing
on the single incident where things somehow went wrong. Further dis-
cussion of this issue is beyond the scope of this book; for the moment, the
important points are that humans are central to promoting and maintain-
ing safety, and that people are also involved in some measure in a large
majority of mining incidents and accidents.

1.3.2â•… Productivity and work efficiency

It is relative easy for the human factors professional to play the safety
card in mining, and to focus on human performance to improve safety
(whether the standpoint is one of viewing human error as a cause of inci-
dents or instead seeing it as a consequence of a problem in the wider work
system). Whilst vital, the other aim of human factors, increasing work per-
formance and productivity, is also a key area in which there is certainly
plenty of work to be done in mining.
Partly this is due to organisational barriers, where it might be easier
for a mining company to employ a human factors specialist in a safety
department than in a job that generally helps to improve performance.
Also, it is partly an artifact of what is being measured—the role that
mining personnel play in safety is often easier to grasp compared to
tackling how human factors might be used to improve productivity
and efficiency.
Consequently, this area is often left to management consultants, busi-
ness improvement consultants, organisational development specialists, or
production staff. Whilst these can undoubtedly have a major impact, this
situation underestimates the potential benefits of applying human factors
principles to improve productivity. For example, as will be explored in
more depth later in this book when considering new technologies, opera-
tors and maintainers are an essential component in overcoming many
of the€limitations of some mining equipment. They often adapt to make
the technology work successfully, and whilst this can get the job done
there are many instances where tasks could be done better, quicker, more
efficiently, or more productively had human factors principles been more
systematically considered. Other possible examples include a potential
5 percent gain in minerals industry process control efficiency through
having better designed predictive displays (Thwaites, 2008), less wastage
or errors due to a mine site having a systematic operator fatigue man-
agement program, redesigning jobs to require less manual tasks, or fuel
savings in mobile equipment through having a fit-for-purpose operator
interface. So a key mission for human factors specialists in mining, and
for this book, is to sell the productivity benefits of using a human factors
approach.
Chapter one:â•… The importance of human factors 5

1.4â•… History of human factors in mining

The application of human factors to mining has a rich but uneven history
around the world. The US Bureau of Mines, the British Coal Board, and
the South African Council for Scientific and Industrial Research are all
good examples of organisations that have conducted or funded human
factors work related to mining. But things change: for example, in the UK
the virtual collapse of the coal industry around the 1980s resulted in a
serious decline in the amount of British work in mining human factors.
Much of the early published work is now difficult to track down
directly; this is a particular problem because much of it was published
over twenty years ago and therefore digital copies of reports or papers are
not available. However, many important publications do survive, such as
a US Bureau of Mines–funded book about human factors in mining by
Sanders and Peay (1988) and the British Coal work of Simpson, Mason,
and colleagues (partly summarised in Simpson et al., 2009). Further, the
MIRMgate website of the Minerals Industry Safety and Health Centre
at the University of Queensland (www.mirmgate.com; MIRMgate, 2010)
hosts many of these older publications.
Recently, organisations such as the Australian Coal Association Research
Program and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health
(NIOSH, United States) (NIOSH absorbed two laboratories of the Bureau
of Mines when the Bureau of Mines was eliminated) have actively funded
research in the area, often within a broader health and safety framework.
Their role in providing a continuity of research funding has helped allow
experienced human factors researchers to remain in the field. Their open
dissemination of the research outputs is especially welcome: it is a benefit to
all of the industry and an additional source of key material for this book.

1.5â•… Human factors and risk management

As mentioned above, a risk management framework is adopted in contem-
porary mining human factors to guide the application of the principles
and knowledge to any particular equipment design problem. The process
starts with establishing an understanding of the broader context in which
the particular person–equipment interaction takes place before undertak-
ing hazard identification and risk assessment. Assuming that the outcome
of the risk assessment is that action is indicated, the risk control phase
incorporates identifying and evaluating potential control options, before
implementation and ongoing review. From the human factors perspective,
as will be seen in Chapter 2 of this book, the emphasis for risk control is
on elimination or reduction of risk through design controls rather than
focusing excessively on administrative controls such as training, selec-
tion, or personal protective equipment.
6 Human factors for mining equipment

Most importantly, this process also places emphasis on consultation

with the people concerned at each step. This issue is at the heart of “partic-
ipative ergonomics” approaches, which take as an underlying assumption
the notion that the people involved are the “experts” and must be involved
at each stage of the risk management cycle if the process is to be executed
successfully. In an occupational injury risk management context, this
implies in particular that employees and management participate through
hazard identification, risk assessment, risk control, and review steps of the
risk management cycle. Evidence exists to demonstrate the effectiveness
of such approaches across industry in general and in mining in particular
(Burgess-Limerick et al., 2008; Torma-Krajewski et al., 2009). Such a par-
ticipative approach can also be used for productivity and work efficiency
gains by improving equipment design, procedures, and training.

1.6â•…Key current issues, and future

challenges with mining equipment
The above has defined human factors and made a general case for its
greater deployment in mining. To build on those points, this section
briefly outlines five current or emerging human-related issues for mining
equipment.

1.6.1â•… Safety versus production

This first area is, of course, not just restricted to mining equipment, as it is
an issue across all areas of mining. Indeed, the balancing of safety against
productivity is an issue for most domains. But to focus purely on mining
equipment, different trade-offs certainly do exist: for example, load size
versus machine stability, or equipment speed versus incident likelihood
and/or severity.
Trade-offs exist at all stages of the mining equipment life cycle, includ-
ing at the equipment design stage, during equipment procurement and
purchasing, during maintenance (especially scheduled maintenance), and
during equipment operation. Training of new operators with equipment is
not immune to trade-offs, either: how much and what type of training is
given? More training might have safety benefits (plus longer term produc-
tivity gains), but this needs to be offset against the costs of training, the pos-
sible need to take equipment out of service whilst training takes place, and
the need for experienced operators to actually give the training. Of course,
offline training such as using mobile equipment simulators can reduce some
of these effects, but they are certainly not without costs to a mine site.
Sadly, of course, no magic solutions are offered here to resolve this
safety versus productivity trade-off issue. But greater efforts to identify,
Chapter one:â•… The importance of human factors 7

recognise, and assess where the trade-offs exist, and using that as a basis
for informed decision making, comprise the main recommendation here.
In this book, many examples of such trade-offs with respect to mining
equipment will be shown, for example regarding improved visibility ver-
sus reduced functionality of some underground equipment.

1.6.2â•… Bigger! Stronger! Quicker! Safer! More reliable!

There is an increasing demand for mining equipment parameters to be
improved. Compared to a few years ago, there is an expectation that min-
ing equipment will be bigger, stronger, quicker, safer, and more reliable.
For example, the current size of shields in underground longwall coal
production would be unimagined a few years ago. Similar issues exist in
surface mining with mobile equipment (see Figures€1.1 and 1.2 for surface
mining, and Figure€1.3 for underground mining).
Size is not the only important parameter. High equipment reliability,
more robust designs, and efficient performance are the expectations, or at
least the anticipations, of mines and mining companies. This, of course,
imposes pressure on equipment manufacturers to design and build to

Figure 1.1╇ Example of the size of equipment used in modern mining.

8 Human factors for mining equipment

Figure 1.2╇ Another example of the size of equipment used in modern mining:
truck with five coal trailers.

Figure 1.3╇ Longwall shield.

Chapter one:â•… The importance of human factors 9

such requirements, for site-based maintainers to service such equipment

safely and efficiently, and for operators to be actually able to operate it
optimally. However, with increased competition and economic pressures,
it seems unlikely that such demands will reduce in the future.

1.6.3â•… Remote control and automation

It also seems likely that there will be more remote control and/or auto-
mation of mining equipment in the future. This may change the types
of human factors inputs required (for example, less manual operational
tasks—at least when the equipment is working correctly), but it certainly
does not remove the need for human factors involvement.
As will be seen in Chapter 9 about new technologies, some of the les-
sons from other industries where remote control and automation have
already been deployed on a larger scale (e.g., defence or aviation) show that
operator jobs certainly do change (often to more of a passive monitor of
the system, rather than an active controller or driver of it). Indeed, this can
create potential problems in that if the “passive monitor” operator of an
automated system loses situation awareness, and/or becomes deskilled, he
or she may be unable to take appropriate corrective action in the event of
equipment malfunction. Experience in other industries also demonstrates
that human factors issues such as how the equipment status information
is displayed (both for operators and subsequently for maintainers), how it
will be controlled, and how acceptable it is to personnel are of key impor-
tance, as well as what happens if the system malfunctions. Neglecting these
issues will often result in equipment safety and performance problems,
such as improper use, employee sabotage, or at least employee distrust.

1.6.4â•… An ageing workforce

Twenty years ago, it was noted that the average age of the mining workforce
was getting younger (Sanders and Peay, 1988). This situation has reversed
today, and the mining workforce in most industrialised countries is on aver-
age now getting older, and often more overweight. Although this mirrors
many general trends in society, it does present a few specific issues for the
design, maintenance, and operation of mining equipment. Although extreme
ageing is not an issue in mining, there are still many issues for an older
workforce. These are revealed by highlighting the general effects of ageing:

• There often is an increased difficulty in learning new skills. Older

people do not automatise tasks so easily compared to their younger
counterparts. This has implications for mining technology use
where skill requirements may change over time and require new
automatic, over-learnt operating procedures.
10 Human factors for mining equipment

• Most memory functions decrease in performance.

• Reaction time increases, especially an increasing delay in reacting to
unexpected stimuli.
• Loss of muscular strength, endurance, and tone, especially in the
lower extremities.
• Bones weaken and become more porous and less dense.
• Stiffness and joint pain (e.g., arthritis) become more prevalent.
• Respiration capabilities are reduced—lungs are less efficient and
more prone to disease.
• Blood supply (especially to extremities) is diminished. The size of
the heart muscle may be reduced, and the heart rate takes longer to
return to resting level after exertion. This is exacerbated if signifi-
cant weight gain occurs in older workers.
• Visual function changes include loss of precision, and difficulty in
focussing on near objects. For example, there is a link between age-
ing and light wavelength, this can be a problem with LEDs geared
toward blue-green wavelengths as older workers might not see them
as well as more neutral wavelength LEDs.
• Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity decline, especially in bad light-
ing conditions or with a complex background.
• Similarly, hearing decreases in most people, first for high-frequency
sounds and then for lower ones.
• Pain, touch, temperature, and vibration are more difficult to detect.
Likewise, the senses of taste and smell often diminish.

However, it should be noted from this depressing list that many

changes are actually more related to fitness than to age. For instance, it is
not uncommon for a fit fifty year old to be stronger, be slimmer, and have
the same reaction times as a sedentary thirty year old. Similarly, older
workers often have compensation strategies (such as tactics to memorise
things or not performing certain activities). They may also have better per-
ceptual expertise, and be less likely to take unnecessary risks. However,
the above-mentioned physical, perceptual, and cognitive declines with
increasing age can still present a significant challenge to equipment
designers, workers, and mine managers.

1.6.5â•…Gap between mine site ergonomics knowledge and

manufacturer human factors design skills
The final issue to be raised here is about gaps and disconnects. Larger mine
sites often have personnel with reasonably good general knowledge of
physical aspects of human factors and ergonomics; however, generally they
have less specialist skills in human factors, especially in the more “cogni-
tive” areas. Conversely, equipment manufacturers, of course, need to have
Chapter one:â•… The importance of human factors 11

personnel with good design skills. Often these personnel can very compe-
tently design to existing human factors standards (at least, where they exist).
However, they sometimes do not have extensive site experience, and may
not have significant “voice of the customer” knowledge or participatory
ergonomics skills. This gap was one of the motivations for the formation
of the Earth Moving Equipment Safety Round Table, a recent international
initiative that is further described in subsequent chapters in this book.
Added to this is the disconnect that often exists between what happens
(and what is known) at a mine site level and what is known at a corporate
level for some mining companies. This issue is wider than just related to
human factors issues of mining equipment, and it can have impacts for
mining equipment in terms of equipment procurement, training policies,
and the development of safety procedures and protocols.

1.7â•… Why this book is necessary

There is increasing international recognition within the mining industry
about the importance of considering human factors issues in the design,
maintenance, and use of equipment. This is evidenced on several fronts:

• During incident investigation, site personnel becoming increas-

ingly aware of the strengths and weaknesses of their operators
and maintainers. This is accompanied by examining the behaviour
of these operators and maintainers within a wider work context
(including equipment design and use), and so not automatically
subscribing the cause to “human error” that simply requires “more
training.”
• Equipment manufacturers beginning to give systematic attention
about designing to human abilities (and often making their atten-
tion to ergonomics a particular selling point).
• Funding bodies increasingly supporting human factors and ergo-
nomics research programs.
• Mining company managers at a corporate level regularly talking about
better harnessing the human element in future mining systems
• Regulators paying particular attention to systems in place to man-
age person-related safety.

This book is timely because there is no recent publication available

that focuses on a wide range of human factors knowledge and research
related to mining equipment,* and it provides a much-needed overview

* However, recent books are available about either mining human factors (e.g., Simpson
et╯al., 2009, which focuses on human error) or mining equipment from more of an engi-
neering and management perspective (e.g., Dhillon, 2008).
12 Human factors for mining equipment

of the human element. It will be useful for many professionals in the field;
these include mining companies, regulators, health and safety personnel,
equipment manufacturers, designers, engineers, researchers, and stu-
dents. Indeed, the book has been written to appeal to all these groups by
providing a balance between breadth and depth in the treatment of dif-
ferent areas, and pointers and additional references are given to help the
reader explore in more depth particular topics of interest.

1.8â•… Structure of the book

To help set the scene for later chapters, the book begins by presenting
fairly general, yet fundamental, human factors information related to
equipment. In this vein, Chapter 2 focuses on mining equipment design;
this introduces key information in this area such as the notion of the
equipment life cycle and the “hierarchy of control.” A case study about
mobile equipment is outlined at the end of the chapter; this helps to bring
together many of the concepts introduced. Chapter 3 presents the other
side of the situation, and shows why design is not the only issue: mine site
rules, procedures, work methods, guidelines, and similar topics also have
significant impacts upon mining equipment safety and efficiency. As with
Chapter 2, several key concepts such as “Haddon’s matrix” are introduced
and illustrated in this chapter.
Chapter 4 is the beginning of the more specific human factors content.
The material is grouped so that Chapters 4–7 cover more physical issues
related to mining equipment. In more detail, Chapter 4 focuses on manual
tasks currently performed by operators and maintainers and the prob-
lems that may result. Chapter 5 looks at sizes and spaces: sizes of people,
workstation design, access and egress problems, and issues with working
in confined spaces.
Next, Chapter 6 considers the physical environment, and how fac-
tors such as vibration, noise, heat, and dust are of key concerns for people
maintaining and operating mining equipment. Then, Chapter 7 examines
vision, lighting, and equipment visibility, and ways to enhance visibility
(or at least cope with a lack of visibility).
The focus then switches: Chapters 8 and 9 examine more “psycho-
logical” aspects concerning mining equipment, including how informa-
tion is perceived and processed, and how people’s actions are planned
and undertaken. Chapter 8 concerns equipment controls and displays,
the so-called human–machine interface, and it outlines many of the
human factors issues of importance in this area. Chapter 9 builds on this
by examining new technologies and the greater use of automated mining
equipment. Drawing on lessons learnt in other domains (e.g., aviation), it
shows some of the benefits and pitfalls of advanced technologies, and why
a systematic consideration of the human is still very much required.
Chapter one:â•… The importance of human factors 13

Chapter 10 then expands the scope by examining wider organisational

and task factors related to mining equipment. Amongst the issues consid-
ered are long-standing problems of operator fatigue and stress, as well
as newer concerns such as distraction and information overload. Chapter
11 continues the broader organisational theme by focusing on training. It
gives an outline of the area from the first principles of skill acquisition to
how simulation can be used in mining equipment training.
Chapter 12 ends the book. It brings together much of the previously
introduced material and makes the point that the consideration of human
factors within mining equipment is certainly not a static field. The concept
of maturity models is used to show how both equipment designers and
mine sites are on a journey towards more optimal equipment design pro-
cesses and end products.
chapter two

Equipment design
The design of mining equipment plays a crucial part in the safety and effi-
ciency of work tasks that are conducted by operators at that equipment.
Similarly, design has a major impact upon the ease, safety, and efficiency of
equipment maintenance. This chapter focuses on �equipment design, look-
ing at key aspects such as the design process, the equipment life cycle, and
human factors issues concerning safety and usability. Given that the target
audience for this book includes equipment designers and manufacturers,
mining site personnel, safety professionals, as well as �students, research-
ers, and others, the information contained here needs to be reasonably
general. At the same time, it sets the scene for Chapters╯4 –11, which deal
with more specific human factors issues related to mining equipment.

2.1â•… The equipment design process

On the broadest level, one of the main things all equipment designers
have in common is a design process, that is, the activities they go through
whilst conceptualising, designing, and building a new piece of equipment.
Of course, the actual process differs according to different manufacturers,
individual designers, the type of equipment being designed, and external
constraints such as time and budget.
There are many ways of picturing the design process, and usually
these are a generalisation of what really happens. At the simplest level, the
process ranges from concept, through to pre-feasibility of the design, then
feasibility, then a first-prototype build, then an advanced-prototype build,
and then manufacturing and commission.
Perhaps the most important thing to note about the design process
is that it is iterative—it is not a fully linear process where a single idea
remains essentially unchanged from concept through to production. For
example, upon building a first prototype the designer might return to
the original concept and modify this. So the process, especially for more
complex mining equipment, usually involves revisiting, refining, and
changing design ideas, and testing, evaluating, and refining are virtually
always necessary.
Human factors should play a major part in this whole process. This
includes major criteria in the testing process (e.g., usability testing, as will
be reviewed later in this chapter) and also in providing input into different

15
16 Human factors for mining equipment

stages of the design process (e.g., user acceptance). It is not within the scope
of this book to go into excessive detail about how human factors infor-
mation and methods can be used in overall design, and other textbooks
cover this area well already (e.g., Chapanis, 1996). However, as will be seen
throughout this book, key human factors information includes how user
requirements are captured, how human factors information is provided
in an accessible form for designers to use (e.g., regarding human sizes and
strengths), how appropriate human-centred methods are used to evaluate
designs (e.g., user trials), how training needs are analysed and appropriate
training provided, and how the equipment is integrated into the work sys-
tem (e.g., looking at possible resistance to change issues, how procedures
need to be modified, or where equipment retrofits are needed).
However, one of the “paradoxes” is that although human factors and
ergonomics should certainly be involved early and often in the design
process, the certainty of the effects of design changes on safety and per-
formance of the actual equipment is often not fully revealed until the
equipment is operational and the exact context of the working environ-
ment and work tasks are known (Hendrick, 2003). Of course, when the
equipment is operational it is “too late” for the design to be changed (at
least for that exact equipment model), hence the design of much mining
equipment often requires small modifications and improvements from
one exact model to the next one.

2.2â•… The equipment life cycle

The design process section above describes some of the stages that a
designer would go through, from initial concept through to manufactur-
ing of the final equipment, and hopefully extending to also consider oper-
ation, maintenance, modification, and disposal of the equipment. Very
much linked to this is the notion of equipment life€cycle. Again, there are
many variations on the basic theme, and it varies according to equipment
type, industry, and external constraints, but for most mining equipment it
can be shown as in Figure€2.1.
As was seen in Chapter 1, some of the main drivers in mining
�equipment are the requirements to design, build, buy, run, and main-
tain€equipment and technologies that increase the capacity for productiv-
ity as well as improve the safety and health of the workforce. However,
human factors knowledge and methods are not currently considered as
part of the core issues in mining equipment design, operation, or mainte-
nance. For example, looking at the earlier stages in the system life€cycle,
since design engineers develop most human–machine systems, and
human factors is not normally in their toolbox of design methods, there is
a tendency to focus more on technical aspects of what the mining equip-
ment can do. Often they assume that the tasks the equipment cannot do
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 17

Procurement

Disposal Concept

Modification Design
retrofit (0–100%)

Operation &
Manufacturing
training

Commisioning

Figure 2.1╇ Mining equipment life cycle.

would be fulfilled by the human operators and maintainers. As will be

seen in Chapter 9, this is not an appropriate assumption.
Because most equipment designer and mine site engineers still view
human constraints to be less significant than technical challenges (such as
of equipment reliability, payload, etc.) there is a tendency to not systemati-
cally consider human factors in the equipment life€ cycle process, and it
is common to see human factors concerns being passed from one phase
to the next. For example, if during conceptual design the requirements
analysis does not adequately capture user requirements, then subse-
quent inadequacies cannot be resolved in the design phase. Problems that
remain after the system has been designed cannot, therefore, be resolved
during equipment build or implementation; this is a particular problem
for mining equipment that requires considerable human intervention in
its maintenance and operation (e.g., for continuous miners underground).
Retrofitting and modification might occur, whereby human factors
specialists may be brought in to solve specific, and typically serious,
equipment acceptability or usability problems once the equipment has
been implemented. This, however, is usually far from ideal since such
changes are often more difficult, less effective, and much more expen-
sive at this point, and may be impossible. Worse still, equipment issues
that are€ not dealt with by a human factors specialist may be addressed
only by the system documentation, or training of operators, maintenance,
and support personnel. Most people reading this book will have already
18 Human factors for mining equipment

experienced situations where they have required training or lengthy doc-

umentation to cope with the inadequacies of mining equipment design.
On the flip side, and to share the blame for this situation, human fac-
tors professionals are often more traditionally interested in analysis than
in design, and have a different culture and professional language (e.g.,
workload and situation awareness) than designers or mine engineers.
Communication can be ineffective; one of the functions of this book is to
try to help bridge that gap by providing human factors information that
is applicable to mining equipment design, operation, and maintenance in
one accessible source.
The third party in this process is the customers. Here the blame is
shared also. If mining companies place unrealistic demands, especially
time demands, on manufacturers, the probability that the designer will
adequately consider human factors principles within each design phase is
reduced. On the positive side, at least one multinational company is now
requiring tenders submitted by manufacturers to describe how human
factors principles will be incorporated within the design process, and in
particular at what stages and how user feedback will be incorporated in
the design. This tender process also requires a broad brush risk assess-
ment related to human factors issues to be conducted by short-listed
manufacturers prior to contract award, and for a more detailed risk assess-
ment to be conducted by the site with the assistance of the manufacturer
prior to release of the equipment drawings for manufacture. In theory,
this process should ensure that the major human factors–related hazards
are identified, and controls determined, much earlier in the design phase
than has previously been the case.

2.3â•… Safety in design

Incorporating human factors early and often in the equipment design
process and life cycle is therefore one of the central arguments in this
book. One way to broadly achieve this is through safety in design (some-
times known as safe design or prevention through design). This approach
has received a great deal of recent attention in both the scientific and
occupational safety domains (including in mining) and is generally
applied to products and equipment. As the name suggests, it involves
safety by design, not safety by procedure or through retrofit trial and
error. A more complete definition of the topic, according to Safe Work
Australia, is as follows:

Safe Design is a design process that eliminates

OHS hazards, or minimises potential OHS risk, by
involving decision makers and considering the life
cycle of the designed-product.
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 19

A Safe Design approach will generate a design

option that eliminates OHS hazards and minimises
the risks to those who make the product, and to
those who use it. (Safe Work Australia, 2009)

In equipment design (especially mobile equipment design), a distinc-

tion is often made between primary, secondary, and tertiary safety:

• Primary safety is the prevention of accidents per se.

• Secondary safety is the protection of the person in the accident situa-
tion: for example, making mining vehicles more crashworthy.
• Tertiary safety involves recovery and assistance after an accident.

Safe design should also therefore consider all three levels; how-
ever, the main concern of eliminating hazards and minimising risks
means that╯the focus is on primary safety, especially for the users of the
equipment.
The case study that is presented at the end of this chapter concerning
the development and use of the operability and maintainability analy-
sis technique (OMAT) will illustrate the safe design concept in a more
concrete manner, and will show the links between safety in design and
human factors. OMAT also relies on the notion of hierarchy of control,
and this is the topic of the section below.

2.4â•… Hierarchy of control, and control effectiveness

To improve safety, mining equipment–related hazards need to be con-
trolled and managed. Some strategies previously applied to the control
of such mining equipment hazards include elimination or reduction of
the hazard, removing people from the hazardous environment, isolation
of the hazard, use of engineering controls, application of administrative
controls, erecting warning signs, use of personal protective equipment,
and application of behavioural methods (e.g., disciplining operators). One
categorisation method for all these is known as the hierarchy of control.
Many variants of this taxonomy exist, and different mining companies
and equipment manufacturers use different variations of the hierarchy.
Perhaps the simplest version has just three levels; in order of likely effec-
tiveness, they are as follows:

1. Remove the problem—by designing it out.

2. Place a barrier around the object—to stop the problem from occurring
by placing a barrier (physical, organisational, or temporal) around
the hazard. This might include a physical guard around the equip-
ment to protect against accidental contact, or an organisational
20 Human factors for mining equipment

Figure 2.2╇ Warning from a continuous miner.

guard where only qualified personnel work near that equipment

(e.g., maintenance workers).
3. Implement warnings—to provide information needed to function
safely with the equipment, or provide training; for example, placing
notices near the equipment (see Figure€2.2) to indicate a particular
hazard (e.g., pinch points).

In terms of the likely effectiveness, in this version of the hierarchy,

warnings are placed at the bottom of the safety hierarchy, behind design
and guards. The reason for this is that people may not see or hear warn-
ings, they may fail to understand the warnings (especially if their reading
abilities are low), or they may not be motivated enough to pay attention or
comply with warnings.
Recently, more detailed and sophisticated versions of the hierar-
chy have been developed. For example, a seven-step version shown in
Figure€2.3 has been used by Horberry et al. (2009) in which design to elim-
inate the energy source is the top of the hierarchy.
As an example regarding the second level, substitution and minimi-
sation, measures could be put in place such as using an electric rather than
an engine-powered freight mover (such as a forklift truck), as shown in
Figure€2.4.
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 21

Most effective Elimination

1

Substitution/Minimisation
2

3 Passive engineering (without people)

Active engineering (with people)

4

Alarms & warning systems

5

6 Procedural

Least effective
7 Awareness/competency

Figure 2.3╇ A seven-step level version of the hierarchy of control (Adapted from
Horberry et al., 2009).

Figure 2.4╇ Substitution: Using an electric rather than engine-powered freight

mover.
22 Human factors for mining equipment

2.4.1â•…Is the actual effectiveness of the controls more

important than where they sit on the hierarchy?
One issue that has been discussed recently is the effectiveness of the
controls. The argument states that it is better to have more effective
lower level controls rather than less effective higher level ones. For
example, if a hazard can be controlled more effectively by compe-
tent people and successful procedures (i.e., the bottom two levels of
the �seven-level hierarchy) than by the midlevel control of active engi-
neering which is preferable? This is currently an area of considerable
research interest in the safety and risk management community, but a
correlation between level in the hierarchy and effectiveness of the con-
trol seems certain to╯exist.

2.5â•… Equipment usability

Switching the focus back to more traditional human factors concerns,
usability was mentioned earlier in this chapter as a key issue in mining
equipment design. To provide a simple definition, usability means that the
people who are intended to use a specific item of mining equipment can do
so quickly and easily to accomplish their required tasks. Everything to do
with the equipment has to be usable (Grech et al., 2008). This refers to not
just sophisticated new mining technologies but also their �documentation
and maintenance. Similarly, usability applies equally to simple mining
equipment such as hand tools.
In many ways the benefits of usability are obvious; they can include
increased mining efficiency, fewer work injuries, improved operator
acceptance, fewer errors, earlier detection of the requirement for mainte-
nance, less training required, and less mistakes and/or violations. Mining
technology should not be seen as a “barrier,” whereby the operator has to
focus excessively on the technology and not the task. Likewise, as much
as possible, the technology should fit the operator and the task, and not
require the operator to fit the technology. A recent example of this is the
development work taking place in the area of remote control of mining
equipment by many equipment manufacturers, mining companies, and
scientific researchers. With newly introduced remote control systems,
operators often need to adapt and excessively focus on the remote control
interface rather than the actual task at hand. It might be argued that non–
line of sight remote control of equipment, such as a continuous miner in an
underground coal mine, is such a radical and promising change that a cer-
tain amount of learning and adaptation is unavoidable. Whilst this might
be so, developing better and more intuitive remote control interfaces in the
first place is still preferable. This whole issue will be explored further in
Chapter 9 in the discussion about mining technologies and automation.
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 23

The application of human-centred design principles can help to ensure

that the final product is usable. At present in mining, more formal usabil-
ity testing of equipment is often undertaken only by the manufacturer
and developer rather than the purchasing organisation or an independent
human factors practitioner. Although manufacturer-based usability test-
ing is necessary, it is not always sufficient—as specific mine site issues
can have a significant impact (e.g., assessing the needs for new equip-
ment in the actual site work environment, where climate, site procedures,
and what other equipment is also employed can greatly affect equipment
usability). It is also possible that user expectations for the way in which
equipment functions or is controlled might be influenced by experience
with equipment already on site.
Despite this, whoever undertakes equipment usability testing should
consider the following:

• Identifying who are the operators or maintainer, and their likely

capabilities and limitations—physical (e.g., their size), perceptual/
motor, and cognitive (e.g., their reading skill levels)
• What the equipment should be used for
• How the operator will actually use it, and what might be foreseeable
misuse (such as standing on a piece of equipment to undertake a brief
working-at-height task, rather than using an elevated work platform)
• What other systems, equipment, and processes are in place and how
the equipment will integrate with these existing items
• How its successful design and deployment will be evaluated, and
how any subsequent lessons will be learnt

2.5.1â•… Who benefits from a user-centred focus?

The return on investments from using human factors is often long term
and should ideally only be evaluated over the full life cycle of the equip-
ment, rather than as “quick-and-dirty” measures to provide corrective
and/or retrofit action and an apparent rapid return. When promoting the
idea of employing human factors into the equipment’s life cycle, many
questions can arise:

• How much will mine site personnel, or the mining organisation

itself, benefit?
• How will we know what are the benefits anyway? Will it be better
safety, improved productivity, fewer errors, reduced training time,
and/or greater equipment acceptability to the workforce that offer
the main benefits?
• How much will it cost to integrate human factors into the design
process?
24 Human factors for mining equipment

• How much will be gained in terms of revenue or safety?

• How can we persuade company senior management to do it?

Such questions lead nicely into the discussion of human factors cost–
benefit analysis and the system life cycle. Traditionally this has been an
area where human factors professionals have only dabbled, and further
work here is vital to help “sell” the worth of applying human factors to
mining equipment manufacturers and mining companies.

2.6â•…Human factors cost–benefit analysis

and the system life cycle
To recap, it has been argued above that human factors information and
methods are usually best applied early and regularly throughout the
design and development of mining equipment. However, many impor-
tant human factors interventions can also take place at other times, such
as post-implementation retrofits or modifications.
Whatever the time in the system life cycle, human factors interventions
in most industries (including mining) usually have the dual objectives of
increasing productivity and effectiveness and improving the conditions
of work (for operator safety, health, comfort, and convenience). Although
consideration may be given to ease of use, comfort, and other similar mat-
ters, most of the analysis has been done on both short- to medium-term
performance and safety benefits. Such an approach does not usually fully
consider long-term environmental costs (e.g., environmental pollution
due to human error when maintaining equipment). Therefore, the com-
plete benefits from using human factors should ideally be derived from
the total system and equipment life cycle costs of the product, including
conception, design, development, build, purchasing, implementation,
support, operation, maintenance, and disposal.
By systematically outlining the benefits and costs, cost–benefit analy-
sis (CBA) may help the designers and manufacturers of the system, the
purchasers of the system, and the actual operators and maintainers of the
system to see overall positive value from the application of human factors
engineering. However, the process is not always too straightforward, and
as will be seen below, significant obstacles can exist.

2.6.1â•… Problems with human factors CBA in mining

In an ideal world, all the costs and benefits (e.g., performance and safety
aspects) would be gathered together both before and at several points
after employing human factors principles in the equipment design pro-
cess, and a comparison could be made to assess how successful the
intervention was. If an identical piece of equipment existed that did not
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 25

have any human factors input, then this could be of additional use as a
baseline. Also, if multiple cases of human factors CBA for different types
of �equipment existed, then this would further strengthen things. However,
examining the topic in more detail shows that undertaking human factors
cost–Â�benefit analysis is often problematic. Amongst these difficulties are
the following (adapted from Rouse and Boff, 1997; Grech et al., 2008):

• Benefits are rarely purely monetary (e.g., ease of use of a new equip-
ment type, or improved operator working conditions). Ease of use
can indirectly be translated into measures such as fewer errors,
reduced training, improved equipment acceptability, and the like,
but these are still often difficult to assign a monetary value to.
• Investments or costs of human factors interventions often occur long
before returns are realised. Thus benefits are delayed, obscured by
time, or no longer relevant. A classic example here concerns longer
term health issues from mining equipment (e.g., hearing loss, or back
injury) where the effects might take years to fully develop and by
which point the individual concerned might have changed jobs or
retired.
• Costs and benefits are often distributed amongst a wide range of
stakeholders (e.g., for a new type of mining equipment such as auto-
mation of some form, this may include the operators, supervisors,
maintainers, managers, company accountants, and even regulators).
Thus input from all of these groups is often necessary.
• Benefits might be related to events that do not happen—such as
mobile equipment accidents being avoided due to good human fac-
tors design in the operator interface. Aggregate data (e.g., accident
statistics over a number of years for different equipment types)
could be used, but these very rarely would have the level of preci-
sion needed to make firm conclusions.
• In most mining systems, the effect of improvements to one small
part of the system (e.g., better controls and displays in one piece of
equipment) might be methodologically difficult to assess. Similarly,
side effects are likely: these might be in the same direction (e.g.,
fewer incidents and decreased training costs) but not always so.

2.6.2â•… Benefits of using a structured CBA method

Despite the sorts of difficulties mentioned above, Rouse and Boff (1997)
argue that a structured method to assess cost and benefits of human
factors can help. They report that where structured CBA of human fac-
tors initiative has been undertaken in other industries (e.g., military), the
results show the significant economic advantages of employing human
factors. For this, they argue that it is vital to define the types of human
26 Human factors for mining equipment

factors benefits as exactly as possible. They state that these benefits can
range from the very tangible to the less tangible, and may include the
following:

• Solution not otherwise possible (e.g., a piece of mobile equipment not

being able to be operated)
• Acceptable performance or cost not otherwise possible (such as a
vehicle being able to travel at higher speeds)
• Improved operator performance, efficiency, and/or cost savings (e.g.,
reduced power use)
• Enhanced customer willingness to pay
• Cost and mishaps avoidance (e.g., fewer errors during routine main-
tenance of the equipment)
• Better acceptance (operators are more likely to use and trust a user-
friendly device)
• Increased confidence by all those involved in the system

So, to conclude, there are substantial challenges associated with

�
cost–benefit assessment of human factors work; this applies as much to
mining equipment as it does to commercial products or military opera-
tions. Applying a structured methodology that emphasises what should be
represented in the analysis can improve the situation, and where this has
been done in other domains using human factors the results are encourag-
ing. Despite this, obtaining fully quantitative figures is either impossible
or at best imprecise, but still should be attempted. Such figures can also be
useful in comparing between alternative equipment design solutions.

2.7â•… Equipment standardisation

An approach to design that is often necessary but rarely sufficient for com-
plex mining equipment is to standardise. This might include the location
of underground equipment access and egress (and the location of emer-
gency access and egress if one exists), which side of the road mobile equip-
ment should be driven on (which has follow-on effects for the �position of
the steering controls), or the means of isolating the �equipment. Having
standardised designs means that future versions of the equipment would
largely follow the same parameters.
One method of obtaining equipment standardisation is through the
application of standards, regulations, and guidelines. Many standards
and guidelines exist in most domains; for example, in the surface-mining
domain the International Standards Organisation group for Earth Moving
Equipment is ISO Technical Committee 127. In Australia, the New South
Wales Department of Primary Industries (now renamed as Industry &
Investment NSW) also publishes Mining Design Guidelines (MDG) to
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 27

assist mining companies and equipment manufacturers in meeting their

obligations to provide fit-for-purpose equipment.

2.7.1â•… Issues with standards

Most standards applicable to the minerals industry only deal with fairly
simple environmental, equipment, and task stressors (such as equipment
noise levels over a working day) rather than complex control activities
involving new technologies. The number of standards and regulations
that specifically exist for automation is low.
It is not within the scope of this book to review all possible standards
concerning mining equipment, but often operators and maintainers are
faced with equipment manufactured by several different companies—
where each uses its own internal standards, causing a total system to
lack consistency. For example, as will be considered in more depth in
Chapter╯8, controls and displays can vary greatly between mobile equip-
ment designed to do the same job (e.g., between different types of haul
trucks, or between different makes of roof botting equipment), so opera-
tors may need to adjust regularly to different layouts, and such variation
is a fertile source of errors. In theory, having international (e.g., ISO) rather
than purely national standards (e.g., American, Australian, or Chinese)
allows multinational manufacturers to make one product that will be sold
all over the world. Given the international aspects of most mining opera-
tions and companies today, this can produce large cost savings, and often
has usability benefits for the end user.
In most mining operations, things are often more complicated: as
well as standards and regulations, other good practices or guidelines
with respect to equipment exist. Simple examples are maintenance sched-
ules, equipment risk assessment procedures, training processes, and
emergency procedures. These can radically alter how the equipment is
procured, operated, maintained, and modified, so risk-based rather than
prescriptive processes are often preferable (Horberry et al., 2009).

2.7.2â•… The standards process

Most standards bodies rely on unpaid assistance by the various com-
mittee members, and traditionally the representation on the commit-
tees comes more from equipment manufacturers or regulators rather
than users. The ISO standards process is formal and not always too
rapid, thus it can take a long time for new standards to appear (over
five years is not uncommon, from our experiences on ISO committees).
The NSW (Australia) MDG process can move a bit faster, and typically
has better user representation. In fast-moving areas like collision detec-
tion for mining equipment, standards are often well behind the actual
28 Human factors for mining equipment

technology. In some cases this may result in rather ineffective or weak

standards as they need to be written in general terms to accommodate
possible future technologies. This general nature of some standards
may not be too helpful for designers. Similarly, they may only establish
minimum requirements (sometimes due to a compromise by the vari-
ous committee members).
Agencies can also be lobbied out of introducing potentially ben-
eficial prescriptions. For example, as noted in Chapter 8, the need to
standardise controls on underground bolting equipment has been
highlighted numerous times since at least 1973; however, a (US) Society
for Automotive Engineers standard titled “Human Factors Design
Guidelines for Mobile Underground Mining Equipment,” which
addressed these issues, amongst others, was defeated at a ballot in 1984.
The standard was not issued despite meetings continuing until 1990.
The issues were again canvassed in 1994 by a committee formed by the
Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), following three fatali-
ties involving roof-bolting machines in a six-week period. MSHA subse-
quently called for industry comment on an advance notice of proposed
rulemaking titled Safety Standards for the Use of Roof-Bolting Machines
in Underground Mines (MSHA, 1997), which suggested that MSHA was
developing design criteria for underground bolting machines; however,
no related rule or design criteria were subsequently released. It was not
until the release of a draft Mining Design Guideline 35.1 by NSW in
2006 that many of the issues identified many years earlier in the United
States have been incorporated into a published guideline (Industry &
Investment NSW, 2010).
All this presents a slightly bleak picture. To emphasise the positive
aspects, it should be stressed that standards often can have safety and effi-
ciency benefits by promoting design consistency. Likewise, standardisa-
tion can also fit well into the process of conducting audits for purposes
such as to assess cost–benefits of different equipment retrofit interven-
tions, can assist in equipment procurement, and can be helpful to focus
future training requirements. Finally, the application of standards can also
assist in mining regulation, compliance, certification, and insurance, and
when developing and applying safety management systems and other
policies. However, as this book will demonstrate, not every human-related
aspect of mining equipment design, operation, and maintenance can be
standardised.

2.8â•…Potential barriers to using

human factors in design
So if human factors is such a great discipline and approach, then why is
it not systematically used in all mining equipment design? The material
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 29

in this chapter has already indirectly mentioned a few of the reasons; the
points below will summarise some and expand on others.

1. Lack of human factors knowledge and over-imputation. That is,

designers get some of their information about the eventual mine site
user by attributing their own personal knowledge to the other per-
son, rather than using formal human factors data or methods.
2. Lack of easily accessible human factors information and methods,
and standardisation does not always work for all human-related
equipment issues. This issue is lessening in areas such as physical
ergonomics (e.g., where anthropometric data are often built into
modern computer-aided design packages so that the different sizes
and shapes of operators and maintenance workers can be consid-
ered). However, in more complex, or psychological, areas such as
workload or being able to deal with multiple alarms, designers often
have less assistance, and so need to rely more on trial and error or
their own professional judgment.
3. Competing priorities. Designers generally work for larger equip-
ment manufacturers, who sell equipment to mining companies.
Consequently, there is a gap between the designer and the ulti-
mate health, safety, or well-being of the end user. Where design
compromises need to be made (e.g., lower price, high usability,
or increased productivity of equipment), then the immediate
demands of pleasing clients in terms of technical aspects may
take precedence over “softer” and longer term aspects such as
usability.
4. Professional pride of the designer and/or emotional investment in
an idea. Designers may be reluctant to change something they have
created, especially when human factors is not part of their core
training.
5. Perceived costs. As seen earlier, human factors costs and benefits
are€difficult to fully quantify. For example, “adding” usability may
be seen as an additional cost, especially if only considered later in
the design process.

Better and more accessible human factors information (such as, we

anticipate, in this book) can help with many of these. However, the issue
of competing priorities is perhaps the most difficult to deal with. Rhetoric
such as “Safety is the number one priority” and “Consider the end user”
is certainly worthy, but practicalities can intrude: design milestones,
�long-standing design customs, and order books may have a significant
influence. The mining human factors community needs to continually
make the case that good human factors design is good design—and it can
have safety, health, and productivity benefits.
30 Human factors for mining equipment

2.9â•…Operability and maintainability

analysis technique (OMAT)
Much of the material in this chapter so far has been quite theoretical. To
conclude this chapter, a recent project by the University of Queensland for
the Australian Coal Association Research Program (ACARP) to develop
and evaluate OMAT will be presented (based on work by Horberry
et╯al., 2009). This ties together and makes concrete many aspects of the
�equipment design process, safety in design, and using human factors
information. It was directed at haul trucks used at surface mine sites, but
could be applicable to the design of most mining equipment.

2.9.1â•…The importance of designing mobile equipment

for maintainability and operability
To begin by formally defining the terms used in this section, maintain-
ability is the ease with which equipment can be repaired safely in the least
time, and operability is the ease with which equipment can be operated
safely and in the optimal amount of time. As seen below, poor operability
and maintainability of equipment can produce major safety and perfor-
mance disbenefits. Therefore, it is vital that mobile equipment used at sur-
face mine sites is both operable and maintainable.
Beginning by looking at figures from the United States that highlight
the impact of mobile equipment upon safety, the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH; 2009) reported that, from 2000 to
2004, the two leading causes of surface mining fatalities were as follows:

• 37 percent powered haulage

• 25 percent machinery

Large mobile equipment such as haul trucks have also been identi-
fied as a significant contributor to nonfatal lost-time injuries in surface
mining; for example, they were an escalating causal factor to the overall
breakdown event (Queensland Mines and Quarries, 2005). A breakdown
event is defined as the point in which things start to go wrong, and ulti-
mately lead to serious injury or disease. At the time of writing, the most
recent Queensland, Australia, data available (2007–2008) support this,
which again confirms the role of mobile equipment as a contributor in
many lost-time injuries, high potential incidents, and disabling injuries
(Queensland Mines and Quarries, 2008).
A comparable story is present for maintainability issues. Looking at
more historical data, MSHA data for 1978–1988 suggests that maintenance
accounted for 34 percent of all lost-time injuries (quoted by Horberry
Chapter two:â•… Equipment design 31

et€al., 2009). Although old, this MSHA information is also consistent with
more recent Australian data. An initial analysis of the 393 lost-time inju-
ries recorded by the Queensland Government Department of Mines and
Energy over the period from July 2002 to June 2004 indicated that 123, or
approximately one-third, could be directly identified as being caused dur-
ing maintenance activities (quoted by Horberry et al., 2009).
Besides deaths and lost-time injuries, the amount of avoidable down-
time due to poor maintainability is more difficult to ascertain but none-
theless important. A British Coal report revealed that more man-shifts
were devoted to maintenance operations than to coal production, and the
proportion of time being devoted to maintenance is increasing (Mason
and Rushworth, 1991). The repercussions of increased maintenance are
increased labour costs, material costs, production disruptions, and prob-
ability of injury or illness. In the past, the design inadequacies related to
maintenance tasks were typically related to poor access, inadequate pro-
vision of lifting points, and the need for excessive manual forces (Mason
and Rushworth, 1991). However, as the design of earth-moving equipment
is becoming more intricate and complex, the preventative and corrective
maintenance tasks are increasing in occurrence, duration, and complexity,
subsequently producing losses to coal production.
As a final piece of evidence about the importance of design, the
Queensland Mines and Quarries Safety Performance and Health Report
quantified the organisational causal factors associated with high potential
incidents (HPIs) from January 2002 to June 2005. Design and maintenance
management accounted for 11 percent and 12 percent of all HPIs, respec-
tively (figures quoted by Horberry et al., 2009). It is unclear how much of
the production loss in operating and maintaining large surface mining
equipment is related to design issues, but the proportion is likely to be
significant. This therefore suggests that significant safety benefits can be
obtained through improved (and human-centred) equipment design.
In sum, the above outlines that many incidents and accidents are due
to equipment design inadequacies, in either maintainability or operabil-
ity, and are therefore theoretically preventable.

2.9.2â•…The beginning of the Earth Moving Equipment

Safety Round Table (EMESRT)
Mining companies around the world have struggled with the need to
ensure that earth-moving equipment is designed to be operated and
maintained under all site conditions without causing harm to people.
Designing haul trucks for safer operations and maintenance is therefore
a major objective in managing a protected, efficient, and thereby competi-
tive workplace.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
FIG. 46.—RIBS, NO. 1, NO. 2 AND NO. 3 GRADES. A. FRONT. B. REAR.

FIG. 47.—ROUNDS, NO. 1, NO. 2 AND NO. 3 GRADES.

 FIG. 48.—CHUCKS, NO. 1, NO. 2 AND NO. 3 GRADES. (ABOVE, REAR VIEW.
BELOW, SIDE VIEW.)

Ribs.—“This cut, which includes the portion between the loin and
chuck, contains the best roasts. The poorer quality of ribs are boned
and make ‘the roll.’ A ‘regular roll’ consists of the lean part of the rib
with backbone removed and shoulder blade fat cut away. ‘Spencer’
rolls are of the same type, except that the covering is left on the
lean, exclusive of that over blade bone, which is removed.
Rounds.—“The cut surface of the full round is identical with the
butt end of the corresponding loin. Cuts of various types of rounds
are shown in Fig. 47. An excess of rounds under average conditions
makes it necessary to divide the rounds further into rump butts used
for corn beef; beef hams used for dried beef, and shanks for
sausage meat.
“In stripping a bullock for beef hams, it is divided into three parts,
known as a set, viz., inside, outside, and knuckle pieces.
Chucks.—“The style of cutting shown in Fig. 48 is known as the
square chuck, and is the style most used in Chicago wholesale
markets. Chucks are sometimes cut ‘knuckle out’ by removing the
shank with a knife at the second knuckle instead of sawing off below
the joint. The lower grades of chucks are often further divided in
order to make the cut more saleable. Such cuts are the shoulder
clod and boneless chuck. The shoulder clod is a wedge-shaped piece
cut from the fleshy part of the chuck just back of the shoulder blade,
and extending from the elbow of the shank nearly or quite to the
backbone. It is taken mainly from No. 3 and ‘stripper’ cuts, and to a
small extent from No. 1’s and 2’s. It is a boneless cut weighing six to
fifteen pounds, and sells from 10 to 20 per cent above chuck
quotations.”
A “kosher” chuck consists of the square chuck, shank, brisket and
neck in one piece, the forequarter with rib and navel piece off.
Plates, Shanks, and Flanks.—“These are usually boned and the
parts used in sausage department and bonehouse, except in the
heavier cuts of plates and flanks, which are used in mess beef.
Barreled Beef.—“The demand for barreled beef is a receding
item in packing house usage. Formerly it was a large item. The
quotation gives the grading and naming:

FIG. 49.—A, BEEF HAMS (LEFT, “INSIDE”; CENTER, “OUTSIDE”; RIGHT,

“KNUCKLE”). B, TENDERLOIN. C, SHOULDER CLOD.

“Extra India Mess Beef is made from heavy fat No. 1 plates
weighing 65 to 80 pounds, cut into pieces of about eight pounds
average and packed in tierces or barrels. It is the highest grade of
barreled beef and is sold largely through British markets for army
and navy use. Fulton Market Beef is of the same quality as Extra
India, but from 60 to 70 pound plates, and is usually put up in half
barrels or tubs for domestic trade. These and the two following
grades of plate beef are usually packed with the lower side of the
brisket piece removed.
“Extra Plate (Extra Family) Beef is cut from moderately fat No. 1
plates (50 to 60 pounds), and packed like Extra India. It is exported
principally to various countries in northern Europe.
“Regular Plate or Family Beef consists of No. 2 plates (40 to 50
pounds), with a good proportion of fat and lean, cut into pieces of
six to eight pounds and packed the same as Extra India. It is also
sold largely in northern European countries.
“Packet Beef is made from 30 to 40-pound plates (heavy No. 3’s
and light No. 2’s) cut the same as other grades of plate beef. It is
used throughout Europe, the West Indies, Central and South
America.
“Common Plate Beef is made from No. 3 plates, 20 to 30 pounds
average, cut and packed as explained above. It is the lowest grade
or barreled plate beef. This grade, also Prime Mess and Extra Mess
Beef, is sold to the same trade as Packet Beef.

FIG. 50.—SHANKS. NO. 1 GRADE, NO. 2 GRADE, NO. 3 GRADE. CLOD ON.

“Rolled Boneless Beef (Rolled Beef or Rollettes) consists of plates

with a portion of the brisket cut off, the remainder of plate being
boned, rolled and wound with twine. It is made from No. 2 and No.
3 plates of 25 to 40 pounds average. The rolls weigh eight to twelve
pounds and are cured in mild brine.
“Prime Mess Beef consists of about 100 pounds of plates and 100
pounds of chucks, rumps and flanks per barrel cut into pieces of six
to nine pounds. The proportions of the cuts named are varied
according to demands and may contain 100 pounds of chucks with
the remainder plates, flanks and rumps, or as otherwise specified.
This grade is made from heavy No. 3 and light No. 2 cuts.
“Extra Mess Beef contains the same assortment of cuts as Prime
Mess, but is made only from No. 3 cuts.
“Ramp Butt Beef is cut from rumps off the medium and lower
grades of rounds, and is boneless except a small piece of tail-bone.
The pieces average four to six pounds each. It is sold largely in
lumbering districts and to the fisheries trade.”
 CHAPTER XI
HIDES AND PELTS.
Green Hides — Condition — Scores — Prod Pole Damage — Clean Floors — Leather
Yields — Pattern — Proper Storage For Hides — Grading — Grubs in Hides — Salt
to Be Used — Building of Packs of Hides — Trimming of Green Hides — Switches —
Shrinkage of Hides — Sheep Pelts.

Green Hides.—Next in value to the beef is the hide and the

handling, curing, etc., of this particular part of the animal, until it is
ready to be delivered requires careful attention to obtain the best
results. For convenience in handling green hides a special hide truck,
shown in Fig. 51, is usually employed. The platform of the truck is
3¹⁄₂ × 5¹⁄₂ feet, with a 1¹⁄₄ inch hardwood plank eight inches high
on one side and on front end. The wheels are about eighteen inches
in diameter.

FIG. 51.—HIDE TRUCK FOR CARTING BEEF HIDES.

 Condition.—The first consideration, of course, is the condition of
the hide. There has been marked improvement in
recent years in the handling of hides. Formerly, where unskilled
workmen were killing only a few cattle daily, or weekly, they did not
become proficient in the removal of hides and the hide was more or
less damaged by scores and cuts. When cattle are killed in large
numbers it is necessary to make a division of labor, and instead of
one man doing many parts of the work, he simply does one part
continuously, and hence becomes very skillful; the “take-off” of the
hide, particularly, is improved. That this condition is appreciated by
tanners is evidenced by the difference in price paid for country and
packers hides; the tanners paying from ³⁄₄c to 1c more per pound
for packers hides because the hide has been properly taken off,
while a country hide, which is usually taken off by workmen less
skilled has been cut and scored, the scores being particularly
objectionable.
Scores.—A score in a hide is made by cutting into it when
removing, far enough to damage the grain of the leather, and when
it comes from the tannery, scores show very plainly and in many
cases one-half of the thickness of the leather is lost by this defect.
Hides taken off properly, should not show these imperfections, in
fact, should be as smooth as though slipped off the animal, were
that possible, instead of by a knife, and with skilled workmanship
such is the case. One man doing one particular operation
continuously, the “take-off” of hides has been so improved that less
than ten hides out of a thousand are found to be “No. 2” quality
when taken out of the cellar in a well-regulated house.
The “take-off” of the hides particularly should be watched by the
killing foreman and the workmen’s attention drawn to the slightest
defects continuously, as much depends upon the reputation a house
may have for its take-off. Many of the small scores which are found
to materially damage the hide when tanned are invisible when the
hide is taken out of the packer’s cellar, as owing to discoloration,
salt, etc., it is impossible to see many of them, but they are all
visible when the leather is turned out. Consequently, if a house has a
reputation for bad “take-off,” buyers usually aim to buy the hides
from a plant with a good take-off. Hence it will be seen that in this
particular department it means a great deal to have a good
reputation for “take-off.”
FIG. 52.—DIAGRAM OF HIDES.
 Prod Pole Damage—Clean Floors.—Outside of the “take-off”
there are several other
points which should be watched carefully on the killing floor in the
handling of this particular article. The hides should not be damaged
with prod poles by the men handling cattle in the pens. The floors
should be kept as clean as possible, especially where the cattle are
thrown out of the knocking pens, as blood is very objectionable on
the hides. It is liable to cause decomposition when the hide is in
pack, and if it does sufficiently for the hair to slip on the hides, it
becomes a “No. 2.” Another bad feature is that a bloody hide will
discolor the flesh side of the skin next to it in pack, and it is always
advisable to get the hides out as bright and clean as possible, as
buyers prefer them so.
Another reason why they should be kept as dry as possible is that
the hides are weighed as taken off for general record and also for
estimating the cost of the beef. If the hides are allowed to get wet
they will absorb four or five pounds per hide, which if deducted from
the calculations, will represent a false credit of 40c or 50c per head
on the cattle. It is best to keep them as dry as possible, so that
weights used for figuring and record purposes may be accurate. If
the hides go into the packs excessively wet, when shipped, they will
necessarily show an excess shrinkage from green to cured weights,
causing confusion as to actual shrinkage.
Leather Yields.—While it is advisable to have hides carry as
much moisture as is acceptable to the buyer, it is not profitable to
have them too wet, as the buyers watch such matters and if a lot of
hides from a certain house do not show the yield in leather which
they should, purchases made after that from such a house are made
proportionate to the yield, hence the additional weight that may be
gained is more than lost in the price realized. There is a happy
medium to be sought in this matter where the seller gets all that he
is entitled to and the buyer is satisfied with the yield he obtains.
Pattern.—The diagram, Fig. 52, shows the pattern of a packing
house hide and, as nearly as can be indicated on paper, it shows the
part removed by each workman.
 Proper Storage for Hides.—This is a point usually not given due
consideration, some packers
reasoning that as long as their hides are in a building, little else is to
be considered. The following figures which are accurate, will give the
reader an idea of the loss that lack of attention in this particular
matter may represent. It will be noted that the test extends over a
period of one year, representing a test on a total of 198,341 hides.
A total of 87,587 hides were cured in house No. 1, which consists
of a cellar under refrigerated rooms. While no attempt was made to
refrigerate this room there was a natural radiation to the floor above
which held the temperature at from 55° to 60° F. in hot weather.
There were but two openings in the cellar and naturally little
circulation of air, hence the moisture of the cellar was retained and
the hides show a shrinkage of 14.74 per cent from the green weight
on bed to shipping weight.

SHRINKAGE OF HIDES FOR YEAR ENDING AUG. 1, 1903,

IN HOUSE NO. 1.

Shrink-
Shrink- age,
Green Cured age, per
Kind Number weight weight lbs. cent
Free of brands 41,870 3,328,133 2,842,542 485,591 15.59
Butt brands 6,087 507,684 432,722 74,962 14.77
Side brands 13,190 1,078,959 927,835 151,124 14.06
Spreadies 2,376 215,676 190,286 25,390 11.79
Texas 11,285 871,573 731,165 140,408 16.11
H’y native cows 8,029 592,338 500,935 91,403 15.43
Light native cows 2,759 150,995 127,108 23,887 15.82
Branded cows 1,991 128,269 107,563 20,706 16.14
Totals 87,587 6,873,627 5,860,156 1,013,471 14.74

SHRINKAGE OF HIDES FOR YEAR ENDING AUG. 1, 1903,

IN HOUSE NO. 2.

Kind Number Green Cured Shrink- Shrink-

weight weight age, age,
lbs.
 per
cent
Free of brands 34,192 2,692,615 2,262,426 430,189 15.98
Butt brands 14,279 1,174,093 977,943 196,150 16.71
Side brands 17,302 1,451,850 1,198,925 252,925 17.42
Spreadies 3,969 363,233 307,410 55,823 15.37
Native bulls 1,362 127,910 103,263 24,627 19.27
Branded bulls 252 25,885 21,761 4,124 15.93
H’y native cows 8,222 576,313 472,938 103,375 17.94
Texas 5,247 395,620 324,100 71,520 18.08
L’t native cows 14,895 841,481 709,181 132,300 15.72
Branded cows 11,034 694,503 574,669 119,834 17.25
Totals 110,754 8,343,503 6,952,616 1,390,867 16.67

A total of 110,754 of these hides were cured in house No. 2. This

was on the first floor of the building and no refrigeration was used in
any of the departments. There were several openings into this room,
permitting the outside air to circulate through the building and a
great deal of moisture naturally absorbed. It will be noted by
comparing the reports that the shrinkage in this cellar was 16.67 per
cent from the green weight to the shipping weight, showing an
excess of 1.83 per cent, which would show a loss of 154,686
pounds. This, at an average of 10c per pound, would indicate a loss
of $15,468.60 sustained by having this number of hides in this
particular cellar, as against what would have been realized had they
shown no more shrinkage than those in house No. 1, so that it will
readily be seen that it is of vital importance to the owner to see that
the hides are stored in suitable storage, that there is as little
circulation as possible of outside air through this department, and
that all doors and openings are kept closed as much as possible.
This is paramount, in case hides are sold, seller’s weights, at works.
On long shipments involving many transfers and exposures, the
matter is not of such consequence.
Grading.—This is a question which must be governed largely by
the local conditions. Many small killers find it profitable to sell their
hides without selections, rather than to try to make the different
selections with a comparatively limited number to select from,
whereas, where cattle are killed in large numbers it is advisable to
make just as many selections as is profitable, being governed, of
course, at all times by the market quotations and demands. The
usual grades of hides are termed as follows:
Natives.—Native steer hides are hides from native steers which
are free of brands. Another selection of natives is what is called
“spreadies,” which are hides taken from native cattle free of brands,
cuts, scores, or grubs and must be six feet four inches wide at the
shoulders.
Texas.—This is the term used to designate all hides taken off
southern cattle where the hide is very thick and heavy. Brands are
not taken into consideration on these selections.
Butt Brands.—These are either natives or western hides which are
branded on the butts.
Colorados.—These are hides from the western cattle, which are
too thin for Texas and are branded on the sides.
A distinction is also made in all these hides as to weights, sixty-
one pounds and up being heavy, sixty pounds and below being light
and fifty pounds and below being extra light.
Cow hides are selected as natives and branded cows; bull hides as
natives and branded bulls. While all bull hides are not sold as such,
hides with a thick neck or pate are sold under this term.
Grubs in Hides.—There are two cattle “bot-flies” or “warble-
flies,” as they are often termed. One of these (Hypoderma lineata) is
found in the United States, being found more frequently in the
southern part of the country. The adult is about the size of a honey
bee. The female deposits her eggs in summer in the region of the
heel of the animal, causing very much discomfort. In licking the
irritated spot the eggs are taken into the mouth of the animal and
hatched, the larvae entering the esophagus or gullet and finally
working their way into the cellular tissue beneath the skin of the
back. In early spring they develop, forming lumps known as
“warbles,” and become what are known as “grubs.” After working
their way through the skin they drop to the ground, into which they
burrow and pupate, finally emerging as adult flies. The damage
caused by these insects to the hides amounts to millions of dollars
per year, as in general practice five grub holes constitute a “No. 2”
hide, on which there is a deduction of one cent per pound.
According to the rules of the trade, Texas and branded cows are
grubbed from November 1 to June 1, Colorados are grubbed from
December 1 to June 1, native steers, native bulls and native cows
are grubbed from January 1 to June 1. No allowance is made after
June 1 for grubs in hides taken off after that date.
Salt To Be Used.—The kind of salt generally used in large plants
for this purpose is a rock salt, which is a mined product run through
crushers and screens. Large lumps are more or less objectionable
and if allowed to be used will injure the appearance of the hide.
Hides in a pack weigh very heavily per cubic foot and the lower
hides are subject to a considerable pressure, or weight. Large lumps
of salt between the hides in the pack make bad looking indentations,
although they do not necessarily injure the hides for tanning
purposes.
Three parts of rock salt and one part of fine salt make a very good
combination. The fine salt quickly forms a moisture which the hides
will absorb, preventing quite a perceptible shrinkage as shown by
careful tests. When a pack of hides is taken up the “second salt” is
saved and by using one-third new with two-thirds of old salt it can
be used over. It will be found that this addition of new salt about
makes up for the loss in salt that is dissolved in the pack during the
curing process.
Salt for the hides should be kept clean. If there is a great deal of
manure and dirt mixed with the salt, it discolors the hides, injuring
their appearance. When the salt is found to be dirty and out of
condition it is advisable to screen it, using a screen same as is used
for screening sand. The salt is thrown against the screen, the finer
salt will sift through and the coarser salt, dirt, etc., will gather at the
bottom of the screen. Salt that has been through the screen will be
found comparatively clean and ready for use; that which has not
passed through should be washed. While this will dissolve a
considerable amount of it, it will, at the same time, wash out most of
the impurities. If handled in the above manner, a careful workman
should be able to salt hides with from thirty-one to thirty-five pounds
of salt per hide.
Building of Packs of Hides.—Packing hides is an operation
which should receive close and careful attention. In the building of
the pack, the outer edges should be kept high all the way around, so
that the center of the pack will hold liquid. When the pack is finished
it should be leveled off at the top so that it will be as near even as
possible. The natural moisture in the hides, together with the salt,
will form a liquor which the hides absorb, and if the pack is built
slanting, so as to allow the liquid to pass off, it will be found that the
hides are continuously drawing on the sides, and when they are
taken up the shrinkage from green weights will be considerably in
excess of those from packs properly built.
Trimming of Green Hides.—Before the hides are packed they
should be examined for brands, etc., and be distributed to their
proper packs, according to assortment. The switch is cut off from
the tail, any loose ends of the hides are trimmed off and the ears
split. Unless this is done, it makes an uneven pack on account of the
thickness of the ears; furthermore the salt does not have a chance
to penetrate the ears and they are liable to spoil. Any loose pieces of
meat that the butchers may have left on the hide should be taken
off, as well as any excess amount of fat. The hides after being
trimmed should be allowed to lay for three to five hours to cool. If
the hides are put into the pack without doing this, it is likely that,
when the pack is taken up, some hides will be found on which the
hair has slipped; these are necessarily No. 2 hides, and as the
uniform rule is 1c per pound less for No. 2’s than for No. 1’s, it will
show a loss of approximately 50c to 60c per hide. Another bad
feature of having “slip-hides” is the fact that if the buyer finds them
at all, he is always suspicious that there are others in the pack which
are out of condition, that he has not seen, and that they will come
out of the tannery with unsatisfactory results.
 When hides are put in the pack, extreme care should be used to
see that every part of the hide is exposed to salt. The legs should be
straightened out flat and the pates thoroughly spread, so that the
salt may reach every part. Hides should lie in pack and salt for from
twenty-five to thirty days before they are fully cured. At the
expiration of this time they are ready for shipment, and are taken
out of salt, inspected and each one rolled into a bundle and tied.
Switches.—The switches should be spread out on the floor and
given a thorough chance to cool off, when they are thrown into a
pack by themselves and heavily salted. They should be watched
closely, as there is unavoidably considerable blood and moisture in
them, and if any sign of heating is found they should be overhauled
and resalted.
Shrinkage of Hides.—No set rule can be made as to how much
hides will actually shrink, but if the foregoing directions are followed
closely and intelligently the shrinkage may be kept at the minimum,
which will usually range from 12 to 15 per cent. This is governed
largely, as before stated, by the amount of water which the hides
take up on the killing floor, which if weighed with the hide will nearly
all seep out when put into the packs and cause an excess shrinkage
from the original green weights. Further the storage has a great deal
to do with it, but if proper care is taken the shrinkage should be kept
within the figures given.
Sheep Pelts.—The handling of sheep pelts, especially in hot
weather, requires careful attention. The pelts, as soon as taken off,
should be spread out in a room where it is as cold as possible
without being refrigerated, and allowed to cool off for at least twelve
hours before salting. This is especially necessary when the animal
slaughtered has a very heavy fleece; with shearlings there is little or
no necessity for taking this precaution. Fleece skins, however, hold
the heat, so that when put into a pack and salted, if not properly
cooled, they soon begin to warm and decompose, and as soon as
the wool slips, the leather of the skin is ruined.
After the pelts have been spread out and allowed to thoroughly
chill, as suggested, they should be salted in piles not to exceed thirty
inches high by putting one skin on top of another, flesh side up, and
using a fine solar salt, care being taken that they are thoroughly
salted around the heads and leggings. After they have been in salt
for a week, it is well, especially in warm weather, to overhaul them,
shifting the packs so that when through, the top pelts are on the
bottom and vice versa. After they have lain in salt for two weeks
they are ready for shipment.
 CHAPTER XII
OLEO OIL AND STEARINE.
Fats — Origin of Butterine — Oleo Oil — Oleo Fats — Selection and Care —
Cleanliness and Collection — Chilling Fat — Cooling Water — Melting — Settling
the Oil — Clarifiers — Scrap Vat — Seeding or Graining Oil — Press Room —
Collecting Oil — Oil Receivers — Temperature of Oil Drawn to Tierce — Stearine —
Oil House Yields — Grading Fats — Tests on Oil Fats — Butcher Fats — Mutton Fat
— Oil Selection — Oil House Operation.

Fats.—The largest item of value in slaughtered cattle is the beef.

As already stated, the second largest item is hides. The third item in
value is fats. It has been one of the world’s staple articles of trade
for centuries and is made use of in the manufacture of many kinds
of articles for man’s use, from those of comfort to those of
destruction, perhaps only displaced in its multitude of uses by the
one raw product, coal tar.
Origin of Butterine.—Prior to the Franco-Prussian war, or in
1871, fats were used almost exclusively for soap making and other
manufacturing purposes, comparatively little of it being used for food
purposes. During the siege of Paris a reward was offered to anyone
who would find a substitute for butter. A French scientist reasoned
as follows: Careful observation teaches that a cow that is fat and in
good health makes better butter and more butter than one of the
same quality that is poor and emaciated, hence it must follow the
cream of the milk, or the “butter-fat,” is in reality nothing more or
less than Nature’s surplus fat in the animal, and that in all cattle that
are fed each day more than the requirements to build up the
broken-down tissues a surplus fat is deposited. This fat, the chemist
decided, was as much a natural butter as though it had been
skimmed from milk, and starting on this theory originated the
manufacture of oleomargarine.
Result of Investigation.—The creating of this industry has
meant millions of dollars to this country in returns that have been
made from the sale of fats prepared into oil for manufacturing
oleomargarine instead of being melted into tallow for soap making
and other purposes.
Oleo Oil.—Oleo oil is the name of one of the principal ingredients
used in making oleomargarine, or imitation butter. The fat is put
through a hasher, which thoroughly disintegrates it, cutting the
tissue so that the oil is made free when heated.
Oleo Fats.—The fats used for the manufacture of oleo oil are
usually all the fats removed when the animal is slaughtered,
including the “caul” fat or that fat surrounding the “omentum”; the
ruffle fat, which is that fat surrounding the intestines, and to which
the “runners” or round gut is attached; the heart casing, and fats
attached.
Selection and Care.—It is reasonable to suppose that all of
these fats are of the same quality, but in the handling of this, during
the course of slaughtering and treatment thereof, some of it
necessarily becomes unfit for oleo oil purposes, and is used in tallow.
The amount used for tallow is regulated by the care and intelligence
of the men in charge, and if properly handled a very small
percentage of the fat in the animal should find its way to the tank
house, as it nets much better results when put into oleo oil, as will
be noted from the tests hereafter submitted.
Cleanliness and Collection.—The fats, as rapidly as removed
from the animal, should be taken quickly in clean utensils and
washed in medium temperature water to remove any blood present.
Thorough chilling of the fat is a very essential feature in making oleo
oil. In order that this may be done it is necessary that the fat be cut
in small pieces, so that the cold water can get at every part of it. A
machine illustrated in Fig. 53 is used for cutting the fat before
passing it into the cold water. The water is circulated by the use of a
pump and distributed over the fats from a perforated pipe.
Chilling Fat.—The fat, while chilling, should be allowed to remain
in cold water for about five hours, or until it has become thoroughly
chilled. Precaution should be taken to see that no fat goes to the
hasher, or melting kettle, until it is thoroughly chilled. Failure to do
this is not particularly noticeable in the oleo oil when made, but soon
afterward results in a deterioration of the oil. It is never
objectionable to hold the fat from twelve to twenty hours, if
necessary, in the cold water, although five hours is sufficient. The
constant submergence of the fat by mechanical means or by hand is
of prime importance.

FIG. 53.—OLEO FAT CUTTER.

The fats are ladled or forked from the chilling vat and placed on a
table to drain. The dryer the fat the better, but it must not lay unduly
long to drain. From this table they are passed through an Enterprise
steam jacketed hasher for grinding. Steam is kept on the jacket to
assist in rapidity in passing it through the hasher.
Cooling Water.—The chilling or cooling of water is accomplished
in two ways, by the introduction of ice or the cooling of the water or
by submerging pipes in the tanks, and circulating chilled brine or
ammonia gas through the pipes, same being a part of the
refrigerating system. In the latter case the pipes should be covered
by a removable screen to prevent fats attaching to the pipes.
 FIG. 54.—KETTLE FOR MELTING FATS FOR OLEO OIL.

Melting.—The fat when hashed is passed to an open top water

jacketed kettle of the type shown in the illustration, Fig. 54.
Just previous to beginning to hash the fat into the kettle the stirrer
is placed in motion. The water in the jacket is heated up to a
temperature of about 180° F.
When the kettle is partially filled and as the fat accumulates, it will
collect and hang to the stirring gear. To meet this condition the
stirring gear is arranged to rise vertically on the shaft by lifting and
assistance of the counterweight attached to it. The fat is removed by
the use of a paddle, the stirrer lowered and started in motion. The
fat is mixed with a large paddle so that the melting oil at the sides
and bottom of the kettle is freely intermingled with the partially
melted fat.
The mass gradually assumes a murky yellow appearance as the oil
is made free. The man in charge of melting uses a bath
thermometer constantly and regulates the temperature of the water
in the jacket by the admittance of cold water to chill it or steam to
warm it so that the temperature of the melting oil does not exceed
156° F. It usually takes 1¹⁄₂ hours to properly melt the contents of a
full kettle. When the melting is complete the stirrer is raised out of
the oil and allowed to remain raised while the oil is settled.
Settling the Oil.—When the oil comes to rest about twenty
pounds of fine salt is scattered over the surface, thrown in moderate
handfuls so as to sprinkle the entire surface. This salt in settling
clears the oil by carrying down the floating fibre by mechanical as
well as chemical action. The oil usually has a scum on top and this is
gently skimmed off and saved as a bottom for the next kettle. After
settling about fifteen minutes the oil is run off by gently lowering the
hinged pipe, the oil as de-canted is passed to the clarifier.
When the pure oil is run as low as can be conveniently done
without carrying off any scrap of settlings, the oil laying on the
surface of the water and sediment in the bottom is passed to some
receptacle and sent to the pressure tanks. The kettle is well
scrubbed, made clean and the skimmed bottoms deposited ready for
filling again with hashed fat.
 FIG. 55.—SETTLING KETTLE FOR OLEO OILS.

Clarifiers or Settling Kettles.—Each kettle is provided with two

clarifying or settling kettles. These are cone-shaped tanks in which
the oil from one melting kettle is deposited. The oil is allowed to
stand as long as possible in a quiet state and the sediment or fibre
collects in the bottom of the cone. This is withdrawn at the bottom
at frequent intervals so as to free the oil from sediment and dirt. The
temperature of the oil carried in the clarifiers is 140°, kept uniform
by use of warm water in the jacket.
After settling the oil about two hours it is drawn to the seeding
trucks. Cotton flannel bags are usually put on over the outlet pipe so
as to strain the oil and collect any floating pieces of tissue that
would otherwise pass to the seeding truck.
Scrap Vat.—A vessel which requires attention and in which the
yield in the oil house can be very materially increased and improved
by proper handling is the scrap vat. After the vat is melted and the
oil siphoned off, the balance or residue in kettle is drawn out of the
bottom into the scrap vat, which is located directly under the melting
kettle. This kettle should be kept full of hot water at a temperature
of about 130° F., and when the scrap is dropped in the oil will
immediately come to the surface; this should be skimmed off
promptly, for if it is allowed to lie in the scrap vat a bad flavor will
result and it will then have to be sold as an inferior grade of oil; but
if skimmed as stated this strong flavored feature may be avoided.
When through melting for the day, the steam should be turned on
the scrap vats to bring them up to a temperature of 190° to 200° F.
This will release any fat yet remaining in the scrap, which should be
skimmed and used for a lower grade of oil, as it will have a strong
flavor. The balance of the scrap is then sent to the tank house,
where it is cooked under pressure and the remaining oil taken out.
Seeding or Graining Oil.—The oil when settled in the clarifiers is
passed to the seeding or graining trucks. The seeding truck plays a
very important part in the handling of oleo oil and is one of the
points where a great deal of trouble can be developed if not properly
watched.
When the oil is drawn into the seeding trucks there should be no
signs of any water. If there is any water left in the oil it naturally
settles to the bottom of the seeding truck. The oil usually being at a
temperature of 120° to 125° F., and it being three and sometimes
four days before it is cooled, the heat held in the oil, together with
the water and sediment that may be in the bottom, causes a
decomposition and the result is “sour bottoms,” which are very
offensive. If any of this sour material has gotten into the press, the
stearine will be spotted and out of conditions. The oil will also show
it more or less, so that it is absolutely necessary that this particular
point be given very close and careful attention.

FIG. 56.—OLEO SEEDING TRUCK.

Advantage of Wood Seeding Trucks.—It has for many years been

considered necessary to line the seeding truck with galvanized iron,
in fact many of the large melters today are using this style of truck.
The seeding truck, however, which gives the best results is a
wooden truck (see Fig. 56) without any lining, made of basswood, or
whitewood, which are odorless, and can be readily cleaned and kept
sweet. The objections to a truck lined with galvanized iron might be
summarized as follows:
In the first place, considerable salt is used in the material, more or
less of which is left in the oil. When the melted fat is drawn off into
the seeding trucks and is left to stand for three or four days, this salt
attacks the iron, and if not watched very carefully small pin-holes
will be eaten through the iron, the result being that the galvanized
iron pan will leak into the wooden box proper. Again, every time the
seeding trucks are emptied, they are thoroughly washed and
steamed out and more or less of this water for washing finds its way
in between the lining and the wooden box. When the seeding truck
is filled with oil, the weight of the oil causes this water, which is held
between the iron and the wood, to ooze into the oil, causing “sour
bottoms.” This particular point has caused the loss of a great many
thousands of dollars in the manufacture of this product, even though
it is apparently a very unimportant matter.
Manufacture of Wooden Trucks.—In using wooden seeding
trucks, attention is called to a very important item to be considered,
and if not carefully looked after the results will be unsatisfactory. The
oil is drawn into seeding trucks at a temperature of about 120° to
125° F., which will shrink wood very rapidly, therefore the trucks
should be made out of thoroughly kiln-dried lumber, which should be
extra kiln-dried. The bottom and sides of the truck are bolted
together with a bolt running through them and one on either end, so
that any shrinkage of the wood can be taken up. The same is true of
the sides of the truck. In each of the joints, after they are perfectly
made, a strand of wicking should be put in between the edges, so
that when it is drawn down it forms a perfect packing. As is well
understood, the shrinkage of wood is mostly crosswise of the grain,
there being very little lengthwise; thus it will be seen that the wood
in these trucks, both at the sides and at the ends, must be put in so
that it will all shrink uniformly. The bottom of the truck will naturally
shrink sidewise and if the bolts are drawn up it stops the opening,
while if the sides of the truck shrink, the bottom bolts can be drawn
up, readily stopping the leak. The ends of the truck must have the
grain running up and down instead of crosswise, for if the bottom of
the truck joins sidewise and the end pieces are running crosswise of
this grain, it will be impossible to draw the bottom up tight, on
account of the lack of shrinkage of the ends where the grain runs
lengthwise of the end.