Hearing Protection in the Packaging Business
In the packaging business, margins are not robust. Making money is all about productivity and up time. Whether at the hot end, the wet end, or on the copper line, keeping the plant up requires coordination. Coordination requires communication.
Hearing Protection for Communication
Custom Protect Ear’s (CPE) dB Blockers not only allow interpersonal and 2-way radio communication, but also connection to IDEN radios. At the wet end of a corrugated box making facility or at the copper in an aluminum can production plant, your workers must understand each other perfectly without having to move to quieter areas to keep things running, particularly when things jam or break. Since they are custom fit, our dB Blockers also sit properly and comfortably, so there’s no need for your employees to worry about ill-fitting earpieces that cover the ears too much or block their ability to regulate the brain cavity’s temperature. Workers in hot and cold ends of glass bottling plants can then stay protected and stay on task, remaining sharper and better focused without the stress and distress.
Worker Safety in the Packaging Industry
Although a plastic bottling plant isn’t as loud as other packaging operations, employee hearing protection needs are increased by ototoxicity when workers ingest aromatic hydrocarbons from organic solvents in the holding process. With no empirical studies to determine what concentrations have a defined effect on hearing, you need to seriously fit your workers with proper hearing protection down to much lower noise levels if your container plant has Toluene, MEK, Xylene, or Styrene present. With all these benefits, it’s clear why Weyerhaeuser turned to us to fit all of their corrugated box plants in the U.S; why Rexam asked us to fit all of their aluminum can facilities in North America; and why St. Gobain got us to refit their plants to achieve hearing conservation performance.
“Where were you 30 years ago? If I’d been wearing those things, I might have my hearing today.” Dennis Worrell, Operation Manager for a glass bottle plant, Waxahatchie, TX
