Section 296-99-085. What special requirements apply to inside bucket elevators?

(1) The employer must prohibit jogging of a bucket elevator to free a choked leg.

"Jogging" means to start and stop drive motors repeatedly over short intervals.

(2) The employer must ensure that all belts and lagging purchased after March 30, 1988, are conductive and have a maximum surface electrical resistance of 300 megohms.

(3) The employer must ensure that all bucket elevators have safe access to the head pulley section for inspection of the head pulley, lagging, belt, and discharge throat. The boot section must also have safe access for its clean-out and inspection of the pulley and belt.

(4) The employer must:

(a) Mount bearings externally to the leg casing; or

(b) Have vibration and temperature monitoring; or

(c) Have other means to monitor the condition of bearings mounted inside or partially inside the leg casing.

(5) The employer must ensure that bucket elevators have a motion detection device that will stop the elevator if belt speed is reduced to less than eighty percent of normal operating speed.

(6) The employer must:

(a) Ensure that bucket elevators have a belt alignment monitoring device that will initiate an alarm to employees when the belt is not tracking properly; or

(b) Use a system to keep the belt tracking properly.

(7) Subsections (5) and (6) of this section do not apply to grain elevators with a permanent storage capacity of less than one million bushels, if daily visual inspection is made of bucket movement and belt tracking.

(8) Subsections (4), (5), and (6) of this section do not apply to the following:

(a) Bucket elevators with an operational fire and explosion suppression system capable of protecting at least the head and boot section of the bucket elevator; or

(b) Bucket elevators with pneumatic or other dust control systems or methods that keep the dust concentration inside the bucket elevator at least twenty-five percent below the lower explosive limit at all times during operations.

[Statutory Authority: Chapter 49.17 RCW. WSR 97-22-065, § 296-99-085, filed 11/3/97, effective 1/1/98; WSR 88-23-054 (Order 88-25), § 296-99-085, filed 11/14/88.]

Chapter 49.17 RCW. WSR 97-22-065, § 296-99-085, filed 11/3/97, effective 1/1/98; WSR 88-23-054 (Order 88-25), § 296-99-085, filed 11/14/88.