Risk assessment and safe access management in long products rolling mill machinery

HALYVOURGIKI INC. is a steel production company located in Elefsina (Attica, Greece). It covers an area of 1.060.000 m² and employs 560 workers. The specific rolling mill plant of the company has an annual production capacity of 300.000 tones of long steel products of a wide diameters’ range (8mm to 20mm). The production line’s entire length is 240m and it covers an area of 6480m². In order to deal with its workplace risks, the company hired an external consultancy (ERGONOMIA SA) to make a risk assessment study. A risk assessed as unacceptable included tasks in the rolling mill that require the access of workers in the production line, hence in dangerous areas that included the moving parts of machinery and the moving product path.