NAHAD institute brings safety to the hose industry

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio—Before the industry had access to standard, consistent safety guidelines, hose safety was more akin to the "Wild West."

At least that's how Brent Lilly, vice president of sales and marketing with PT Coupling, described it as he closed off the recent two-day Rubber News Hose & Belt Manufacturers Conference with a safety panel discussion.

Today, hose safety begins with the material science and continues through the final assembly and usage of a hose, Lilly said, noting the role of the Hose Safety Institute—part of NAHAD: The Association for Hose and Accessories Distribution—and its importance to every step along the value chain.

"The Hose Safety Institute was formed because fabricating and applying and putting hoses into service was almost the Wild West of things," Lilly, a member of the NAHAD Board of Directors and Standards Committee, said before diving into the discussion at the Sheraton Suites in Cuyahoga Falls.

"We wanted to provide some specific recommendations for how to select and apply hose assemblies and create a standard … for the best practices to be used out in the field."

And NAHAD's institute does just this with its Hose Assembly Guidelines, following the acronym of STAMPED (size, temperature, application, media/material, pressure, ends and delivery), which takes manufacturers, distributors and end-users through several categories of data collection, ensuring they have the right hose for the right job.

In their discussion, "Hose Safety: From Application to Assembly," Lilly and panelists Aaron Clark, material science manager for Danfoss Power Solutions, Fluid Conveyance Division; Jim Daniels, president of Mid-State Sales Inc.; Norm Fye, general manager of Summers Rubber Co.; and Jeff Nitz, Ohio Valley regional manager of Dixon Valve, broke down key considerations when dealing with hose safety.

When it comes to understanding the safety regulations in the manufacturing industry, there's much to think about, especially when dealing with raw materials. Clark takes a step back and breaks these considerations down one by one.

"There's a lot of considerations related toward rubber mixing and, certainly, plastic processing," he said, bringing attention to what materials companies may consider using, storage conditions, safety of the workers in direct contact with the materials, and equipment safety.

He said hose manufacturers should consider several questions when dealing with material safety and selection.

"Is it something you want to sell to your customers? Is it something you want to be using in your lab?" he asked, noting moves in the industry to replace possible and defined carcinogens like phthalates, resorcinol and formaldehyde. "Do you still want these things working in your facility?"

Then manufacturers must consider the storage of these materials, he continued.

"This is the big safety concern, especially if you have any sort of exothermic reaction, coagents, accelerators (or) peroxides," he said. Companies must consider things like humidity, temperature and proper segregation of different materials.

And this extends to the safety of the workers dealing with the materials, too.

"My primary concern is any airborne things that are floating around the mix area," Clark said. "I've been in some mix areas before, and, boy, I felt like I was in a fish tank eating fish food."

This is why proper ventilation, dust collection, masks and filters are critical, he said.

"And this doesn't even cover the equipment yet," he said.

"Do you have the proper safeguarding?" he asked, referencing a two-roll rubber mill as an example. "Do you have a laser cut-off switch on it? Do you have it gauged enough where, if you had to hit the emergency stop, it doesn't rotate three times during the process? Do you have an emergency response team associated with a project? And do you have the people that know how—if something does go wrong—to extract the person on the mill?"

All very big considerations that, hopefully, workers never have to deal with, he said.

When manufacturing a hose, Daniels emphasized the importance of knowing the purpose of a hose and, in the case of hydraulics, what fluids are being dealt with to ensure the right tubing is used.

Then a manufacturer must consider things like ozone, lighting and sources of electricity in the environment of a hose.

And for the industrial side of things, where a hose could be exposed to "just about anything," Nitz added, "compatibility is very important, the environment in which it is being used is very important (as well as) the abrasion considerations."

He said a manufacturer or distributor must know and understand exactly where and how a hose is going to be used in the industrial sector.

This is what the STAMPED guidelines are for, Fye noted, "making sure that the data collected is accurate."

When out in the field, preventative maintenance is key, something Daniels couldn't stress enough, especially as today's supply chain bottlenecks make finding proper replacement parts increasingly difficult.

As hoses are exposed to environments that result in ozone cracking, like sunlight and high sources of electricity, enacting a preventative maintenance program helps OEMs and other end-users stay ahead of the game, Daniels said.

"Up your preventative maintenance, or, in some cases, enact a preventative maintenance program, and make sure you're visually inspecting hydraulic hoses on a weekly, bi-weekly, monthly basis," he said.

Daniels also highlighted the importance of proper installation and assembly of a hose within its application, falling back on the "A" of the STAMPED guidelines.

He noted the importance of selecting the correct hose for specific applications, proper routing throughout a piece of equipment to avoid twisting, and consideration of abrasion resistance depending on the surrounding environment.

Twisting of the hose due to improper installation, he added, is one of the quickest ways to achieve premature failure of a hydraulic hose.

Fye added that these dangers are prevalent on the industrial side, too, as hoses are typically located below the machine in which they are installed. Improper installation could lead to hoses dragging on the ground or getting run over.

A lot of business Summers Rubber receives, he noted, is due to improper care.

Nitz said premature failures tend to be an issue when OEMs treat the component as an "afterthought," which leads to routing, electrical and heating issues that could affect the performance of the hose.

But failures also happen from wear happening on the inside of the hose, which can't be caught from standard visual inspections.

"You don't know what happens inside that hose until it fails," Fye said, noting that's why taking safety programs into consideration and replacing hoses in a timely fashion are critical.

When the goal is ensuring safe working conditions, properly functioning products, and routine maintenance and replacement, the right guidance and engagement from industry experts will get you there.

Finding the right hose for an end-user is an involved and ever-adjusting process, Daniels said.

"We used to just take these drawings (from OEM customers) and just quote them and let them fly," he said. "And over time, doing this for 30-some years, we've learned that we have to engage with the engineers, engage into the application."

Fye said hosing is one of the most technical and dangerous industries he's worked with.

"We're dealing with assembly problems from customer contact through sales to fabrications and making sure we're trying to cover pretty much any environmental obstacle that comes up," he said.

"Our guys go through a lot of training, mostly through NAHAD, … just to understand the job they're performing," Fye said, noting Summers Rubber employees are trained for six to 12 months before they're "let loose" to assist customers.

Lilly said NAHAD and its members advocate for pairing experts with end-users "to help coach them in a post-application maintenance program."

He said it's important that end-users understand how to maintain their hoses beyond the initial selection and inspection.

And the NAHAD Hose Safety Institute is the right tool for this, he added, noting members have complete training with testing and proper recognition that shows they understand how to identify and avoid pitfalls in the hose industry.

"That's what we're here for," Fye said. "To help work with you guys and protect everybody that's out there."