A Norton company employee’s creation of a system to cut down on spills and hand injuries is the first-place winner in the annual Ohio Safety Innovation Awards.
Paul Hunt, process safety engineer at Norton-based ICP Adhesives & Sealants, presented his innovation Thursday at the Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation Safety Congress & Expo in Columbus.
ICP, formerly Fomo Products Inc., won $6,000 as first-place winner. C & K Industrial Services Inc. of Cleveland, which specializes in vacuuming and pressure washing of sewer lines, pipes and various industrial equipment, won second place and $4,000 for its use of remote- controlled hydroblasting robots.
The Ohio Bureau of Workers’ Compensation organizes the annual competition as a way to recognize safety initiatives that go above and beyond typical efforts to improve workplace safety, and to serve as inspiration to employers.
Hunt developed a pneumatic clamping system that employees use to fill pressurized cylinders with insulating and adhesive polyurethane foam products used in the construction industry.
Before Hunt’s system, employees used manually operated clamps to attach filling nozzles to cylinders.
“Employees love the new clamping system,” Hunt said in a Feb. 24 Beacon Journal article about the new system. “There haven’t been any spills” related to the new system.
Hunt used spare parts in the plant’s maintenance department to create a prototype of his new system.
To read the Feb. 24 story about Hunt’s innovation, go to http://bit.ly/2lgTL9M.
ICP Group of Andover, Mass., acquired the company last year. Together, the Akron plant and an office/plant on Barber Road in Norton employ about 100 workers.
Information about next year’s contest and entry guidelines will be posted this summer at www.bwc.ohio.gov.
Katie Byard can be reached at 330-996-3781 or kbyard@thebeaconjournal.com. You can follow her @KatieByardABJ on Twitter or on Facebook at www.facebook.com.