Staying safe on a jobsite with multiple drums requires regular reinforcement of safe drum handling rules. Knowing when manual handling will work and when to use equipment is only one decision made during the process of moving drums. If you manage a warehouse, encourage your workers to learn and practice these guidelines for safely moving drums.
Jump To Sections:
- Why Drum Handling Safety Is Important
- Drum Handling Tips to Improve Safety and Productivity
- Improve Your Warehouse Operations With Drum Handling Equipment From Cherry’s
Why Drum Handling Safety Is Important
To keep your workplace active and productive, you must ensure your workers use the safest methods available. Safety in warehouses helps to reduce downtime and workers’ compensation claims. Workers who use the proper manual movement of drums will reduce the amount of strain on their bodies and need fewer sick days to care for pulled muscles.
While increasing your workplace’s efficiency is critical, teaching safety around drums also ensures you adhere to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements. Holding to these requirements will keep your workers safe from spilled contents, cuts, fractures, pulled muscles, crushing accidents and inadvertent chemical exposure. At the same time, you will avoid fines from not following these rules.
Drum Handling Tips to Improve Safety and Productivity
Several factors play into the difficulty in manual handling of drums. The drums have a large, unwieldy shape. Their contents typically are hazardous. And filled drums can weigh hundreds of pounds. Metal drums also pose a risk of cutting the handler. To avoid dangers, instruct all workers who may be around these containers how to handle drums safely. Their lives and your business rely on them learning these tips and following through on them.
1. Wear Personal Protective Equipment
As always, have your workers wear the appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE) for their jobs in your facility. If they must move hazardous materials, ensure they have gloves, eye protection, respirators and head protection. The chemicals stored in the drums will dictate the specific precautions workers need to take.
PPE keeps your employee’ skin and eyes safe in case the drum opens or leaks during movement or transport. Never discount the ability of PPE to preserve workers’ from harm. Taking extra precautions by requiring PPE for employees handling drums of hazardous materials prevents injuries and fatalities in the event of an accident.
2. Inspect the Drum Contents
Before workers move any drum, require an inspection of the containers. A review includes looking for several problems and pieces of information about the safety and integrity of the drums. OSHA recommends this examination consisting of looking for indications of hazards inside the container, leaks, pressure build-up, drum type and the drumhead form.
Look for labels on the drums that indicate the contents and their possible hazards. Serious concerns include barrels or drums that contain materials that are:
- Radioactive
- Shock-sensitive
- Bulging
- Corrosive
- Leaking
- Laboratory waste
Ensure labels on barrels accurately reflect the contents and their dangers to communicate their safety level to workers who have to move them.
Generating accurate labels may require taking samples and updating safety levels.
3. Assess the Exterior Condition of the Drums
Another aspect of the inspection requires looking for damage to the container that could worsen during a move. Look at all sides of the barrel to check for leaks and the integrity of the cover. Leaking or spilled drums require immediate cleanup following the guidelines outlined by the contents’ material safety data sheets (MSDS).
For metal containers, look for potential loose parts that could cause a cut during a move. Manually moving a drum that causes a laceration could result in pain, forcing the carrier to drop the container.
Before moving any container, also verify the drumhead is secure and tight against the top of the drum. Loose or leaking drumheads could cause a loss of contents, exposing surrounding workers to the chemicals inside during the move.
Check the bung seals, if the drum has them. These openings allow the contents to pour out when the drum is on its side, and they can easily leak or have weak covers. Never grab the bung while moving the drum to avoid slipping or causing this part to break.
4. Evaluate the Work Area
Train employees to evaluate the area and drum carefully before moving it, regardless of whether they will use specialized equipment or manually handle the container.
Have the employee look at the space around the drum to help choose the moving method. If there is little space on the sides of the drum, a lifter and lifting equipment may offer a safer means of moving the container than pulling out the barrel by hand. Where possible, though, instruct workers to move everything else from the area to free space around the drums for safer moving.
After looking at the space around the drum, the worker should plan a route for moving the container. They must move any obstacles in the way to prevent accidents during the move and consider the equipment needed for moving the barrel. Ensure the employee allows for adequate room for drum trucks, lift equipment or manual moving.
5. Know How to Safely Break the Drum
Training workers in breaking drums when moving these containers manually is a basic lesson in container handling. Unless workers have this training, do not allow them to move barrels in your facility. Improperly breaking a drum can result in serious injuries or chemical spills that can create significant downtime.
Breaking the drum refers to getting it moving from a still position. The worker has four options, depending on the placement of the container and where they stand in relation to it. These four options include pushing, pulling, drag/pull and push/pull.
Pushing the drum means the employee places their hands on the rim or chime and kneels to keep their shoulders near the drum. While pushing with their legs, the worker moves the drum to the point just before it tips in the other direction. A worker should choose this option if they have plenty of space on all sides of the drum.
Pulling works best when working in clusters of drums set near one another. This method requires the worker to put their hands and feet in a line. Setting one hand on one chime and the other hand on the chime at the far end of the barrel, the worker sets their feet in line with one against the bottom chime of the drum and the other supporting them directly behind the first foot. The worker will then pull the drum gently until it hits its balance point.
The drag/pull combination method uses some elements of pulling while dragging the drum. First, the employee sets their hands on the drum and one foot on the bottom of the container to keep it under control. Next, the worker places their other foot in line with the one supporting the drum and shifts their weight backward to the rear foot, while gently dragging the drum and moving it right and left. Drag/pull works best in close quarters when the mover needs to break a drum with little room to maneuver.
The last method uses both push and pull together. Using two hands, the worker uses one to push against the wall while the other hand pulls on the opposite chime. Since one of the worker’s hands works against the nearest wall, they should select this breaking method when a drum sits along a barrier.
6. Know How to Roll a Drum
After workers know how to break a drum, teach them the safest method to roll the container along the floor. The proper rolling technique requires one person. Rolling a drum can become dangerous as barrels can quickly get out of control.
The employee will use two hands to handle the drum, placing one low and the other high on the side of the barrel. They move the lower hand upward until it reaches the top, at which point they shift the other hand to the lower position. The worker will continue rolling the drum slowly until they reach the destination. Once in place, the worker will reverse one of the breaking methods such as push or drag/pull to restore the drum into position.
Train workers never to slide their hands on the side of the drum. Doing so could cause cuts from the container’s surface. Also, instruct them to refrain from sliding their feet on the ground, which could lead to a loss of control of the barrel or slipping.
7. Know When to Work as a Team
Employees need to know when they can safely work alone and when they should have a partner to move containers. Ideally, all workers will get a partner to help when moving drums. The only exceptions to this include using handling equipment and rolling a drum. Rolling works best with one person who can control the direction of the weighty container.
When two people need to break a drum, the breaking methods work better because each person will need to exert less force. A pair can share the job of pulling or pushing the drum. When using push/pull, one person will have the task of pushing while the other pulls.
In some cases, a worker may need to get help moving a drum by using equipment to lift or transport the container. Where possible, workers should always opt to use drum handling equipment to make moving these large containers easier, safer and less straining. Teach employees about the correct equipment to use for each situation of moving, lifting and transporting drums.
8. Stay Alert and Be Prepared to Move
Even when employees take precautions, dropped barrels or out of control rolling drums can still happen. Instruct employees on how to deal with these situations by avoiding the container. It’s important to know when a worker needs help in properly handling drums, but knowing when to get out of the way is equally critical for safety.
Drums, especially filled ones, can cause severe damage if they fall onto people nearby. Once a worker sees that a drum falls or goes out of control, they must get away from the container.
Teach employees to wait until the container stops moving before responding to any spills or damage the incident caused. Reinforce spill guidelines for the MSDS for the drum’s contents and ensure the workers follow up with any incident reporting required.
9. Use Proper Equipment for Drum Handling
Even if you train workers to use the equipment for drum handling, ensure they know the correct devices to use and how to use them. When moving drums, do not allow workers to use equipment not designed to carry the containers.
If your facility has a forklift, for instance, workers will need an attachment to allow it to safely lift barrels. Without such an attachment, the forks could puncture drums, releasing their contents. Using a forklift also does not allow for the safest moving of barrels. Their unusual shape and shifting weight can make it easy for them to fall off the forks. At all times, a worker must have full control of the drum and its contents, regardless of whether the contents shift inside during the move.
Teach workers about how and when to use drum lifters, drum carts and drum pallets. Your investment in this equipment will only pay a return if your workers use these tools appropriately.
Drum lifters keep workers safer when handling barrels that can weigh between 400 and 800 pounds. These devices reduce accidents and physical strain by picking up a filled barrel from overhead. When dealing with stacked barrels, workers should always use lift assisting equipment instead of moving the drums manually.
While rolling a drum may work for empty containers, filled containers require a more secure moving technique. Instead of allowing workers to roll drums across a warehouse, which increases the chances of the container spilling or getting out of control, provide them with drum carts. These manual carts securely hold a single drum with a capacity between 15 and 55 gallons, allowing for one person to move the container.
Unlike standard pallets that could allow for cylindrical drums to slip off or slide out of place, drum pallets have divots in their surface to keep the containers upright and securely in their positions. The worker must still secure barrels containing hazardous chemicals to the pallet, but the containers will stay in place better on a drum pallet.
Incorrectly using equipment not made for handling barrels could result in rupture of the drum’s structure, chemical spills or falling containers.
10. Know the Limits of Equipment
Part of training workers in choosing the right equipment to use for handling drums includes instructing them on selecting equipment based on the tool’s capabilities. Clearly label equipment with the maximum weight capacities to ensure workers have a clear reference.
Teach all workers that when choosing drum handling equipment, they should always select a device that has a weight capacity exceeding the drum’s weight. As a warehouse manager, provide enough drum handling equipment to carry a variety of drum weights. Always stock your facility with drum handling equipment to lift or move the heaviest containers you have at your warehouse.
11. Properly Stack Drums
To avoid catastrophes later, teach workers how to properly stack drums now. Drums do not stack as easily as boxes due to their circular shape. Host a training session for all employees who will work with drums, especially when dealing with lifting equipment to stack and move these containers.
Workers should never stack drums or remove barrels from stacks by hand. Teach them the proper use of lifting equipment to pull drums from their places. If the lifting equipment uses slings, have the workers check the weight capacity of the sling and the crane used to lift it before attaching to the drum. Also, teach your workers to keep all sharp objects away from the slings to keep them from severing during use.
When stacking cylindrical containers, workers should do so symmetrically, placing barrels of the same size onto drum pallets. Having the same size drums makes it easier for a second pallet to sit on top of the containers.
Workers should always use a pallet to separate layers of stacked barrels or drums. Instruct them to use a drum pallet that will better hold the containers on the next level. Separating layers with a pallet provides a stable surface for the drums above.
While drum pallets have a design to keep the containers from slipping from side to side on the pallet, you may not have enough of these for the drums you need to stock. If your employees must place stacked barrels on standard pallets, have them place chocks around the containers on the base layer. Doing so will stabilize the bottom layer and decrease the chances of the drums from slipping on the pallet.
12. Learn Injury Prevention
Because drum handling may involve manual exertion and lifting, you should have your workers learn about safe lifting techniques and injury prevention. OSHA suggests you provide your workers with formal training for proper lifting to prevent accidents and injuries later.
Since lifting accounts for the majority of injury-causing actions when handling drums, train workers specifically on how to avoid these type of physical harms. Discuss the history of lifting injuries at your facility to illustrate what your business has learned about preventing such injuries and the workers’ place in avoiding harm.
Explain spine anatomy to your employees and why proper lifting techniques help prevent injuries. Have workers learn to respect their personal strengths and weaknesses and ask for help when they encounter a task that exceeds their lifting ability.
Part of the instruction should include a demonstration of correct lifting techniques that reduce strain on the back and use the strength of the legs to move. Have workers show their understanding by repeating the technique.
When you provide injury prevention training to your workers, they will be less likely to experience muscle strains or injuries that could take them out of work for weeks. A little training for your workers in proper drum handling and lifting methods now will reduce the downtime your warehouse experiences later.
Improve Your Warehouse Operations With Drum Handling Equipment From Cherry’s
At Cherry’s Material Handling, we bring you the equipment you need to ensure your employees safely handle drums and barrels in your facility. Devices typically used for moving pallets or boxes will not properly hold and carry drums. If you have equipment on hand made for these round containers, you can help ensure safety on site.
Equipment you should have in your warehouse includes lifters, carts and pallets. All three of these categories have specialized designs to handle the unusual cylindrical shape of drums and barrels. In many cases, using this specialty equipment offers a safer alternative to the manual moving of barrels.
Keep this drum handling equipment on hand so your workers will always what they need for the safe movement of any cylindrical containers you have on hand.
At Cherry’s, we want to be your solution for material handling and storage. Our aim is to go beyond your expectations to extraordinary levels by offering you high-caliber customer service and quality products. If you want to learn more about us or our products, contact us through our online form or give us a call 877-350-2729.