Longwall operator, Allan Gilby at Anglo Coal’s Southern longwall mine, developed a tool to lift the bretby without exposing employees to the manual handling risk.

The bretby was difficult to handle due to its weight and location in the bretby tray, making the process awkward. In the past, moving the longwall face bretby involved manual lifting. The bretby was placed on top of wedges laid across the hand rail and AFC spill plates. This resulted in minor injuries in the past.

Gilby designed a bretby lifter and support brackets to reduce much of the risk from the handling of the bretby. The bretby is lifted initially and a roller placed under the bretby. The weight of the bretby is supported by the roller which rests on the spill plate and hand rail.

Two workers push the roller along the top of the spill plates lifting the bretby as they progress. Brackets attached to the back of the pans by chains are simply placed across the bretby tray to allow the face bretby to be supported out of the tray.

The idea was submitted for the innovation award at the Queensland Mining Industry Health & Safety conference in early August.

“The development of a tool to lift the bretby without exposing employees to the manual handling risk of an awkward task has assisted employees to work on the bretby without facing the risk of strain or pinching from manually lifting the bretby,” the mine said in its submission.

“Reduced exposure to manual handling risks and injury has tangible benefits to the workforce and company alike. This simple innovative idea has reduced the risk of injury to employees from manually handling the face bretby to change a shearer cable or hose.”