Grain Bin Access Standard: ASABE Issues Guidelines For Access and Anchorage Points on Steel Tanks
This safety decal must be posted on any steel tank entry points.
From the November/December 2019 Grain Journal:
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE) has finalized a voluntary standard that provides design recommendations to reduce the chance for grain entrapment in new steel grain storage tanks.
The new standard — ANSI/ASABE S624, Grain Bin Access Design Safety — includes recommendations for bin access, anchor attachment points for lifelines, and safety decals.
The standard is intended to provide enhanced protection for those who enter grain bins, helping them to accomplish their task with greater awareness and understanding of the hazards surrounding them and steps they need to take for their safety.
The standard was developed by ASABE’s technical committee on structures, which comprises a complete spectrum of relevant expertise: academic researchers, safety experts, end users, and design engineers from most of the North American steel bin manufacturers, including members of the Grain Elevator and Processing Society (GEAPS).
Entry system inside a bin with the loads on the anchor attachment points. Illustration courtesy of ASABE.
Key Provisions
The standard covers tanks with both corrugated and smooth steel walls. It does not cover tanks that meet both of these criteria:
• The tank has no roof or sidewall access doors.
• The center fill opening cover has a warning label stating that it is not a personnel access point.
ANSI/ASABE S624 is a voluntary standard, which means that it does not carry the force of law the way an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) standard does. The goal is to standardize design practices in the steel bin manufacturing industry. However, the standard may be cited in litigation.
Some key provisions of Grain Bin Access Design Safety:
Bin access. The primary sidewall access door must measure at least 24 inches by 24 inches and may be no higher than 54 inches above the bin base. When the door threshold is more than 24 inches above the bin base, a step must be provided. If the threshold is more than 48 inches above the bin base, a work platform with handrails must be provided.
Round roof access openings must be at least 24 inches in diameter. Rectangular openings must measure a minimum of 18-x-24 inches. An external platform must be provided beneath the roof access point. If a ladder is provided inside the bin, it must be directly beneath the roof opening.
Provisions must be made so that all powered and non-powered equipment can be locked out and tagged out for safe bin entry.
Anchor attachment points. Bin manufacturers must provide two anchor attachment points, one near the roof peak and one near the roof access. The attachment point near the roof access must be accessible from the platform, allowing the attachment of a lifeline.
Anchor attachment points must support a minimum ultimate load of 2,000 pounds. The design working load for either anchor attachment point must be a minimum of 1,000 pounds. The points must be identified clearly, both on the bin and in the owner’s manual. The decals must state that the anchor attachment point is designed for a single entrant.
Safety decals. The safety decal shown at top must be posted at entry points.
Additional Details
The responsibility for providing work platforms lies with the owner or installing conractor, not the manufacturer. That’s because the manufacturer usually doesn’t know the location onsite where the bin will be placed or the location above grade where the access will be placed.
Likewise, the owner or the electrical contractor is responsible for lockout/tagout provisions. The bin manufacturer almost never supplies this equipment.
The illustration above is the design of an entry system inside of a bin with the minimum loads on the anchor attachment points, assuming a 250-pound person entering the bin. The standard rounds those numbers up to 2,000 pounds for the ease of bin designers and to provide an additional safety factor.
At the bottom of this article is a newly developed decal for placement on the bin with the former DANGER key word replaced with WARNING.
How to Obtain
Full text of the new standard is available free of charge to ASABE members with standards access and to those with site-license privileges from the organization’s online Technical Library at elibrary.asabe.org.
Anyone else can obtain a copy of the standard for a fee directly from the Technical Library or by contacting ASABE headquarters at OrderStandard@asabe.org. For more information, contact Scott Cedarquist at 269-932-7031 or cedarq@asabe.org.
Ed Zdrojewski, editor
This is a newly developed decal for placement on the bin with the former DANGER keyword replaced with WARNING.
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