Ibstock Brick Team Up with Tennant for a Cleaner, Safer Site Against Silica Dust

Ibstock Brick is the UK’s largest manufacturer of clay products, leading the sector with a history of over 200 years of producing handmade bricks. It employs over 2000 people spread across 25 locations throughout the UK, and most have associated quarrying operations at or near to them.

To meet the increasing demand for bricks, Ibstock Brick has extended their manufacturing capability with a new site in Coalville, Leicestershire.

This new factory can produce 100 million bricks per year, which, coupled with the existing manufacturing capabilities, means 190 million bricks per annum in total. As to say, an amount equivalent to around 28,000 new homes per year.

Challenge

Silica is a natural substance found in materials common on construction sites, like concrete, rocks, and sand. The dust created by cutting, grinding, or drilling concrete products can contain respirable crystalline silica, which is a silent but serious hazard in construction and manufacturing environments.

Prolonged exposure to respirable crystalline silica can lead to irreversible lung damage, making dust control a critical issue for industrial employers.

The key to preventing silica exposure is to keep silica dust out of the air. That’s a tall order for giant manufacturing sites like Ibstock Brick. Former methods like broom sweeping are neither efficient nor effective to safeguard air quality and worker health. That’s when Ibstock turned to Tennant.

Solution

Working closely with Tennant’s experts, Ibstock Brick trialled the S20 Compact Ride-On Sweeper—a versatile and durable mid-sized industrial machine with a threestage primary filter system, that had been fitted with an optional HEPA 4th-stage dust filter.

“HEPA filtration gives our customers the ability to capture even the finest dust particles, significantly reducing airborne contaminants,” explains Jon Collett, Tennant’s National Account Manager.