For those unfamiliar with the rubber industry, a rubber mill is a machine with two 30" diameter x 60" long steel rolls that turn in on themselves. The machine is used for mixing and warming up rubber material before further processing. It can be a very dangerous piece of equipment because the gap between the rolls is less than 1" and anything caught on either roll can get flattened. Side Note: Custom Rubber Corp. has never had a serious mill-related injury.
Because of the safety concerns, Custom Rubber Corp. conducts monthly mill extraction drills - simulations for what actions to take if a mill operator were to get stuck. The article discusses some recent improvements we've made in the procedure that have significantly reduced the time it would take to extract someone who is injured. The particular innovation discussed is the additional use of hot knives that enable quicker and easier cutting away of the rubber to free the individual.
Custom Rubber Corp. has not updated our mill drill video with the new improvements, but if you're interested to see how we used to conduct our mill drill, you can check out our YouTube channel. The specific mill drill video link is:
Custom Rubber Corp. Mill Drill.
On our YouTube channel, you can see a number of other safety-related videos we have created.