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Ellwood City Forge (ECF), located in Ellwood City, PA, has over 100 years of experience with manufacturing and offers their customers the technical experience to meet their mechanical needs. Also offering heat treating and forging capabilities, ECF works with their customers to provide the best possible solution for the end user. Various types of machines are involved in the day to day process in their facility and they needed a non-slip solution for an area around machines where the operator would not be standing in a pool of oil, creating the potential for slip and fall injuries.

A manufacturing engineer at ECF reached out to the sales team at SlipNOT® Metal Safety Flooring for their application. The company decided that steel grating would work best for the situation. The oil would be able to drain through to a pit below without pooling on the surface, creating slick spots and the potential for slips and falls.

Eight pieces of steel trim banded grating were ordered for the job, measuring at 1” x 3/16” x 24” x 120”. Each piece of steel grating was coated with the Grade 3 (coarse) surface, providing maximum traction and longevity. Used for applications where there is high traffic or oil and lubricants are heavily prevalent, the coarse grade can only be applied to steel substrates.

ECF chose to leave the steel grating in its natural mill finish state. Mill finish steel products must be galvanized to protect against rust and corrosion in wet environments. Steel can also be painted in black, safety yellow or can be customized to job specifications.

In addition to the grating, ECF ordered (5) 3/8" x 4' x 8' and (2) 1" x 26" x 94" Grade 3 steel mill plates to install throughout their boring department, where oil is present. The Purchasing Coordinator said, "Any trench or pit areas are covered with SlipNOT® plates; even if there is not oil or water there, people may have oily or wet shoes. We have also screwed it onto our trailer bed so the oily chip boxes don't slide off."

The steel grating and plate pieces were able to be installed in the field effortlessly. Machine operators at ECF can operate the heavy machinery without worrying about slips and falls around the oily areas. The heavy duty steel coating will last years longer than most slip resistant products, therefore increasing safety and productivity in the long run.