General safety rules – Great Plains NH3 Safety User Manual
Page 36
32
NH
3
Safety
Great Plains Manufacturing, Inc.
407-551M
2013-07-15
General Safety Rules
▲ Keep children, untrained personnel and unprotected
persons well away from equipment that uses anhydrous
ammonia. Children may not recognize or correctly react to
the smell of ammonia.
▲ Have required documents.
▲ Inspect all equipment carefully prior to operations.
Applicator and nurse tank hardware must meet strict
regulatory requirements and be in excellent working order.
Components must be within their expiration dates.
▲ Make sure all wash water tanks are full with fresh, clean
unfrozen water. Change water daily.
▲ Perform all required maintenance. Components with
specific limited service lives must be periodically replaced.
▲ Turn off all hose end and shutoff valves prior to transport.
▲ Check applicator tines or knives. In more challenging
conditions, tines or knives may wear prematurely, causing
stops for cleaning and unplugging, increasing low-level
exposure to anhydrous ammonia.
▲ Have an extra set of safety equipment in the tractor cab.
Have readily available communications to summon
professional aid in case of accident or release.
▲ Park the tank in outdoor shade on hot days and warm sunny
days. Never park near ignition sources. Do not smoke.
▲ On hot days and warm sunny days, do not stand down-wind
of the nurse tank. Even if the air temperature is below
116
°F (46.7 °C), parts of the tank may be above 116 °F,
raising the tank pressure to above 250 psig, and causing the
relief valve to vent NH
3
gas until the pressure falls.
▲ Use hitch safety pins. Use safety chains.
▲ Follow operating instructions precisely.
Use checklists.
Do not skip steps.
▲ Close valve firmly, but do not wrench.
▲ Never allow a hose, tube, pipe end or vent opening to point
at your face or body.
▲ Never use control valves as handles for moving hoses or
climbing equipment.
▲ Route the emergency shutoff cord to the tractor cab prior to
field operations.
▲ Expect small NH
3
releases during connection,
disconnection, when raising the implement out of the
ground and after completion of application. Stand up-wind.
▲ Keep the implement down wind of unprotected persons,
livestock and open water after application.
▲ Do not have unsealed containers of food or drink near the
tank, implement or in the tractor. Any released NH
3
will
combine with the water in the food or beverage.
▲ Do not move the implement indoors unless completely
discharged of ammonia, or the indoor area has two
openings (one up-wind), and reliable cross-ventilation.
▲ Always assume that, once used, NH
3
residues are present in
implement hoses, tubes and metering system.
▲ Use only CDS-JohnBlue, Great Plains, Raven and
Squibb-Taylor specified parts to repair implement
components originally supplied by Great Plains. Many
common plumbing materials are incompatible with NH
3
.
Joint compounds must be specified as ammonia-resistant.
▲ Never mix anhydrous ammonia with other chemical liquids.
Reactions with many common materials can be violent
and/or produce highly toxic by-products.
▲ If a fire threatens an anhydrous ammonia tank, evacuate the
area. The tank may heat up faster than the relief valve can
vent the rising pressure, resulting in a catastrophic gas
release and possibly an explosion.
• Have documents required by law, liability carrier
rules and entity policy.
• Have MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and
supplier documents for the anhydrous ammonia.
• Have any manuals for the nurse tank.
• Have the applicator Operator manual.
• Have the ammonia meter operator manual (such as
the 016-0159-403 Raven AccuFlow™ Operator
manual).
• Have the coupler operator manual (such as the
FVC062 Squibb-Taylor Flo-Max manual).