Rooftop Fall Protection: Matalco’s One-Month Installation

0:00 – Intro

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0:11 – An Introduction to Matalco

Here at Matalco in Lordstown, we’re an aluminum casting facility. We also recycle aluminum. Here, we get that metal, we melt it down, we’ll alloy it. We run about 20 different grades here, and that’s one of the good things about aluminum is that we can change it to whatever we need and whatever the customer needs. After we melt it down, we put it through the casting process. And we go anywhere between 6,500 millimeters up to 7,900 millimeter long logs.

0:38 – Matalco’s top-down focus on Safety

Matalco, from the top down, has made the initiative to change our safety culture. They’re letting us pretty much have free range to get this company where it needs to be for its employees.

0:53 – Matalco’s Rooftop Height Hazard

One of the things that came to light quick and had to be handled quickly was fall protection on our roof. We had stack testers coming in, and they do a stack test up on the roof with no fall protection. We do have sheet metal roofing. It is at a slight grade. And in January, it was time for us to do another stack test and they said, “Hey, before we do anything else, I need you to make sure you got fall protection up here for my guys.” We reached out to Mazzella, called them in, they were quick to respond. Two days later, they’re on site looking at what I needed them to look at, and they come up with this SafeTrack idea.

1:24 – Mazzella’s one month time table

The challenge with this project was we had to have it done in one month, which required that we consult a professional engineer to have drawings stamped, fabricated, and then have the TravSafe lifeline installed. We worked with Caleb Schwan at Matalco, and Wayne Darr, and we got it done. Caleb was very accessible. So, anything that we needed from installation to access, to when the equipment was delivered, he was right on top of it. He actually helped us get the project done on time.

1:51 – Success Through Collaboration

Within that month window, we had to get all the supplies and everything like that. They had to weld onto structural beams, to get it all up there. They even came up with a solution that I wasn’t sure about. One issue is that I have lanyards and harnesses for my guys, but I had nothing to go out the 30-40 foot for the people to do the work. And they came up with the 50-foot yo-yo, which I think is great. We have two of them up there, they stay up there constantly. You go out, the only way to come back in, they got to be right where you enter the roof at. So, it’s a good system, and they were able to get them here ASAP for the stack test, and the next week we had that stack test. I think they finished up on like the 25th, and we had the stack test come in on the 29th. Projects like this live and die on collaboration. And if upfront, that you get information from the customer and you’re able to to talk to them about the hazard and exactly how it’s going to be controlled or eliminated and really what we’re doing and being precise, that really cuts down the time.

3:00 – Partnering with Mazzella for the Future

Our future with Mazzella, it’s promising. It really is. Because other companies that come in, they’re just not as personable, but also, they’re not as professional. We’re getting compliance in so many different areas so quick, that we plan on using them for our monthly inspections, quarterly inspections, annual inspections for all of our cranes, and it’s really nice to have that relationship, and here in Lordstown, they’re a real go-to for us.

3:27 – Closing

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