Guardian is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of float glass and fabricated glass products and the largest producer of mirrors. They also manufacture and supply the automotive industry with a variety of exterior products; are a significant player in the building materials distribution business and a major manufacturer of fibreglass insulation. One of their plants is the advanced Float Glass plant in Goole, Met Consultancy Group (Met) were contracted to undertake stockpile surveys of the raw materials used at the plant for glass production.
Amongst the various types of silica sand were stockpiles of crushed used glass for recycling into new glass products. The stockpiles are contained within a relatively small area and turnover of raw/recycled materials is high.
Surveys are undertaken using one man Total Stations with the surveyor walking around the stockpiles taking 3 dimensional measurements. In more awkward or potentially dangerous areas the instrument can be used in laser mode to survey points across the stockpile without the need to physically walk on the material. This also avoids any potential contamination of material by the surveyor.
The end product is a stockpile 3D drawing and a calculated volume of material in each stockpile, which can be presented in spreadsheet format for regular comparisons or monitoring of stock levels and turnover.
Met have also undertaken survey and volume calculations, for soil, coal, gravel, grain stockpiles and on landfill sites.