William McEwan at Rio Tinto
William a mechanical engineering student, took a PEPS placement at Coal & Allied, part of the Rio Tinto Group, in the Hunter Valley. His project was to design a mobile plant dynamic brake testing procedure ready for implementation.
This was an important piece of work for the company as Rio Tinto Coal Australia’s current brake testing procedure only included stationery brake test, while the new Australian Standard for brake systems states that dynamic brake testing must also be undertaken.
William had to first investigate the requirements of the standard in order to design a procedure ready for implementation. The resulting procedure had not only to confirm to government rules and regulations, but also to Rio Tinto’s own Safework Procedures.
William found that he had to do a lot of talking and liaising with a lot of different people from government officials to operators and management. He was able to come up with a procedure and training programme for operators that the company was able to incorporate into their working systems.
For William it was a great experience. He found that he was able to get so much more of his learning by being on site. “It is the best thing I have done on my course, and my grades have improved too”, he said. For William it also reaffirmed his desire to become an engineer, so much so that he accepted a graduate position with Rio Tinto.
