VIDEO: TOOLING UP: Behind the Science of Spill Control

BOBBY ENNIS: You know, one of the biggest problems we see with the absorbent programs that companies have in place is that the spill kit is actually being used as a repository for people to use the materials as needed. And, you know, honestly, a spill kit should be looked at as like a first aid kit.

Narrator: This video is brought to you by Brady SPC. Innovative absorbent and spill control products you can rely on. If you're looking for real world insights, tips from leading industry experts, the latest trends in products and technology, you've come to the right place. From MSC Industrial Supply, this is Tooling Up.

TONI NEARY: Hello and welcome to Tooling Up. I'm your host, Toni Neary. Thanks for joining us today. We are so glad that you're here. Before we jump in with today's guest, I want to ask everybody to kind of warm up your clicking fingers. Go ahead and click those like and subscribe buttons. That way you won't miss a single upcoming episode of Tooling Up.

All right, everybody subscribed? Great. Let's get on with the show. Today I'm excited to be talking about absorbents and the importance of spill control with Bobby Ennis, who's the general manager at Brady SPC. Bobby, thanks for joining us and welcome to Tooling Up.

BOBBY ENNIS: Thanks, Toni. I'm excited to be here.

TONI NEARY: So before we get into the nitty gritty on absorbents, why don't you spill the tea, if you'll pardon the pun, about how you ended up in your career and in your role here with Brady?

BOBBY ENNIS: Yeah, absolutely. So, mechanical engineer by education. But oddly enough, I've always spent my professional career and roles in the environmental sector. So, before coming to Brady SPC, that focus was on creating large scale, highly engineered pieces of equipment that, contaminants out of the natural gas pipeline. We did it in such a way that you didn't require filters.

So we got to even, you know, remove hazardous waste contaminants from the landfill. And from there, went into the air pollution control industry, where we kept pollutants and VOCs and other contaminants out of the air. So always, you know, looking for ways to help protect the environment and help make sure that work areas and, and, you know, your local areas are free and clear of of pollutants and safe for everyone to enjoy.

TONI NEARY: And I think it's amazing. So the company has been around for over, well, 110 years. And I know that you mentioned when you joined Brady SPC, you went from creating high tech solutions to low tech, but it sounds like there's a lot more tech in some of the different products. And it even turns out there's a lot more tech than like a paper towel.

So can you tell me a little bit about the technology that goes into some of that spill cleanup?

BOBBY ENNIS: Yeah. So again, like I said, you know, the products I developed and managed in the past, they were, you know, real easy to see how much engineering went into those things. They were designed custom, for the application or for the customer need. And they were massive in scale. And now you're looking at a small product, you know, a small pad that, like I said, pretty underwhelming.

But that's honestly where, you know, Brady gets an advantage. We've got that backing of the, you know, high focus of R&D that Brady puts into everything that they do with over 250 engineers and chemists and 650 patents. The products are typically by nature hydrophobic. So you'll have an oil only pad that is only going to attract those hydrocarbons and those oils.

But then we get into adding colorants and what we call surfactants. So in industry standard, you'll have a gray pad that's used to absorb all different types of liquids. And it's great to indicate it's universal. And then you have a typically high-viz color. So we used yellow and green, but it's just a color that kind of stands out to grab attention, to let you know that the liquid that's being absorbed is probably not something you want to touch with your bare hand.

TONI NEARY: All right. So my mind is blown because that's a lot of science and technology. So this low tech really is not low tech at all. I mean, we're not talking about like a standard clean up in aisle 5, right?

BOBBY ENNIS: No we're not. Although I'd love to help clean up the spill on aisle 5. But, you know, like I said, the product configurations, they're designed for a reason. There's a purpose behind in the value proposition for everything that we do and every configuration that we have. So but when you start talking about the applications, like the open lathe operator, you know, you're going to have coolant spraying on it and you're going to get some of that overspray because of the turning metals, and it's just going to end up on the walking surface of the operator. So you would want to use a product that has kind of like a spun bond cover stock that gives it some durability and rigidness so that you can walk on it and not worry about tearing it up. And that's where the form factor of, you know, say, using a roll instead of a pad would come in handy. Because that's a large surface that the operators would be walking on.

You don't want multiple pads, you know, stacking up on each other, creating a trip hazard. You would just use a roll to create that long, uniform surface.

TONI NEARY: And so you've shown a couple of the pads and I know you have a few more examples there, but the pillows and socks are more like things I see strewn around my living room for my teenage kids. So, can you talk a little bit about the application and show us, like the pillows and the socks and the pads, and talk about the difference between how all of those would work or how they'd be used in action.

BOBBY ENNIS: So, you know, pillows, they look like exactly what you would think, nice comfortable pillows. Again, we do the color formations the same as we would with our pads, and they're intended to be used when, you know, you're going to have potential for drippage or a leak. So, you know, we will put these in spill kits.

But just by nature of using them on their own, it's, you know, putting them in a drip pan to put underneath a spigot, for example, so that if you're taking liquids out of a tote into a smaller container every now and then, those spigots leak just because of overuse. So you keep that there to keep and contain the liquids.

And then we've got the sock options, which are more like, you know, sausages. But these are mainly intended to be put around machines or equipment, kind of like barriers along the bottom footprint. So again, you might have a piece of equipment that's got some kind of a leak or something that could allow liquids to come out from underneath it into a walkway.

By putting this barrier up, you kind of keep all of that nice and tidy up underneath the equipment until either, you know, it's weekend shut down and you can remove the socks and put some absorbents underneath to clean it up or address what's causing the issue on your next maintenance cycle.

TONI NEARY: Perfect. And I think it's important that we touch on the kits as well because we talked about this before and you mentioned that there's kits, but sometimes people are just kind of taking pieces and parts out of that. Do you want to talk about how a kit's comprised and why it's created, and why you should have those on hand?

BOBBY ENNIS: Absolutely. Yeah. So, you know, one of the biggest problems we see with the absorbent programs that companies have in place is that the spill kit is actually being used as kind of like a repository for people to use the materials as needed. And, you know, honestly, a spill kit should be looked at as like a first aid kit.

So, you know, a lot environments or organizations, they'll have, you know, the cabinet of Band-Aids and aspirins or whatever right, but they also have emergency first aid kits that are meant for that quick response when something happens. And if you're pulling, you know, the band aids or the gauze out of that first aid kit, when something happens, you're stuck and you don't have what you need.

The spill kit's a lot the same way.

TONI NEARY: I have to say, Bobby, like, this has been such a great conversation because I know I've learned so much and hopefully everybody watching this has as well. I can't thank you enough for your time and your expertise. Your knowledge in this area is just absolutely mind blowing and I can't thank you enough.

BOBBY ENNIS: Oh, thank you for having me, Toni. It was a pleasure.

TONI NEARY: It was so great to hang out with Bobby today. And if you enjoyed our conversation as much as I did, and you want to make sure that you see all of our discussions like this, go ahead and click that subscribe button for our channel so you don't miss anything. To learn more about spill control and finding the right absorbents, go to www.mscdirect.com/bradyspc.

Thanks so much and we'll see you next time on Tooling Up.

Narrator: Want more insights and ideas to improve the efficiency and productivity of your operations? Check out the MSC Tooling Up video playlist to hear tips that can take your company to the next level, and subscribe to our channel so you won't miss out.