Project Postcards - Brazil

Otto Simon • November 9, 2023

In the first of our 'Project Postcards' series, Otto Simon's E&I Engineer, Dennis McGlynn, recounts his recent visit to NSG’s C4 Glass Furnace in Brazil to provide site-based E&I services:

With a series of quick transfers from Manchester, to Frankfurt, to Sao Paulo—including being driven across the runways in Frankfurt in what appeared to be a brand-new Porsche 4x4 in order to make the connection—I knew my luggage wasn't going to follow me to Navegantes. Unfortunately, that meant my PPE didn’t follow me either. 


No matter, when I arrived on site the following day, the client was kind enough to loan me a some hi-vis and a pair of boots, that were just a size too small (which wasn’t a problem until around 2pm when my feet started to feel the pinch). 

After the normal site inductions took place, I was free to survey the site and assess what was appropriate for the Bath and Lehr Heating system that had been serving the C4 plant for some 15 years. My first impression was that the site was tremendously clean in spite of the mass of construction work; a credit to those working at the site. 


It became clear that a total cable and equipment disassembly was required to check, test, and judge how much of the existing cabling, transformers and secondary cabling could be re-used. It was a task for more than just one man and the client’s team helped with the disassembly—even still, I was aching the next day from using muscles I never knew I had!

At one point, I thought someone must have switched the furnace on, it was so hot—but on the contrary, it was just a normal day in Barra Velha! 

The team at the C4 site are just great. Despite the language barrier they oozed friendliness and good humour. What impressed me the most was the immediate shaking of hands each morning, even though we had only chatted the evening before, and again after lunch there was the normal show of this friendliness. It took me by surprise for the first few days, before I pleasantly accepted it as the norm. It’s the most outward show of friendliness I’ve experienced between the different places I’ve worked, and it will never be forgotten.

 

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