2019 wasn’t exactly a banner year for the trucking industry. From trade deals gone awry to an unexpected tariff war to driver shortages and regulation changes, the industry grappled with a host of challenges—some predicted, some not. Combined, these issues led to around 640 trucking companies filing for bankruptcy in the first half of 2019 alone. The year ended on a somber note, with heavy-hitter Celadon closing its doors as the biggest bankruptcy in trucking history.
Did you know the average Switzerland resident eats more than 47 pounds of cheese every year? The Swiss are some of the top cheese-eaters in the world, but their cheesy love affair falls short of the French, who lead the world in cheese consumption with an astounding 57 pounds per person annually. Where do Americans fall on the scale? We manage a respectable 40 pounds over the course of a year, giving us plenty of room for improvement—and more cheddar.
If you’ve ever been on a worksite where a pressurized air hose suddenly becomes disconnected or a hose failure occurs, it’s not something you want to experience again. The quick exhaust of air causes the hose assembly to whip around violently, creating a potentially dangerous situation for all those around, not to mention the possibility of damaging equipment.
When using a portable air compressor on a worksite, what component should (almost) always be part of the job? The answer is a safety check valve (SCV), properly installed between the compressor and the hose. In fact, if your air hose has an inside diameter of more than a ½ inch, OSHA requires a SCV to be installed at the source of the air supply to shut off the air automatically in case of hose failure. (If a check valve is not being used, OSHA requires a safety cable, such as Dixon’s King™ safety cable, to be attached to the hose.) But selecting the right safety check valve is an important but often times confusing task. There are many factors that play into that decision: air pressure, tool flow rate, compressor flow rate, the size of your hose, and the length of your hose, among them. Here’s a quick guide to helping make that decision an easier one.
One of my favorite quotes/speeches comes from our 26th President of the United States, Teddy Roosevelt. His “man in the arena” speech was given after he left the Presidency in 1910 during a visit to Paris. It is too long to recite in its entirety here, but it begins like this:
Ah, the simple joys of summer: warm evenings on the back patio with friends, fresh tomatoes on a BLT, and the sweet smell of chlorine after a long afternoon at the local pool—it doesn’t get much better than that. But that pool-perfume we associate with swimming has more applications than just summertime fun. In fact, chlorine is a fascinating chemical, essential to everyday life, and used in the production of everything from life-saving medication to the phone in your hand.
Hold on to your swim caps—let’s dive in.
To some, scientific terms like “polymer” and “biopolymer” may seem intimidating. They have the power to take us back to high school chemistry class or may cause us to tune out. On the other hand, words like “carbs” or “proteins” are easy, every-day ideas. They spark visions of bagels and roast beef sandwiches—tangible, straight-forward, edible words—and we feel confident in our knowledge of these concepts.
Here’s the good news: there’s no need to be intimidated by science jargon—you’re already familiar with biopolymers. Those carbohydrates, proteins, and starches that you know so well are all types of biopolymers, and we interact with them every day.
So what exactly is a biopolymer? The word itself is a combination of two ideas, “bio” and “polymer,” so let’s break down those concepts.
In Part 1 of this blog, we dove into airport fueling systems including what a fueling system is, best options based on the size of an airport, and how a freight-based operator (FBO) operates - read that post here. Now, we continue with a focus on specific topics that help us understand this area in more detail.
It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… an airport fueling system?
Most of us have never given airport fueling systems a second thought, yet anyone who has traveled by plane owes them a debt of gratitude.
Not surprisingly, filling an airplane with fuel isn’t as simple as pulling into a gas station and filling up the tank. Fuel systems are complicated and intricate, but they play a vital role in the transport of mail, imported goods, and human beings across the globe. While they’re not exactly Superman, fueling systems might just be the unsung heroes of the skies.
It wasn’t so long ago that two thirty-somethings stood on a beach near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, witnessing the first powered flight in the history of the world. The year was 1903: Wilbur Wright was airborne for roughly three seconds. A century later, homosapiens have been transformed from a species incapable of flight to one that has walked on the moon--it’s hard to imagine so much innovation in only a few generations.