What are some metal fabrication safety tips?
- Wear the proper protective gear
- Make sure clothes are tight-fitting
- Conduct regular equipment inspection
- Keep work area organized
- Implement safety rules
- Train the workforce
In any project that involves metal fabrication, safety tips should be the priority. This activity entails risks that can cause physical harm, especially without the proper tools, training, and safety equipment. This is because personnel are handling different types of equipment and are oftentimes working with sensitive chemicals.
If you’re running a metal fabrication facility, it’s important that you keep in mind the following safety protocols: instruct employees to wear the proper protective gear, conduct regular equipment maintenance, keep the work area organized, and the like. Every day, prior to the start of manufacturing activities, your employees should be aware of how they can better ensure their safety while working with metals and various machining tools. Read on to learn more.
Wear The Proper Protective Gear
Most types of metal fabrication involve cutting, bending, and alternating the shape of metal products such as steel pipes, sheets, coils, strands, rebars, or what have you. Any of these activities could put the worker’s hand at risk and may even cause facial injuries if left unprotected.
Keeping this in mind, personnel should ensure that they’re wearing safety gear such as gloves, fire-rated clothing, earmuffs, safety boots, coveralls, respirators, earpieces, helmets, and the like. Before commencing work, every employee should be inspected if they have the right clothing equipment on their person. Likewise, the management should also see to it that the worksite or the facility has stocks of extra safety gear for good measure.
Make Sure Clothes Are Tight-Fitting
Aside from the protective gear, workers must wear clothes that are tight-fitting. Loose clothing can be dangerous because it can get trapped in heavy equipment. This could lead to a number of life-threatening injuries or even amputations in the worst-case scenario.
Aside from tight-fitting clothes, the management should also advise employees to remove any accessories like necklaces, watches, bracelets. Similar to loose clothing, these objects could get trapped in machinery as well. Aside from the inherent safety risks, these objects may even cause breakage to tools and equipment, which can be costly to repair.
As much as possible, accessories should be avoided altogether. Or, they could be removed and placed in lockers and safe boxes before starting work.
Conduct Regular Equipment Inspection
Before, during, and after the end of metal manufacturing, tools and equipment should be maintained and inspected — especially if these are automated. Regular inspection is not done only to ensure the quality and efficiency of the tools, but also to ensure they’re functioning properly when they’re in use.
For example, an angle grinder is a multipurpose tool that’s used to polish, grind, cut, shear, and deburr jagged metal surfaces. Angle grinders can be battery-powered or can be attached to a cord. Poor inspection of the components alone can already be grounds for potential accidents such as minor cuts, entanglement, or machine jams.
To maintain an angle grinder, the tool should be cleaned through air compression blowing or a light towel built for the tool. Each attachment and component should also be thoroughly inspected and run for at least a few minutes before use.
For other types of machinery, the user should always make sure that the instruction manual is handy. This is so that they can refer to any manufacturer maintenance or repair recommendations when using the machine.
Keep Work Area Organized
The fabricating facility itself should also be kept organized before the start of, and at the end of the day. Any hazards such as physical obstacles, faulty electrical wiring, poor lighting, or a grimy environment should be addressed. In this way, any accidents — be they minor or major — can be avoided altogether.
If personnel is working in different workstations, each location should be clean and free from any clutter. The workspace should be conducive and spacious enough to allow fabrication to comfortably take place. As much as possible, trash and other unwanted objects should be stored in the proper location or disposed of in a nearby waste bin.
Implement Safety Rules
Metal fabricators are no stranger to the risks involved in this trade, which is why they know all the safety risks and hazards that may happen to them. Similarly, managers also understand the risk that they’re putting the employees in. As such, they should be responsible for implementing safety rules and making sure that the employees are constantly reminded of these.
Employees should always be debriefed about the work that they will undertake. Apart from this, they should work in a facility where safety reminders are placed all throughout.
Train The Workforce
Operative employees are arguably the most important assets of any metal fabricating business. After all, they would be the ones undertaking manual labor and other kinds of work that can result in physical harm.
With this in mind, the business should invest in consistent training for the workforce. The industry is not fixed, meaning there are new technology and solutions that may be introduced over time. As part of embracing these innovative techniques, employees should also be informed and properly trained on how to approach them/make use of updated machinery.
Key Takeaway
Discussed in this article are just some of the crucial metal fabrication safety tips that should be followed for this kind of business. While the priority is to craft high-quality metal products for the end-consumers, none of it would be possible if the employees aren’t able to work in a safe environment.
If your business is in the metal-making trade, keep all of these safety tips and tricks in mind. You will not only see an improvement in your production processes, but you’ll also ensure that your most important assets are well-protected.
