If you need to have welding work carried out at your industrial or manufacturing facility, you need to make sure you're taking adequate safety precautions. Welding is a key process for many industrial operations, but it can entail some safety hazards that you need to understand and minimize.
Fortunately, you can prevent safety hazards by avoiding the following six mistakes at your company's welding shop sites:
Ensure that those nearby are wearing safety gear
Safety gear needs to be worn by all those who will be working near welding work. Safety gear should include long sleeves and pants, helmets, high-top boots, and safety goggles. It's also a good idea to include ear protection because welding work can involve prolonged, loud noises.
Keep the work site organized
Clutter around a work site is dangerous when welding work is taking place. Any clutter can create tripping hazards. Also, clutter could create obstructions to welding work that can both reduce productivity and make accidents more likely.
Make sure to inspect the surrounding area and ensure that the area is thoroughly organized before welding work starts.
Provide for adequate ventilation
It's easy for toxic fumes to build up in an area where welding is taking place if that area isn't properly ventilated.
Welding work is often needed in confined spaces. You need to make sure that fresh air is coming in to these spaces and circulating around so that fumes that could potentially be harmful aren't building up and being inhaled by workers.
Tell those working in the area to avoid looking into the light
Looking directly into the flame that is produced by welding equipment can be damaging to the eyes. It's important to train those who need to work nearby where welding work is carried out, that they must not look into the welding arc's rays.
Keep flammable items away
Welding work will involve the production of flame and heat. Storing anything flammable in the areas where welding work is done will create a safety hazard. It's therefore important to store flammable items elsewhere when welding work is carried out.
Avoid puddles of water
Puddles of water around the work site can create an electrical hazard where welding work is being carried out. This is because a lot of electrical equipment is necessary to conduct welding work.
You should inspect the work site for puddles of water and get rid of any standing water in an area before welding work begins.
When you think about it, there are a lot of ways that manufacturing has improved over the years. For starters, it didn't used to be as safe as it is today, and people used to really struggle with various aspects of manufacturing, such as making products that are safe and useful. Additionally, making things used to take a lot longer, which raised prices. I started talking with different people about the benefits of modern manufacturing, and it was interesting to explore how much those simple improvements mattered in the long run. On this little blog, find out how to make manufacturing better than ever before, so you can create products people need.