Guest Blog,

You wouldn’t believe what I saw walking through a shop yesterday.

By Kelly Clark on on September 2, 2015

By Douglas Raff – Paragon Industrial Controls, Inc. It’s amazing to me how some companies can be at the very cutting edge of technology when it comes to the products they produce, yet produce them in a factory that was state-of-the-art in 1950. We were at just such a facility designing an interlocked enclosure for a hydraulic press currently using a dual palm station as the point-of-operation safeguard. Management had contacted OSHA’s consulting division to help them discover and mitigate hazards in the facility. This press was the only machine in this department identified by the OSHA consultant that needed additional safeguarding. Behind me was a line extruding ¼” alloy rod. The progression wasn’t fast, no quicker than a slow walk. But, as I was looking over the process, the operator picked up a hand-held, air-driven tool and turned himself into a human flying cut-off saw! Incredulously, he was keeping pace with the rod using an abrasive blade to cut pieces to length! Sparks were flying, chunks of saw blade and material was shooting every which-way. At least he was wearing eye protection. Whoever had come up with this process hadn’t thought much about the operator’s safety. I enquired as to whether what I was witnessing was an anomaly or standard practice. The answer I got (ugh!) was that this was his job, every day, all day. What were they thinking? Ergonomics aside, what about the trip hazard from the air line, what about danger to the operator’s fingers when he trips over that airline and loses control of the saw? The hazard list could go on, but you get the picture. My thoughts are that the entire operation could be eliminated (therefore mitigating the hazard by task elimination) with relatively simple automation probably financially justified in a year’s time. A saw could be mounted inside an enclosure and attached to a small shuttle that traveled with the extrusion. The flying bits could be contained, the point-of-operation protected, and the operator free to accomplish another task. It seems that when it comes to safety more often than not, manufacturers fall into the “we have always done it that way” rut, and need someone to come in and have a fresh look at how they are doing things. We recommend that manufacturers have a permanent risk assessment team continually looking at the tasks and hazards of every operation. That team best consists of upper management, floor supervision and/or maintenance personnel, machine operators, and experienced outside eyes. Who knows, they might even make things more efficient too. PARAGON INDUSTRIAL CONTROLS, INC. brings more than 30 years experience to the stamping and forming industry. We specialize in machine guarding, OSHA compliant control retrofits, custom designed automated systems, Quick-Die-Change systems, Tonnage and Production monitoring systems, robotic systems, and other production enhancing projects. It is our goal is to build, install, or sell products that are not only the safest in the industry, but also the most functional for your particular application.

You can see more from Douglas at FABTECH in Session F16: Press Brake Safeguarding: Changes to ANSI B11.3 on Monday, Nov. 09: 8 – 10 AM . Learn more here.

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You wouldn’t believe what I saw walking through a shop yesterday.

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