Workshop safety concept || What you need to know before working in an Engineering Workshop.

Safety in all workshop is one of the first area that should be address before the workshop start to operate. All safety sign and caution has to put up in all necessary area. It is important to follow the safety rules because it reduce the number of accident in the workshop.

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Concept of an accident in a workshop.

An accident can be define as a disaster which usually result to injury to humans, machine, equipment or tools leading to a loss. The injuries may be minor or significant and if it minor it is termed non-reportable but if significant it is reportable. You should always focus while working with a machine or device especially once with exposes moving part.

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Common causes and sources of accidents in the workshop.

About 98% of all accident in the workshop can be prevented if due precautions is taken in time. It is believed that accidents do not just happen, it always due to the failure of one element and mostly it due to human error. The common causes that often lead to accidents in the workshop are violation of safety rules, unsafe working positions, improper or defective tools usage and non-observant of safety precautions. Now some of the sources of accident in the workshop are:

• Revolving cutting tools and saw blades.
• Projected fasteners on revolving parts.
• Grinding wheels and stone.
• Revolving drums, spiked cylinder and crushers.
• Reciprocating knives and saw blades used for cutting.
• Revolving shafts, spindles, bars and tools like drills.
• Intermittent feed mechanisms.

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Common method to prevent accident in the workshop.

There are many safety measure that can be employ to prevent accidents in the workshop and some of them are:

• Safety using Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).

These are mostly in form of clothing which are expected to be worn at all time in the workshop. PPE is very important in the workshop and it can prevent a life threatening injury that can terminate or reduce the quality of affected worker or operator. PPE that should be always on anyone in the workshop are helmet, overall and safety boots. Other that should use when working are safety goggles, ear covers, nose mask, face shield and knee pads and others.

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• Safety by construction.

One of the major task when designing a machine or equipment is how safe it is and how safe it should be. All dangerous part are expected to be enclosed in a suitable housings or with a proper safety guard away from the operator. This will reduce the probability of an operator or worker coming in contact with these dangerous parts. An example of such part is the belt drive in a threshing machine.

As seen above the dangerous moving part is enclosed.
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• Safety by position.

When designing a machine all dangerous part should be place as far away from human contact as possible. This process is advisable because these dangerous part cannot be seen and all possibility of accident is limited.

These are the components of a typical car engine and it so far away from the drive most car users have not seen it before that is an example of safety by position
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• Safety by using Interlock guard.

This is a simple method of protecting the person operating a machine and the principle is to use an interlock guard to lock all dangerous parts of a machine and this has been a very efficient and sound method and another additional features is that the device or machine will not work if the interlock guard is removed or out of place.

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• Safety using distance guards.

The principle here is that a distance guard such as fence made of bars is used to distance the worker from the dangerous part of a machine. By doing this, the operator will not be able to get close even by chance.

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Conclusion

Safety in the workshop is a very important aspect that need to be taken seriously because not only you will be endangering your life but the lives of other working in the workshop as well. The first things when you find yourself working in a workshop is to learn all the safety rules and abide by it.

Thank you all for reading.