Page 16 - MetalForming November 2014

Safety Update
Keep Personal-Protection Equipment Close to Work Centers
Every year, Kimberly Clark Professional surveys manufactur- ers on their employees’ use of personal protective equipment (PPE), regarded one of the most challenging issues when it comes to work- place safety. Cited as the most common excuses for noncompliance:
Scenario 1: The worker opts not to go for the glasses, and instead decides to continue working. The employee is in non- compliance and risks a potential injury. And, if an OSHA inspec- tor happens to arrive that day, fines will be levied—injury or not.
• Uncomfortable
• Too hot
• Blamed for decreased productivity or an inability to perform
Scenario 2: The worker is injured on the job as a result of not wearing the glasses, and misses time on the job for rehabilitation. Here, the employer has one less worker, faces fines from OSHA and experiences lost productivity.
tasks
• Unavailable near the work task
• Ill-fitting
• Unattractive
Respondents cite eye protection and gloves as the two most
Scenario 3: The worker stops what he is doing and makes the time-wasting walk to the tool crib for safety glasses. The employ- er avoids fines, but productivity suffers. What if this happens sev- eral times per week? Maybe the next time it’s for a new pair of gloves, or maybe ear protection. And what if this happens with sev- eral employees throughout the week?
challenging PPE to wear. In addition, keeping PPE near the work task will avoid the need for workers to have to stop what they are doing to go to a centralized tool crib or cabinet to find the PPE item they need to get back on the job.
The solution, says Grainger, is point-of-use storage (vending machines) on the floor to give workers immediate access to the PPE they need to work efficiently and safely. It notes that vending- machine use in plants has more than doubled in recent years. Grainger: www.grainger.com
block for generic serial robots that makes it possible to configure any type of kine- matic chain. This removes any restric- tions on specific types of robots and allows users to define and configure their own customized kinematic systems with as many as 11 separate joints. It also is pos-
A write-up on Grainger.com presents three scenarios that can play out when manufacturers fail to locate PPE (safety glasses, in this case) close to the job site.
Wet Collector for Combustible Dust
Micro Air HydroMax dust collectors from Micro Air Clean Air Systems, Wichita, KS, are designed to address the risk of dust explosions in manufacturing plants, and related OSHA and NFPA regulations. These
new HydroMax wet collectors feature engi- neered water streams to drop out and filter the combustible dust, containing it in the bottom of the collector for safe removal at necessary intervals.
14 MetalForming/November 2014
www.metalformingmagazine.com
Options include a downdraft-table attachment, vacuum attachment, 99.97- percent DOP (dispersed oil particulate) HEPA after-filter and powered sump fan. Micro Air Clean Air Systems: www.microaironline.com
Monitor all Serial Robot Types in a Safety Application
sible to include as many as 20 joint cou- plings with coupling factors, allowing users to incorporate mechanical couplings between individual axes.
By extending the safety function safe- ly limited speed at tool centerpoint (SLS at TCP), B&R Industrial Automation Group, Roswell, GA, has made it possible to mon- itor the full spectrum of serial robot types in a safety application. This is a significant advancement of the function first intro- duced in 2011, which already has allowed safe monitoring of all joints on a six-axis articulated-arm robot.
Data transfers via the fieldbus-inde- pendent openSafety protocol, giving users the freedom to choose the control system that best fits their needs. The safety func- tions themselves are executed directly on the drives.
To take advantage of this extended functionality, B&R offers a parameter
B&R Industrial Automation Group: www.br-automation.com