Heavy metal fabrication is a risky line of work. Your work environment carries the ever-present risk of inflicting all manner of serious hazards on your workforce, whether burns from soldering and welding, cuts and abrasions from handling sharp metal, repetitive motion injuries or strains from handling materials, heat stress, or exposure to toxic chemicals.
Protecting your workers protects your operations—from efficiency losses, disruptions to your project timelines, employee motivation, and even legal liabilities. Read on to discover the importance of safety in metal fabrication environments and what you can do to ensure it in your work environment.
Why Worker Safety in Metal Fabrication Matters
For years, the manufacturing industry has been getting safer and safer, but the average industrial workplace still racks up around 67 total days of work missed due to workplace injuries.
Injuries on the job can carry high costs for both employers and employees alike. Injured workers struggle with the high costs of medical care, the psychological toll of potentially long recovery times, navigating insurance, and potential short- or long-term disabilities that may derail or even end their career in the trade.
On the other hand, employees have to contend with losing valuable expertise in their workplace when injury forces valuable workers out and getting projects back on track without overshooting budget or deadlines after a safety incident. Furthermore, if the workplace hazard that led to the injury can be traced back to employer negligence, the employer could be on the hook to cover the costs of medical care and damages.
Best Practices for Steel Fabrication Hazard Prevention
Roughly one in three workplace injuries happen to first-year employees, which means two in three workplace injuries happen to experienced workers who know their way around their work environment and understand the risks. The truth is that workplace injuries can happen to anyone, regardless of experience. However, as long as you take the proper steps to ensure safety in metal fabrication environments, you can massively decrease your risks and protect both your employees and your business from harm.
Risk mitigation best practices in heavy metal fabrication include:
Wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
Wearing appropriate PPE is absolutely essential to protect workers from environmental hazards. PPE includes eye and face protection, hand and foot protection, head protection, and full-body protection. PPE is rigorously tested and certified for specific workplace hazards.
Always make sure the PPE used in your work environment is specifically selected for the tasks at hand. For example, certain types of heat-resistant gloves may be appropriate for soldering but not for welding, and certain types of eye protection may protect against flying particles but not the harsh lights produced by a welding arc.
Hazard Communication
A keen eye and constant vigilance is the key to ensuring worker safety in metal fabrication processes. Everybody needs to know how to identify potential hazards in the workplace, such as sharp edges, moving machinery, chemicals, and noise, and steer clear of them.
Employees also need to be rigorously trained to not just recognize but handle hazardous materials. Your operations should include thorough guidelines for lifting, material handling, welding, cutting, and grinding to minimize risks of injuries.
Workplaces should also be kept clean and organized, with hazardous areas clearly marked out, to prevent slips and falls and ensure employees know when their adherence to safety best practices is especially important.
Ensuring Machine Safety
All machinery used on site should be regularly inspected and maintained to ensure it functions smoothly and with minimal risk of malfunctions. Employees should be thoroughly trained on safe machinery operation and should know how to shut down their machinery in an emergency situation to prevent or mitigate injury.
Ventilation and Air Quality
Respiratory irritants make up some of the most pernicious safety hazards in industrial workplaces. Welders in particular are most at risk to harmful particles in the air, which can lead to a health condition known as “welder’s anthrax.”
Exposure to fumes and dust can both make workers ill or make it easier for other illnesses to affect them. Placing fume extractors and appropriately designed ventilation systems near welding and cutting areas removes these harmful particles from the air before they can end up in your workers’ lungs.
Fire Prevention and Handling
Fire hazards can cause severe injury as well as damage to equipment, jeopardizing your investments in both human and technological resources. Make sure flammable materials are stored properly and away from heat sources, and provide thorough training to your workers on how to respond to industrial fires to minimize risks of injury and disruption.
Noise Control and Reduction
Risk mitigation best practices for steel fabrication workplaces also includes managing noise pollution. Heavy metal fabrication is noisy work—and constant exposure to loud, intense sounds can lead to hearing loss, stress, sleep disturbances, and other health issues. The World Health Organization (WHO) establishes internationally recognized guidelines for limiting exposure to noise levels exceeding 85 decibels.
Protecting workers from noise includes providing industrial-grade ear protection, as well as implementing noise reduction measures such as acoustic covers and barriers that block and absorb sound.
Preventing safety incidents is essential to maintaining efficient and profitable heavy metal fabrication operations. By following these relevant safety tips, steel fabrication businesses protect themselves and their workers.
Applying International Safety Standards to Heavy Metal Fabricators
To ensure safe work environments, heavy metal fabricators can look to ISO 45001, another internationally recognized standard for occupational health and safety management systems (OHSMS). While you might not need to be an ISO 45001 certified work environment, you can use its standards as a guideline to raise the bar for metal fabrication safety:
- Involve workers in safety decisions and risk assessments
- Conduct regular safety meetings and open communication channels
- Identify and assess risks associated with heavy metal fabrication
- Implement control measures to mitigate risks and maintain detailed assessment records
- Ensure compliance with local regulations on hazardous materials, noise, and air quality
- Provide regular training on PPE use, emergency response, and equipment operation
- Establish clear emergency response procedures for fires, chemical spills, and injuries and conduct regular emergency drills
American Stainless: Raising the Bar for Quality and Safety
ISO 9001 certified metal suppliers have their own oft-overlooked role to play in ensuring safety in metal fabrication environments. Using high-quality materials that meet industry standards helps ensure the safety and integrity of both the manufacturing process and the final product. Defective or low-grade materials can lead to structural weaknesses, malfunctions, or even product failures–increasing the risk of accidents and costly rework during fabrication and construction.
By connecting pipe fabricators across the US Southeast to high-quality PVF materials, American Stainless promotes safety and quality in your operations. We go above and beyond ISO 9001 to ensure the highest standards of product and service quality. To access a vast supply of quality stainless steel pipe, tube, and structural materials from leading manufacturers, contact us today for a quote.
Request a Quote now to get started and give your next project the support it needs.