Steel Safety Tips

Safety Precaution Tips When Dealing with steel.

Installing Emergency Controls: For preventing any accidents, the hold-to-run and emergency termination controls must be installed in the sheet rolling machine.

Skilled and experienced operator: As with any other metal sheet forming process, the sheet metal rolling must be performed by experienced and certified personnel. As he knows the right way of handling the machine and is well aware of its hazards.

Conduct Regular Maintenance and Repair: There are many moving mechanical components in a metal rolling machine, which is prone to wear and tear after a certain period of time. Maintenance and repair can be performed for enhancing performance, however, it can also help prevent accidents. Therefore, here the repair and maintenance are a precaution.

Use Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): The operator must wear personal protective equipment (PPE) such as workshop aprons, gloves, protective headgear, and heat and spark resistance glasses, etc. The use of PPE is highly important to reduce the chances of an accident. Appropriate dressing is essential as loose clothing may get trapped in the rollers, or may be exposed to high temperature. To prevent operator accidents, PPE and clothing must be taken care of. Also, the operator must avoid wearing any loose or fancy jewelry when working with such equipment and sheet metal. This is because the loose jewelry may get entrapped in the equipment or may even melt due to increased temperatures, thereby causing accidents.

Safe Working Distance: The operator must work on the sheet metal rolling machine from a safe distance, especially while inserting a metal sheet between hot rollers. Since the machine consists of many moving mechanical components, the operator must not come in contact with any moving components.

Environmental Safety: The environment in the vicinity of the sheet metal rolling equipment must be well maintained. There shall not be any temperature reactive object or chemically reactive material in the vicinity, to prevent accidents.

Safety Precautions While Handling Sheet Metal

Taking care while handling the equipment is important, but care must be taken while working with the sheet metal. A few individual safety precautions while working with sheet metal are detailed as follows.

1. Prevention from cuts and lacerations: Sharp edges are one of the imminent dangers of working with sheet metal Most often the edges of the formed sheets are smoothened but during the fabrication process, the edges remain sharp. Therefore, the hot metal sheet can cut through the flesh of an operator and may cause open lacerations if not dealt with carefully. The operator must wear gloves and protective clothing to avoid running base skin on the metal sheets.
2. Prevention from Skin Burns: The metal sheets are thermally conductive. The sheet metal rolling also produces high temperatures. This may cause severe skin burns if the operator touches the sheet accidentally. The existence of an open flame near the sheet metal can also cause major accidents. Therefore, safe distance and appropriate PPE are the two precautions to prevent these hazards.
3. Prevention from Metal Dust: During sheet metalworking, the operators are always exposed to the risk of metal dust inhalation. All metalworking processes produce tiny toxic particles, which when inhaled may cause respiratory disorders. These metal dust particles may also cause abrasions when they come in contact with the operator’s skin. Therefore, the operators must wear preventive masks, as well as the workplace must be cleaned to remove the metal dust produced in the process. Like any sheet metal forming process, the sheet metal rolling must be performed in a place with sufficient ventilation. This will allow toxic fumes or dust particles to escape, and usher fresh air in the place. In addition to this, the work area must have exhaust fans and other necessary equipment needed to remove smoke or other toxic gases.