Most of today’s advanced & computer-controlled industrial processes involve large amounts of energy and have the potential for devastating accidents. So a well-engineered & reliable industrial safety system is essential for protection against those accidents and loss of life.

The safety movement was initially started in 1912 with the first cooperative safety congress and the organization of the national safety council of the USA.

What is Industrial Safety?

As per Wikipedia :

“An industrial safety system is a countermeasure crucial in any hazardous plants such as oil and gas plants and nuclear plants. They are used to protect humans, industrial plants, and the environment in case of the process going beyond the allowed control margins.”

In simple words:

“The management of all operations and procedures in an industry in order to protect its employees and assets by minimizing hazards, risks, accidents, and near misses” called the Industrial Safety.”

Why industrial safety is necessary?

The thousand of industrial accidents every year caused the realization of the importance of industrial safety with technological advancement in manufacturing. The dangers of human life are increasing day by day.

In order to avoid accidents, employees must be aware of industrial safety principles & danger areas of that industry. The following are some reasons why Industrial safety is necessary:

  • For the safety of people in their workplaces
  • For protecting the environment against damage from industrial accidents
  • For protecting businesses against serious losses from damage to plant and machinery
  • For eliminating accidents causing work stoppage and production loss.
  • For creating awareness of the good practices available for the delivery of effective safety instrumented systems
  • For providing basic training in well-established techniques for engineering of safety systems
  • For assisting engineers and technicians to support and participate in the safety systems activities at their work with good background knowledge of the subject
  • For being aware of what can go wrong and how to avoid it.

Because of safety first rule, all industrial personals must be trained enough about safety aspects of man, machines, and material & other infrastructure facilities for avoiding minor or major accidents. Safety is the first requirement and every industrial employee must learn safety measures even before he starts working on a machine or equipment.

industrial safety

Objectives of Industrial Safety

A practical goal of industrial safety is to lighten the environmental impact on the manufacturing unit and each person and the role of the industrial safety professionals is to find leverage or opportunities for considerable improvement using practical effort. The objectives of industrial safety systems are as follows:

  • Industrial safety is needed to check all the possible chances of accidents for preventing loss of life and permanent disability of any industrial employee, any damage to machine and material.
  • It is needed to eliminate accidents causing work stoppage and production loss.
  • It is needed to reduce workman’s compensation, insurance rate, and all the cost of accidents.
  • It is needed to achieve better morale among industrial employees.
  • It is needed to increase production means to a higher standard of living.
  • It is needed to prevent accidents in the industry by reducing any hazards.

Planning of Industrial Safety

In industries, the no. of fire hazards, accidents, industrial disasters may be reduced through careful safety planning. All those unfortunate events can be avoided by effective planning for safety. Some important considerations for industrial safety are the following:

  1. Proper Plant Layout
  2. Proper Fire Prevention system
  3. Health & Hygiene
  4. Proper Safety Training
  5. Proper Alarms And warning systems
  6. Appropriate sensors and safety gears for employees
  7. Sufficient lighting in the work area as well as the pathways
  8. Cleanliness & dryness of shop floor
  9. Proper pressure gauges and other safety equipment
  10. Electrically insulation
  11. Proper signboards for safety instructions

COMMON SOURCES OF ACCIDENTS

Accidents take place unexpectedly causing injury & loss of men, machines, materials of that industry. Revolving, rotating, and moving parts of machines may be the sources of danger and require guarding for protection against accidents and Many such major sources are following.

  • Low light machine operation areas.
  • Revolving parts like pullies, flywheels, wheels, fans, gears, gear trains, gear wheels, etc.
  • Intermittent feed mechanisms like tool feed of planer, table feed of a shaper, ram feed of power presses, and similar other applications.
  • Revolving shafts, spindles, bars, mandrels, chucks, followers, and tools like drills, taps, reamers, milling cutters, and boring tools, etc.
  • Rotating worms and spirals enclosed in casings, such as in conveyors and revolving cutting tools, like milling cutters, circular saw blade, saw band, circular shears, and grinding wheels, etc.
  • Reciprocating tools and dies of power presses, spring hammer, drop hammers, and reciprocating presses, knives, and saw blade such bow saw, shearing and perforating machines and the cutting and trimming machine and power hacksaws, etc.
  • Electrical wires, switches, motors & control panels.
  • Oily & wet and dirty shop floor.
  • Moving weights, such as in hydraulic accumulator or in slotting machines for counter-balance.
  • Nips between racks and pinions of machine parts
  • Nips between reciprocating parts and fixed components, such as between shaper table and the fixture mounted on it or a planer table and table reversing stops, etc.
  • Nips between crank handle for machine controls and fixed parts.
  • Projecting sharp edge or nips of belt and chain drives; via a belt, pulleys, chains sprockets, and belt fasteners, etc.
  • Cutting edges of endless band cutting machines, woodworking, and log cutting metal find stone-cutting band saws, cloth-cutting band knives, etc.
  • Pressure containers like pneumatic cylinders, boilers, etc.

Industrial Accidents and Their Types

There are various types of common accidents as follows:

Near Accident: Accidents with no damage or injury are called near-accidents.

Trivial: An accident with very little damage is called trivial.

Minor Accident: It is an accident with damage and injury more than trivial.

Serious Accident: An accident with heavy damage and a lot of injuries is called Serious Accidents.

Fatal: It is an accident with very heavy damage. There may be a loss of lives also.

3 Causes of Accidents

The accidents may take place due to the three following causes:

  1. Human Causes
  2. Mechanical Causes
  3. Environmental Causes

Human Causes

Very common human causes for accidents are as follows:

  • Operating or working at an unsafe speed.
  • Working on unsafe or dangerous equipment or machinery.
  • Operating machines without knowledge, without safety precautions, or without safety devices.
  • Working for a long duration of work.
  • Use of improper tools.
  • Working with mental worries, ignorance, carelessness, nervousness, dreaming, etc.

Mechanical Causes

Very common mechanical causes of accidents are as follows:

  • Use of unguarded or improper guarded machines or equipment.
  • The use of old, poorly maintained or unsafe equipment may result in accidents.
  • Improper material handling system and improper plant layout.
  • Not using safety devices such as helmets, goggles, gloves, masks, etc.

Environmental Causes

Very common mechanical causes of accidents are as follows:

  • Working at improper temperature and humidity causes fatigue to the workers for chances of accidents.
  • he presence of dust fumes and smoke in the working area.
  • Poor housekeeping, congestion, blocked exits, bad plant layout, etc.
  • Inadequate illumination.
  • Improper ventilation may also lead to industrial accidents.
  • Lack of cleanliness.

Scope of Industrial Safety training for workers

Understanding of the Importance of Workplace Safety instructions

Workers, machine operators, and other employees should need to know & understand all the safety instructions. They should also understand how a work-related injury can affect their lives. Safety instructions boards must be placed in an appropriate location in order to everybody who enters the workplace can read it first.

Identifying Workplace Hazards

There are a lot of visible and hidden hazards that can cause accidents. So every worker or employee should need to have a concrete understanding of the types of hazards that exist in the workplace and how to recognize them. Key hazards include machinery; spares, vehicles; electrical hazards; noise, chemicals, stress, and ergonomic hazards, which can all be presented in a visible or hidden form.

Understand How to Reduce Risk

Every machine operator or worker must be trained to reduce accident risk. They should learn to connect hazards and hazard controls, like sensors, alarms, machine guards, and fire extinguishers. They should always use personal protective equipment like safety shoes, glasses, gloves, etc.

How to React in an Emergency

Even if all of the other hazards they may be exposed to are adequately controlled, workers may face emergencies at work right alongside their non-disabled coworkers. They need to know how to recognize an emergency and must be trained in emergency procedures.

Responsibilities at Work

Every employee and workers need to know that they are responsible for knowing and following all safety and health rules and safe work practices, reporting all injuries, using the safety gear that’s provided for them, and reporting any unsafe conditions that they see.

Reporting the Problems at Work

Once they know how to identify workplace hazards or other safety-related problems, employees must share that information with a responsible officer like a supervisor other individuals who are responsible for solving safety problems.

Conclusion

The safety and productivity of people, machines, and processes is a key element of any sustainable business. Industrial safety systems have been used for many years to perform safety functions in the manufacturing industries. In most situations, safety is best achieved by inherently safe process design, Protection layer systems such as sensors, alarms, and personal protection equipment.

These may be combined with protective systems to address any residual identified and counter risk. Protective systems can rely on different technologies such as chemical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, electrical, electronic, and programmable electronic.

Companies and the operators who manage their production facilities demand the highest level of safety. This high level of safety helps protect personnel, the environment, and assets while maintaining maximum uptime and minimal operational disruption.

2 Comments

  1. This information found me when I needed it the most,thank you so much

  2. R J Kularni says:

    Sir Very good and nice information Thanks .

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