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Operators of facilities that generate dust during manufacturing processes often rely on high-efficiency cartridge-style dust collectors. Here are key actions to keep employees safe when operating an industrial dust collector.
Dust particles become airborne during indoor metalworking processes like welding and plasma cutting. They also become airborne during the manufacturing and processing of food, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and other dry products.
The potential for catastrophic injury when operating a hydraulic press is great. Its operation requires a worker to feed, position and remove stock in the area under the powerful ram or near the bending point, exposing him or herself directly to danger.
OSHA has cited Milwaukee Valve Company Inc. – based in Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin – for exposing employees to lead and copper dust at rates higher than the permissible exposure levels. The agency has proposed $171,628 in penalties to the industrial valve manufacturing company.
A new report from USA Today on Tesla’s “gargantuan” four-year-old battery factory in Nevada finds that worker injuries at the Gigafactory occur “on a routine basis: at least three a month.” OSHA inspectors were on-site more than 90 times in the facility’s first three years of operation.
At the start of September, the number of open jobs exceeded the number of active jobseekers for the 17th consecutive month—a record for the United States economy.
Gilster-Mary Lee Corp. of Steeleville, Illinois has been cited by OSHA for six safety violations including three willful after two maintenance employees conducting welding operations sustained serious burns to their upper bodies as the result of an explosion within a dust collector at the company's pasta manufacturing plant on Oct. 6, 2011.
The incident occurred as the two employees were repairing a hole in the side of a metal trough.
It was déjà vu all over again for Choice Products USA LLC. Back in 2016, the Eau Claire, Wisconsin cookie dough manufacturer had been cited by OSHA for a number of machine hazards that potentially exposed workers to hazardous energy.
During their latest inspection, OSHA found similar machine hazards, along with a host of others.
Automated equipment has transformed industrial production over the last 30 years and has been instrumental in accelerating production and efficiency in the sectors of manufacturing, construction and machining. This dynamic shift from human workers has resulted in the relegation of repetitive and labor-intensive tasks to machines while simultaneously freeing up humans to conduct higher level tasks. As industries begin to rely more heavily on automation, the general viewpoint is that increased automation is beneficial from both a productivity and safety perspective.
