How To Improve Welding Safety – 12 Ways

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Welding is a crucial part of many workspaces around the world. As a daily and often repetitive task, it is easy to get used to doing it and forget that you’re dealing with a tool powerful enough to be worthy of ancient legends. It is a constant blast of precise dragon fire, thousands of degrees hot and capable of melting flesh and bones in seconds. Needless to say, you don’t want to be careless around that stuff. So here are some welding safety tips.

1 – Safety Culture

Safety starts with workspace culture. One individual can forget stuff and be careless from time to time, but if everyone around that person is also worried about safety, any mistakes are much more likely to be caught. Be sure everyone in the workspace is educated about welding safety and keeps it in mind.

2 – Work Space

The area around any welding station should have only the tools required for the job, and nothing else. Be especially mindful of anything flammable in the vicinity.

3 – Cover Up

Sparks fly and their direction can’t always be controlled. Any exposed skin is vulnerable skin — be sure to cover up in fire resistant fabrics, including pants and a shirt or jacket that’s right for the job.

4 – Proper Gloves

Covering up means gloves too. Look not only for gloves that can withstand the heat but also for ones that fit your hand well, so you don’t have your own gloves making your work harder.

5 – Proper Shoes

Leather is the classic option, but there are other fire-proof materials out there. Keep shoelaces in mind too, they can also catch fire.

6 – Head Protection

Special maks and helmets are a given, most welders know not to let their face exposed. But your ears also need protection from the loud and frequent noises that may come with the job. Even if the sound doesn’t seem like a big deal over an hour or a day, the damage to your ears can accumulate over decades. Always wear ear plugs or muffs.

7 – Eyes Protection

Your eyes also need special care, as welding can produce light in different colors depending on what kind of materials you are working with. The tinted lenses on the protective eyewear need to counter the specific light being produced by the job at hand. If you don’t want to worry about having the right lens for the job all the time, there are auto-darkening helmets available in the market.

8 – Fire Safety

All the safety in the world may not prevent fires from starting. Welding workspaces should always have working fire protection systems, which generally means sprinklers; as well as fire extinguishers available.

9 – Everybody Loves Manuals

The user manual of the torch is your friend when it comes to safety. There may be specific measures and cares necessarily to handle your equipment. Make sure anyone who’s going to be working with the equipment has read the manual.

10 – Air Quality

Fumes produced from welding work are often toxic. The workspace should be well ventilated, and filtering masks are worn when necessary.

11 – Fixturing Equipment

Have fixturing equipment in your workspace, and use it whenever possible. It saves time on having rotated the component manually, and it is safer.

12 – Enforcing Safety

Reminders, training programs, and posters on the wall may not be enough to guarantee a good safety culture in the environment. If you’re the boss and you don’t feel like your employees are worried about it enough, consider enforcing safety more directly by either rewarding the employees who do it well or directly punishing people who fail to care about safety too often. After all, if something goes go wrong, there is no guarantee that the one in the wrong will be the only one suffering the consequences.

And where can you get all that safety equipment? Right here on weldingoutfitter.com. Their shop offers plenty of safety materials, they can help complete your kit of safety materials.