Eyesight safety provision as well as wearing is a requirement under the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations.
Eyesight Protection needs to be employed around dangerous environments wherever there is actually a danger regarding projectiles harming the eyes.
Our own selection of Bolle and Peltor Safety Glasses fulfils the requirements associated with EN166, the European Norm with regard to Industrial Eye Protection. This not simply incorporates requirements with regard to liquids, airborne dirt and dust and molten metal protection but additionally impact performance with all of our Bolle and Peltor Safety Glasses ideal for withstanding low energy impact.
Bolle and Peltor Safety Glasses are only able to be offered as low energy impact eye protection. This is primarily because Safety Glasses sit on the wearer’s nose where almost all impact energy needs to be absorbed.
If greater impacts are anticipated then Safety Goggles as well as Safety Face shields will have to be considered.
Bolle Safety Glasses marked EN166 1F satisfy this particular requirement and are also optically correct consequently they might be worn for many hours with no danger associated with headaches.
Prior to you buying the kind of Safety Eyewear you need you'll want to initially think about the kind of hazard being encountered and the ideal type of eye protection suitable for that hazard.
Types of hazard:
Mechanical - Flying particles, airborne dirt and dust or even molten metal.
Chemical - Gases, fumes or perhaps liquid splash.
Radiation - Temperature (Infra-red), uv light or even glare.
Laserlight - Over a broad spectrum of wavelengths from Uv to Infra-red.
Category of eye protection:
Safety Glasses - Comfortable and offered in a number of designs are not going to keep out airborne debris, gas or even molten metal. Bolle designs are obtainable with prescription lenses.
Safety Goggles - Can offer protection for all those forms of hazards. May possibly be put on over spectacles.
Safety Face Shield - Protects the face area along with the eyes nonetheless will not keep out airborne dirt and dust or even gas. Comfortable to make use of for lengthy periods.
In cases where high-impact is anticipated then Safety Goggles or even Safety Face shields will be much more suitable as they distribute the actual force associated with the impact across the face instead of the nose which happens to be exactly what our Bolle and Peltor Safety Glasses accomplish.
Different shades of lenses are available for specialist sectors including Foundries, Glass working as well as with Welding. Bolle also have a comprehensive and high quality range of welding masks for this purpose.
Various lens shades may also improve eyesight with regard to jobs such as examination or low light conditions.
Showing posts with label eye protection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eye protection. Show all posts
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Thursday, 11 February 2010
Eye Protection for Welding
At Granite we have recently introduced a range of welding helmets and masks from Bolle for protection of the eyes when carrying out welding of all types. We also have Welding Safety glasses suitable for people who are walking through areas where welding is being carried out and for the welders when carrying out tasks when they are not using the masks, these offer protection against flying objects, see Bolle Univis 1011 Welding Safety Glasses on our website.
Risk of Injury
While most welding-related eye injuries are reversible, more than half of injured workers return to work in less than two days and 95 percent in less than seven days, some eye injuries are irreversible and permanent visual impairment occurs. This is especially true with infrared and visible spectrum (bright light) radiation. Both can penetrate through to the retina and can cause permanent retinal damage, including cataracts, diminished visual acuity, and higher sensitivity to light and glare.
Welders are not the only workers at risk. While the welding arc is the principal source of ultraviolet radiation, other workers in the area can sustain eye damage from the radiation as far as 50 feet away with the radiation reflecting off shiny surfaces, concrete, or unpainted metals. To counteract this reflection, you should install shielding curtains where practical or require that all workers in the area wear appropriate eye protection.
Selecting the right helmet
To make the right choice in selecting a helmet, it is important to understand the meaning of arc flash and what types of emissions radiate from the welding arc. Arc flash is simply the unexpected exposure of the eyes to the welding arc. The welding arc emits several forms of light including ultraviolet, infrared radiation and high-intensity visible light. Both infrared and ultraviolet radiation can cause permanent damage to the eyes, such as retinal burns. While high-intensity visible light may not cause permanent eye damage, it may leave the operator with temporary discomfort, similar to being exposed to the flash of a camera bulb.
Many people mistakenly think that the lens shade number corresponds to the amount of protection that is provided to the eyes and hence the higher the number, the better the protection. In reality, all properly constructed quality welding lenses, have a screen that filters out 100 percent of the harmful ultraviolet (and infrared) wavelengths and provides protection to the eyes. The number just denotes the amount of darkness provided by that particular lens and should be used by operators as a guide to select the one that is most comfortable but still provides good visibility for carrying out the operation.
High quality auto-darkening helmets provide UV and IR protection even when the helmet is not activated, you are always protected. However, for maximum comfort, look for a high quality helmet that has a response darkening time of 0.4 of a millisecond or less. Less than a millisecond is not perceivable by the human eye and will provide the most comfort. The auto-darkening helmets in the Bolle range work between 0.2 and 0.25 milliseconds.
Helmets come with either battery power or solar power as is the case with the Bolle range. In most cases, it simply is a choice of personal preference and what is most convenient to the operator. With a battery powered helmet there is a chance however of being flashed. These helmets offer a feature that will automatically turn off the battery after the helmet has been sitting idle, or the batteries may have lost their charge. If the welder isn't careful, he could get arc flash thinking that his helmet is still dark. Solar powered helmets do not suffer from this and also eliminate the time and cost of recharging.
Fixed or variable shade
If you are always using the same arc welding process on the same material, a fixed shade is sufficient. But if you, like most welders, are using a variety of materials and welding a number of different applications, your best bet is a variable shade, which will adjust to the correct darkness for your particular process. As an example, when you are TIG welding at lower amperages, you may need to lighten up the lens to see what you are doing, a variable shade will allow this while a fixed shade will not.
Types of Welding
MIG is short for Metal Inert Gas welding. The system uses a metal wire fed through the gun surrounded by an inert gas such as Argon, because the cost of inert gases are high this system is not generally used for welding steel, but is more used for aluminium.
MAG is short for Metal Active Gas welding. The system here also uses a metal wire but in this case is surrounded by an active gas such as carbon dioxide. The lower cost has widened the use of this system to include steel welding.
TIG is where an arc is formed between a non-consumable tungsten electrode and the metal being welded. Gas which can be Argon, Argon and Hydrogen, or Argon and Helium, is fed through the torch to shield the electrode and the molten weld pool. If there is a need for filler wire then this is added to the pool separately.
The benefits of this type of welding are: superior quality welds, the welds can be made with or without filler metal, there is fine control of heat and there is no splatter and low distortion.
Plasma welding is very similar to TIG as the arc is formed between a pointed tungsten electrode and the work piece. However, the electrode is positioned within the body of the torch allowing the plasma arc to be separated from the shielding gas envelope. Plasma is then forced through a fine-bore copper nozzle which constricts the arc. By increasing welding current and plasma gas flow, a very powerful plasma beam is created which can achieve full penetration in a material, as in laser or electron beam welding. During welding, the hole progressively cuts through the metal with the molten weld pool flowing behind to form the weld bead under surface tension forces. This process can be used to weld thicker material (up to 10mm of stainless steel) in a single pass.
Risk of Injury
While most welding-related eye injuries are reversible, more than half of injured workers return to work in less than two days and 95 percent in less than seven days, some eye injuries are irreversible and permanent visual impairment occurs. This is especially true with infrared and visible spectrum (bright light) radiation. Both can penetrate through to the retina and can cause permanent retinal damage, including cataracts, diminished visual acuity, and higher sensitivity to light and glare.
Welders are not the only workers at risk. While the welding arc is the principal source of ultraviolet radiation, other workers in the area can sustain eye damage from the radiation as far as 50 feet away with the radiation reflecting off shiny surfaces, concrete, or unpainted metals. To counteract this reflection, you should install shielding curtains where practical or require that all workers in the area wear appropriate eye protection.
Selecting the right helmet
To make the right choice in selecting a helmet, it is important to understand the meaning of arc flash and what types of emissions radiate from the welding arc. Arc flash is simply the unexpected exposure of the eyes to the welding arc. The welding arc emits several forms of light including ultraviolet, infrared radiation and high-intensity visible light. Both infrared and ultraviolet radiation can cause permanent damage to the eyes, such as retinal burns. While high-intensity visible light may not cause permanent eye damage, it may leave the operator with temporary discomfort, similar to being exposed to the flash of a camera bulb.
Many people mistakenly think that the lens shade number corresponds to the amount of protection that is provided to the eyes and hence the higher the number, the better the protection. In reality, all properly constructed quality welding lenses, have a screen that filters out 100 percent of the harmful ultraviolet (and infrared) wavelengths and provides protection to the eyes. The number just denotes the amount of darkness provided by that particular lens and should be used by operators as a guide to select the one that is most comfortable but still provides good visibility for carrying out the operation.
High quality auto-darkening helmets provide UV and IR protection even when the helmet is not activated, you are always protected. However, for maximum comfort, look for a high quality helmet that has a response darkening time of 0.4 of a millisecond or less. Less than a millisecond is not perceivable by the human eye and will provide the most comfort. The auto-darkening helmets in the Bolle range work between 0.2 and 0.25 milliseconds.
Helmets come with either battery power or solar power as is the case with the Bolle range. In most cases, it simply is a choice of personal preference and what is most convenient to the operator. With a battery powered helmet there is a chance however of being flashed. These helmets offer a feature that will automatically turn off the battery after the helmet has been sitting idle, or the batteries may have lost their charge. If the welder isn't careful, he could get arc flash thinking that his helmet is still dark. Solar powered helmets do not suffer from this and also eliminate the time and cost of recharging.
Fixed or variable shade
If you are always using the same arc welding process on the same material, a fixed shade is sufficient. But if you, like most welders, are using a variety of materials and welding a number of different applications, your best bet is a variable shade, which will adjust to the correct darkness for your particular process. As an example, when you are TIG welding at lower amperages, you may need to lighten up the lens to see what you are doing, a variable shade will allow this while a fixed shade will not.
Types of WeldingMIG is short for Metal Inert Gas welding. The system uses a metal wire fed through the gun surrounded by an inert gas such as Argon, because the cost of inert gases are high this system is not generally used for welding steel, but is more used for aluminium.
MAG is short for Metal Active Gas welding. The system here also uses a metal wire but in this case is surrounded by an active gas such as carbon dioxide. The lower cost has widened the use of this system to include steel welding.
TIG is where an arc is formed between a non-consumable tungsten electrode and the metal being welded. Gas which can be Argon, Argon and Hydrogen, or Argon and Helium, is fed through the torch to shield the electrode and the molten weld pool. If there is a need for filler wire then this is added to the pool separately.
The benefits of this type of welding are: superior quality welds, the welds can be made with or without filler metal, there is fine control of heat and there is no splatter and low distortion.
Plasma welding is very similar to TIG as the arc is formed between a pointed tungsten electrode and the work piece. However, the electrode is positioned within the body of the torch allowing the plasma arc to be separated from the shielding gas envelope. Plasma is then forced through a fine-bore copper nozzle which constricts the arc. By increasing welding current and plasma gas flow, a very powerful plasma beam is created which can achieve full penetration in a material, as in laser or electron beam welding. During welding, the hole progressively cuts through the metal with the molten weld pool flowing behind to form the weld bead under surface tension forces. This process can be used to weld thicker material (up to 10mm of stainless steel) in a single pass.
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Agriculture Safety and PPE
Over half a million people currently work in Agriculture which in the current context includes, farming, arboriculture, horticulture, fish farming and of increasing significance, amenity use of the countryside. Although employment has steadily been declining, the industry has remained a priority for HSE because of its notoriously poor injury record
Agriculture is also an industry with a poor record of occupational health. The SWI (Self-reported Work-related Illness) survey in 2001/02 estimated that 30,000 people (whose current or most recent job in the last eight years was in agriculture) suffered from an illness, which they believed was caused or made worse by their job sectors.
With a prevalence rate of 6,500 per 100,000 people, agriculture has one of the highest prevalence rates of self-reported ill health of all industries.
Musculoskeletal injuries (MSD), exposure to dusts and respiratory sensitisers, zoonoses, noise and vibration (whole body and hand/arm) are the main causes of illness:
- 80% of those working in the industry suffer some form of musculoskeletal injury;
- the incidence of asthma is twice the national average, and 40% of those working in the industry suffer respiratory disorders;
- 20,000 people suffer some form of zoonotic infection each year; and
- 25% of those working in the industry suffer some form of noise-induced hearing loss.
At Granite Workwear we have first hand farming knowledge with one director running a family farming business. We think farmers need to be more aware of the modern range of PPE, or Personal Protection Equipment, available.
Many farmers avoid wearing safety boots as they are seen to be uncomfortable and heavy. However the latest footwear incorporates high tec materials with steel toecaps and midsoles replaced with lightweight modern materials and uppers made from breatheable and waterproof materials. Trainer and hiker styles allow a comfortable choice. Wellies can now be now comfortable and safe with toe protection, ankle support and non slip soles.
Hearing protection and ear defenders is now covered by our Peltor range. Comfortable, lightweight with options for radio, intercoms etc.
Eye protection by Bolle and Peltor is stylish and comfortable with a huge range of glasses that will protect in the workshop, out in the field and from the sun.
Gloves are a rare sight on
Hi-vis clothing is standard practice on building sites and factories wherever a risk of vehicle or other impact is possible. It is high time this policy was adopted on busy farms. Granite workwear offer a large range of hi-vis clothing from a polo shirt to full waterproof breathable gear.
The safety record on
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