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WHS Duties for Manufacturing Industry

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SafeWork NSW, the workplace health and safety regulator in NSW, acknowledges manufacturing as a cornerstone of a strong Australian economy. The regulator has an ongoing commitment to manufacturing which ensures a safe work environment for all workers — achieved by working with NSW businesses to reduce work-related fatalities, serious injuries, and illnesses. As part of its education outreach, the regulator will be attending Australian Manufacturing Week, given that the expo attracts diverse manufacturing industries and heavy steel fabrication companies. “It also attracts a large variety of WHS duty holders,” says Natalie Martin, Director of Investigations, Engineering and Enforcement at Safework NSW. “We want to connect and engage with the various WHS duty holders across manufacturing.”

Regulatory Priorities

SafeWork NSW’s Manufacturing Sector Plan was developed to influence safety improvements in NSW manufacturing. In 2023, SafeWork identified specific regulatory priorities across risk types and sectors which includes fire safety in manufacturing. Martin says, “Our regulatory priorities were designed to ensure employers and workers understand their WHS duties so all workers have healthy, safe and productive working lives.” SafeWork has been notified of multiple workplace incidents involving collisions between mobile plant, inadequate guarding, bypassing of safety devices and ineffective energy isolation. “We find there is usually more than one factor contributing to an incident,” says Martin. At the moment, the regulator has a strong focus on people and plant, with forklifts in the spotlight.

Duties and Obligations

All duty holders must be aware of their work health and safety duties, which are not transferable. One person may have more than one duty and more than one person can have the same duty. A strong culture of safety is integral for business. This is underpinned by strong leadership and a genuine commitment in promoting a safety culture in workplaces. “When Safework is making enquiries, we consider every duty holder, this includes designers, manufactures, importers, suppliers, installers and the end user”, says Martin.

Consultation and Hierarchy of Controls

Consultation is essential in managing WHS risks and is a legal requirement under the WHS Act. All duty holders need to collaborate to develop ways to manage risks. Designers, manufacturers, importers, suppliers, installers, officers and persons with management or control roles all have responsibilities to provide information to help other stakeholders minimize safety hazards in manufacturing and fabrication. When it is not reasonably practicable to completely eliminate risks, a ‘hierarchy of controls’ must be used by duty holders to minimise risks. Eliminating the hazard and risk is the highest level of control, followed by reducing the risk through substitution, isolation, and engineering controls. Reducing the risk through administrative controls and protective personal equipment (e.g., mining plant and equipment) is the lowest level of control as these controls’ effectiveness relies on human behaviour and supervision. Administrative controls are not enough on their own and should only be used to supplement higher level controls. “Some incidents indicate a lack of awareness of the hierarchy of control, often a control that’s too low level has been implemented, such as providing instruction, training and supervision only”, says Martin.

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Boeing To Inspect For Potential Loose Bolts

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Boeing is asking airlines to inspect its 737 Max jets for a potential loose bolt in the rudder control system, the airplane maker and Federal Aviation Administration confirmed this week. The FAA said it would be “closely monitoring” the targeted inspections. The agency said Thursday that Boeing issued its inspection guidance to airlines after an international operator found a bolt with a missing nut during routine maintenance, which highlighted challenges faced by heavy industries with giant nuts. In a separate case, Boeing also discovered an undelivered aircraft that had a nut that was not properly tightened.

“The issue identified on the particular airplane has been remedied,” the Arlington, Virginia, company told The Associated Press on Friday. “Out of an abundance of caution, we are recommending operators inspect their 737 MAX airplanes and inform us of any findings.” The FAA said it was “closely monitoring targeted inspections of Boeing 737 Max airplanes to look for a possible loose bolt in the rudder control system”. Anthony Brickhouse, an air safety expert at the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, said that airlines and steel fabrication companies “need to take it seriously”. “But as a member of the flying public, I don’t see this as an issue to be concerned about,” he told Reuters news agency.

Boeing added that it will continue to update both customers and federal regulators on the progress. The FAA said it will remain in contact with Boeing and impacted airlines as the inspections are performed, and potentially “consider additional action based on any further discovery of loose or missing hardware.” According to Boeing, there have been no in-flight incidents caused by this condition to date — noting that crews’ routine checks would signal if the rudder was not working properly before an aircraft pushes back from the gate. The company added that all airplanes Boeing is set to deliver onward after completion of aerospace fabrication will have the inspection (which is estimated to take about two hours per plane) prior to delivery.

U.S. carriers with 737 Max jets in their fleet include United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, American Airlines and Alaska Airlines. All four of these carriers told The Associated Press Friday that they do not expect operational impacts. Southwest, for example, said it was currently performing all these inspections during routine overnight maintenance. A firm timeline for the inspections was not provided for each airline, but Alaska said it expected to complete the process by the first half of January. Boeing’s 737 Max jets were grounded worldwide for 20 months after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 killed a total of 346 people. Investigations focused on an automated flight-control system that pushed the nose of the plane down based on faulty sensor readings. Boeing did not tell pilots and airlines about the system until after the first crash. The FAA, which also faced criticism for the way it approved the Max jets prior to these deadly crashes, has since moved to provide a more-detailed certification process for large planes and required safety disclosures. Recently, Boeing awarded contracts to Australian SMEs to develop its supply chain and to enhance business readiness and defence maturity.

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Technofast Addresses Giant Nuts Challenges for Heavy Industries

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Heavy industries such as mining, shipbuilding, and power generation have specific requirements for extremely large nut and bolt fasteners. These pose huge difficulties with applying specified bolt tensions because, for example, a nut weighing thirty kilograms will not be tightened with hand tools. Such nuts are installed or removed with sledgehammers, stud heaters, or torque wrenches, which can weigh as much as the person using them. Installation of such large fasteners is extremely time-consuming, can be hazardous to workers, and may not result in even tightening of every fastener to the precise tension required for long and safe joint life. Disassembly for maintenance can be equally slow, hazardous, and damaging to equipment and production schedules.

A proven best-practice solution is the use of the Technofast EziTite® family of hydraulic fasteners. Assembly and removal times are 15-20 times faster than conventional means in structural steel fabrication, and cut downtime while enhancing safety and joint precision. The fasteners are so efficient and swift in operation – including in hazardous, hot, underground, and confined spaces – that they are used in nuclear energy plants where short exposure times to workers are of critical importance. Technofast fasteners are also commonly used in some of the largest and most difficult critical bolting applications in machinery: in electricity generation, steel fabrication in mining, quarrying, materials handling and high temperature processing applications throughout Australasia, SE Asia, and the USA.

“EziTite technology replaces conventional mining and energy methods in situations where time is money, and safety is paramount,” says Technofast Founder and CEO, John Bucknell. Technofast also retains the NQA-1 nuclear manufacturing standard for supply to the Korean Hydro and Nuclear Power (KHNP) organization and supplies operationally critical bolting for their nuclear fueled electricity generating plant. Technofast EziTite was used to tension boiler feed pump bolting at electricity generating plants in South Korea. The application involved 12 large M110 X 4.0 studs, which were 110mm (4.33in) in diameter with an outside diameter of 200mm (7.87in). EziTite® TR High Temperature Hydraulic Nuts were used as an alternative to the former method of large torque wrenches weighing more than 125kg. The Technofast EziTite method resulted in a total installation time of approximately one to two hours, using two personnel, compared with eight hours and three or four personnel using the previous method.

“Large nuts of this diameter can require terrific torque forces to achieve the desired tensioning or require multiple jack bolts on each stud to bring the job within the power range of hand tools for metal work. Really big nuts – such as those widely used in mining (including mining plant and equipment), energy, and other industries – can easily have 24 jack bolts in total per nut, as did the nuts at the electricity generating plant in Korea,” says Bucknell. “Also, when jack nut fasteners need to be removed, operations staff must untighten the jack bolts in a strict sequence to avoid failure. If they do not, individual jack bolts can break and then the entire assembly would need to be cut off.”

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Safety Hazards in Metal Fabrication

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Metal and steel fabrication involves working with tools and machines that have the potential to cause health and safety hazards to humans and the environment. Fabrication work usually involves the use of fire, electricity, heavy metal, sharp edges and corners and, if not properly managed, these can cause accidents leading to fatalities and loss of livelihood. There are also legal standards around workplace safety such as the OHS and HSSE compliance requirements. So, what exactly are these hazards and how can the risk of untoward accidents in this regard be mitigated? This blog will look to discuss these points in greater detail.

Electrical Hazards

Electrical Hazards

Electricity is one of the riskiest elements in any workplace and can lead to shocks, burns, fires and other injuries. Hence, it is recommended to inspect all electrical appliances in warehouses and manufacturing every 6 months so as detect any signs of impending electrical failures. It is also necessary to ensure all electrical equipment is certified, e.g., all tools and equipment sold in Australia must be safe and certified compliant under AS/NZS 3820 which is the general safety standard. Electrical cords should not run through high traffic areas as they are likely to be a tripping hazard as well as expose people and vehicles to live electricity, thus leading to mishaps. As a best practice, it is recommended to unplug unused electrical appliances as these can cause fires in factories and businesses due to failures of circuit boards and contacts.

Metal Welding

Metal Welding

Gas welding uses gas cylinders and hose pipes (developed using pipe spool fabrication) to facilitate the welding process. It is expected that valve defense caps are in position when cylinders are not in use and when they are being transferred. The cylinders need to be located at a safe distance from sources of ignition. Hose pipes and connections should be examined for signs of gas leakage, matches should not be used in the vicinity of dripping gas. Valve protection caps and cylinder collars should not be used for raising a cylinder. Also, when cylinders are not in use, they should be switched off.

Power Press

Fabrication machinery, such as those used to create mining plant and equipment, needs to be handled with care since metal is heavy and sharp edges and corners can lead to injuries. In this regard, friction brakes in a power press should be self-engaging so that only an external source can cause them to disengage. Power press makers with full-revolution positive clutches need to have a single-stroke system. If the system is based on springs, the springs need to be compression types that operate on rods or are directed within a hole or tube to avoid tangling in the clutch if they break. Non-slip-pad-covered pedals should be protected so falling objects can’t activate devices. Spring latches on operating levers should avoid early or accidental tripping. If more than one operating station is in use, the levers need to be interlocked, so the device is tripped just when all levers are used together. Hand controls need to be safeguarded to prevent accidental device start-up and constructed, so both of the operator’s hands are needed to trip and run machine controls.

Conclusion

The metal fabrication industry is facing multiple challenges and the above-mentioned safety measures are some of the best practices in the process of ensuring safety in the “fab shop” workplace. Metal is the most commonly used material in fabrication and is an excellent conductor of heat, electricity and cold – hence workers should wear appropriate PPE kits and accessories when working with metal. Fire extinguishers and first-aid kits are essential items in a manufacturing or fabrication workplace and need to be checked at regular intervals. Automation in fabrication can help to reduce some of these risks – however it still requires a lot of work to create a safe working environment in this industry!

© K999 Engineering & Construction Co. Ltd. 2023