On average the global engineering industry is suffering a total of 700,000 accidents per year. A large percentage of these accidents can be directly attributed to failure of equipment due to dangerous and unrefined operating conditions, with investigations after such accidents concluding that most mishaps are avoidable; but health and safety measures have either proved to be inefficient or ineffective.
The results of substandard safety measures and high pressure on faulty equipment contribute to not only injuries to employees, but can also result in expensive and time consuming repairs. To combat this, a number of industries have attempted to avoid accidents through the design and implementation of pressure relief systems, with the most reliable device commonly known as 'bursting' or 'rupture discs'. Research into the design and use of such pressure relief systems has been ongoing since 1945 by Fike, specialists in the field of safety measures for the engineering industry.
The SEVESOII Directive, which details standard health and safety procedures for the workplace as well as guidelines for the maintenance of equipment, recognises two distinct types of hazardous reactions that contribute to the number of work related accidents: planned operations that go out of control and unexpected reactions from equipment. The latter is of particular concern to the engineering industry, due not only to the unknown results of the reaction but also the fact that the results of an unexpected accident have to be reported in detail, with immediate safety precautions being made to combat any similar incidents from happening in the future.
Early warning systems have been utilised by many in the industry to recognise faulty equipment before an unexpected reaction occurs. These systems include emergency evacuation systems and crash-cooling systems, both proven to be effective methods of keeping the workforce safe. Monitoring and signalling systems have also become commonplace in many places of work due to the common trend of many companies relying on a fully autonomous production plant.
Monitoring the safety of an entire workforce is a demanding job for personnel to undertake and, as a result, simple signalling devices have quickly become an affordable and efficient way of detecting a potentially risky situation before it happens. By eliminating the risk of human error, safety experts reason that the chance of serious
accidents at work occurring are greatly reduced, while productivity will remain at a consistently high standard.
With an increase of work related accidents currently estimated to reach up 2.2 million by 2020, the engineering industry has high hopes that innovative technology and an increased awareness of health hazards at work will help cut this number significantly, leading to a safer working environment for all employees in the industry.
Paul McIndoe is an online, freelance writer from Scotland. When not writing, he enjoys playing golf and is a keen gardener.
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