Personal Protective Equipment, Guards and Switches Provide Safeguards in Bustling Shops
Invest in safety equipment and technology to eliminate workplace injuries and keep your workers healthy and safe, and keep your shop’s production and output humming along.
Posted: March 15, 2023
Fight Fog and UV Rays with Safety Glasses
Brass Knuckle® (Cleveland, OH) offers the Slingshot™, which brings together world-leading anti-fog and the highest UV protection, adds all-day-wear comfort features, and is affordable. These safety glasses are part of Brass Knuckle’s new anti-fog collection, which features groundbreaking BK-Anti-Fog+ technology. Fused directly to the lens, rather than simply sprayed on like others, it delivers better and longer lasting fog-free protection. BK-Anti-Fog+ also beats the toughest anti-fog standard in the world, EN 166/168. The safety glasses also feature ANSI Z87.1/U6 ultraviolet protection, the highest standard in the world, to eliminate 99.99% of UV rays.
Wearers enjoy extra-chunky molded nosepieces for added comfort, earpieces that fit snugly at the ears without putting the squeeze on temples, and a lighter weight that helps prevent nose divots and keeps glasses in place.
www.brassknuckleprotection.com
How Machine Guarding Pays Its Way
Numerous studies repeatedly show that every $1 invested in injury prevention returns anywhere between $3 and $6 in future direct costs to U.S. businesses. Liberty Mutual’s 2021 Workplace Safety Index estimates that American companies spend more than $1 billion weekly on serious, nonfatal workplace injuries. And they pay more than $2 billion yearly in direct costs related to injuries sustained on machinery.
“It should be a no-brainer to spend the money now and save in the future,” said Pierre Maheu, president of Ferndale Safety (Montreal, Quebec, Canada). “But, unfortunately, sometimes we get a frantic call from a company (asking for safety guarding) once someone has already gotten hurt.” It is not always an unwillingness to install guarding. Sometimes, companies are unaware that an easy off-the-shelf solution exists for most machinery, complete with turnkey services regarding implementation. Ferndale Safety’s lathe safety guarding product line prevents entanglement, laceration, and flying debris hazards.
Destratification Fans Designed for Tight or Obstructed Spaces
Rite-Hite (Milwaukee, WI) has expanded its line of industrial fans with the introduction of CoolMan® Zone Fans. Designed for destratification, the innovative, patented design uses a small, energy-efficient fan to deliver a powerful column of air between rack aisles, above or below mezzanines, or other tight spaces that may be challenging or costly to distribute air evenly. CoolMan Zone Fans improve worker comfort on the floor, reduce energy costs and equalize temperatures throughout the facility.
The fans are available for mounting heights up to 50’. Each fan covers an area from 1,200-to-2,500 square feet, depending on variables such as ceiling height, fan speed, and targeted number of air-turns per hour. They feature composite fan blades and a stator ring to maximize airflow to the floor level, eliminating cold and hot spots. Using direct-drive motors with thermal overload protection, these fans have the option of an alternating current or an electrically commutated power supply.
In addition to creating a more comfortable working environment, the air movement created by CoolMan Zone Fans also helps reduce moisture and improve indoor air quality.
Small Switches for Heavy-duty Applications
Schmersal Inc. (Hawthorne, NY) offers a new range of pull-wire switches: the TQ215/TQ315 pull wire switches and the ZQ215/ZQ315 pull-wire emergency stop switches. These space-saving range of pull-wire switches are suitable for applications in cramped installation spaces. The dimensions are based on the standards for position switches — EN 50047 and EN 50041. The small pull-wire switches also have a metal enclosure, wide temperature range and the high protection class IP67, which makes them suitable for outdoor use and use in challenging environmental conditions, such as in the mining industry, heavy industry and raw materials processing.
The TQ215/TQ315 pull-wire switches can be used as signal transmitters for applications such as starting machinery and plants. The switching command can be triggered at any point along the wire, with wire lengths of up to 25 m available.
The ZQ215/ZQ315 pull-wire emergency stop switches have an unlocking function, which must be actively reset before the next actuation. The advantage of pull-wire switches over mushroom head emergency-stop push buttons is that the emergency-stop function can be triggered anywhere along the wire, with wire length of up to 25 m available.
This series is also modular in design and all pull-wire switches can be individually configured and equipped with up to three switching contacts, various connection options, and LED status indicators.
Subscribe to learn the latest in manufacturing.
