Document 71mDwYGm4DQB9L0dpMMbK6Beo

REMOVING THE HAZARD FROM THE JOB Fig 4-3. As a tool Is being built, toolmakers and designers discuss production and safety features unsafe act and an unsafe condition contnbuted to about 07 per cent of the nonfatal manufacturing injuries reported It must be remembered that an unsafe condition, in addition to being a direct cause of accidents in itself, often can lead people to perform unsafe acts Many tunes, an unsafe act is the result of poor machine design, inadequately planned methods, and other engineering deficiencies Thus, elimi nation of a hazard caused by an unsafe con dition may also reduce the likelihood of in jury from an unsafe act When an injury occurs, the unsafe con dition is often not as glaringly evident as the unsafe act Unless a careful study is made of the accident, the correctable physi cal hazard may escape notice Engineering for safety, therefore, should have as its objectives both the elimination of hazardous conditions and the reduction of unsafe acts. Machine Design Machinery ranks fourth as a source of disabling work injuries, accounting for about 10 per cent of all such injuries Fur ther pointing to the need for safe design of machines is the fact that they rank second as a source of permanent partial injuries The design of machinery and equipment is an evolutionary process It is always changing and dynamic, because design en gineers constantly acquire wider experi ences in the course of their everyday work These experiences give them a broader scope and more initiative at the drawing board This initiative, however, will be dis ciplined by the practical consideration of designing the most effective means for con trolling hazards in the operation of ma chines or equipment Basic considerations Evidently, the design of machinery must be further unproved if the number of in juries caused by machines is to be reduced How hazards can be eliminated from ma chines in the planning stage is illustrated by much of the evolution in machine design that has thus far occurred (Fig 4-3) Be hind this evolution has been the search fox ever increased efficiency and safety in ma- " National Safety Council, Chicago, HL Accident Facts 1963, p 31. 4-4