HSE focus-in on the Hazards of Welding Fume
Months after the HSE issued a change in their guidance and enforcement expectations in relation to the control of exposure to welding fume, including fume from mild steel welding, the response and industry activity has not yet died down.
The HSE have begun conducting visits to sites where welding is being carried out, along with any other business where fumes, dusts, vapours or small fibres considered detrimental to human health might be present or created. They are very keen on seeing welding fume control systematically enforced and companies who are found not in compliance with the HSE enforcement expectations can expect to be given an improvement notice, enforcement order or fine. There is no window of leniency; businesses are expected to have already tackled this problem.
Compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 and the Control of Substances Hazardous to Health Regulations Act 2002 means, in part, accepting that opening a window or relying on general ventilation is inadequate in terms of welding fume control. Similarly, welding outside will require at the very least, suitable respiratory protection equipment (RPE). This has led to a shift towards fume extraction at-source.
The Solution
A long established manufacturer of machine components already had a few mobile fume extraction units in place from other manufacturers, but not all the extraction points in the factory were covered. These mobile extraction units were expensive to run due to the cost of the replacement filters. This manufacturer approached Extractability as they had previously purchased mobile ProtectoXtracts to add to their original mobile units finding they were more cost effective to run. The manufacturer wanted to reduce the fume levels and to protect their workers from fume exposure. Extractability were asked to provide a tailor made proposal to capture the stainless steel welding fume at source when they were creating a new welding section in the factory, this included two lathe welding systems and three fully enclosed welding booths.
Objective 1
To capture the stainless streel welding fumes and return clean air back into the workplace with a low ongoing cost.
Solution Fixed ductwork to two supporting arms and three enclosed welding booths and all attached to a self cleaning Protecto EcoCube.
Objective 2
Cover the area where they have seven lathe welding systems. Solution Seven self-supporting extraction arms connected to a ductwork system, which was joined into an external mounted fan that vented to the atmosphere.
Objective 3
Provide fume extraction to the main welding system area, which consisted of seven hand welding processes and two fixed robotic welding systems.
Solution Hand welding – self supporting extraction arms which capture the fumes at source.
Robotic welders – direct connection to the booths. All extraction devices were linked by ductwork into a standalone self-cleaning ProtectoCube 11KW which recycled clean air back into the workplace.
Additional project 1
To provide extraction to four enclosed welding machines, which were linked into ductwork and connected into a ProtectoCube 5.5KW recycling clean air back into the workplace.
Additional project 2
To provide two self-supporting arms again into ductwork and then into a self-cleaning ProtectoCube 2.2KW.
Continued support
All the systems are tested annually by Extractability and the performances are of high standards. So much so, that when air monitoring was carried out the personal and background levels in the welding areas were lower than 0.02mgs.
Extractability took care of all the LEV through examination and testing not only on welding extraction systems but for all the customer’s other extraction systems already onsite. The manufacturer was so impressed by the efficiency, low operating costs of the products and the after sales service, that they will continue to choose Extractability for all their fume extraction solutions.
