Handy welding safety tips - Part 1

Welding is usually a very safe process, but it does have the potential of resulting in an absolute hazard. It could pose grave physical threats to the safety of the welders. However, if you take certain precautions, as advised by Diffusion Engineers, who are one of the foremost welding consumables manufacturers and suppliers in India that also provide handy Welding Maintenance tips, then you would reduce the chances of a mishap quite drastically. So let us take a look at some of their recommended welding safety tips.

1. Respirators

 One safety threat that has received a lot of attention is the threat of air pollution. While you weld, you are surrounded by a number of nasty, potentially cancerous things floating in the air. In fact, if you take out the time to read up the material safety data sheet attached by welding electrodes manufacturers & suppliers in India to the box of electrodes, you may just feel like upgrading your health and life insurance policies! (just joking!). But on a serious note, there have been many instances of welders suffering from mesothelioma and various forms of COPD. A simple solution to this is wearing a respirator while at work. Yes, there is no denying the fact that they are a bit expensive but the protection they offer from toxic materials is more than worth the price. In case you are finding the cost of a respirator to be too high for your liking, you should at least use some form of breathing protection to cover against all the hazardous toxins, chemicals, and gases. Using nothing is not an option that we would recommend.

2. Declutter the workshop

Ask any welding consumables or wear plates manufacturers in India and they will tell you that decluttering your workshop is a very important safety measure that many welders often neglect. However, the importance of decluttering your workshop could not be stressed upon enough. In particulars, it is an absolute must to clean the shop corners. It is very usual to put stuff in corners and forget about it. But you never know when this could start a fire hazard. Shop corners are prone to catch fire sparks. And these fire sparks may drop on the floor of the shop corner and combust an inflammatory substance lying there. So make sure you do not place wood or fibrous materials in the shop corners. Ensure that the rags are disposed off properly in a fire-proof container. Make it a point to clear the shop of any unwanted items periodically. Be very vigilant about shop maintenance. If you are welding by yourself, you may not have the time or opportunity to look around the shop to see if there is a danger of a fire outbreak. If you can, have someone assist you during the process. Ask the person to keep an eye out on things. In particular, check if there is an accumulation of sparks in a specific direction. If there is, then clear out that area immediately. 

Also, Read - Easy solutions for common flux-cored arc welding problems

This concludes the first part of our series highlighting welding safety tips provided by Diffusion Engineers, one of India’s premier welding electrodes suppliers. In the second and final part, we would take a look at a few more such safety tips. Stay tuned.