Fabricating technology advancements drive new plate finishing trendsThe same industry forces of nature—globalization, economic conditions, quality demands, and safety and environmental regulations—that are pressuring metal fabricators to do more, better, and faster with less are blowing no less forcefully on finishing fabricators.
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Handling metal stamping wastes: Protecting the environment - - and your businessMetal stamping companies are required to comply with a number of regulations relating to the collection, transport, treatment, and disposal of the wastes they generate. As a result, each company must learn which materials are classfied as hazardous and how to comply with detailed regulations.
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Big steel on the ropes: Consolidation looms for a troubled industryIntegrated steel mills in the U.S. are feeling the heat of foreign competition, pricing problems, and bankruptcies. How long will it be before consolidations start narrowing the field?
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Keeping pace with today's punching requirements: Advancements in tool design, metallurgy lead to more accurate holes, improved part qualityThis article provides the basics on how the punch, die, and stripper work; how to perform material thickness calculations on various materials; how different applications affect punching quality; how fully guided tooling counters lateral forces; and how metallurgy, coatings, and maintenance affect tooling.
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Thermal spray safety and OSHA compliance: Protecting operators from ultraviolet light, fumes, dust, compressed air, gasesOSHA has regulations for both facets of thermal spray environment, and shops should be aware of some practical safety tips for how to comply with those regulations.
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Rejoice with the right respirator: How your workplace conditions, process affect your choiceSelecting the right respirator for a welder involves examining the processes used, the workplace environment, and the types of base metal and consumables used. This article offers tips for finding the right respirator for your application, preferences, and workplace.
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Assessing cutting and forming machine tool safetyThe expanded breadth of recent standards typically includes the entire life expectancy of machines, the full scope of possible risks, the frequency and severity of risks, and the possibility of harm.
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Common threads in workplace safety: How different committees work to ensure the health and safety of their workersAlthough various safety committees differ somewhat from plan to plan, they all function as a means to promote workplace health and safety. Different components of a safety plan include responsibilities, activities, and the structure of each company's committee.
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When sparks fly ...This article combines examples of fires caused by inadequate protection from welding with information on heat-resistant textiles and how they can be used to provide that protection.
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Staying safe during HF welding: A common sense approach to personnel protectionProper clothing, training, procedures, troubleshooting, preparation, and equipment for HF welding are critical if you want to prevent workplace accidents.
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Employees value workplace health and wellness programsSixty percent of respondents to a recent survey consider health and wellness programs a viable incentive to stay at their current jobs. But it must be the right program, one that addresses the employees' concerns.
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Defibrillators—Should you have one in your workplace?This article explores the facts about AEDs, the legalities surrounding their use by laypersons, and guidelines for implementing an AED program in the workplace.
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Your best safety resource: The FMA/CNA Safety CommitteeDo you know the Fabricators & Manufacturers Association, International™ (FMA)/CNA Safety Committee? If not, you should. They're an excellent resource for guidance on workplace safety issues. And they're the force behind the safety focus on thefabricator.com.
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Making the workplace safe for Spanish-speaking employeesModifying your safety program to address the needs of your Spanish-speaking employees can create a much safer work environment. Here's how one company achieved that goal.
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Six dangerous misconceptions about crane safety: Knowing the facts could save your lifeKnowing how cranes should be used, and how they should not be used, is critical to crane safety. Overload, side pull, limit switches, secondary braking devices, using the reverse direction for speed control, and daily inspections are surrounded by myth and mystery in the workplace.
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Safety pays |
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Protecting yourself from gases and fumes: 10 tips for healthier lungsWelding gases, fumes, and smoke can cause both short-term and long-term health hazards for welders. Presented here are 10 ways to help ensure welders are kept safe.
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Selecting the best lens for welders' eye protectionIn the industrial environment, safety glasses are a necessity for jobs that put employees' eyes at risk of exposure to heat, impact, chemicals, or dust. But workers also need protection from nonimpact dangers, such as radiant energy, eye strain, and fatigue. So choosing the appropriate lens or filter plate for your workers' eye protection is just as important in preventing eye injury as is selecting the appropriate style of safety eyewear.
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Promoting back safety—one company's approach |
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Take control of safetyWelders are among the millions of workers who face respiratory hazards every day in the workplace. Confined spaces, solvents, and gas emissions, as well as welding, grinding, and soldering, may expose workers to airborne hazards.
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Having a safe office party |
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Respirator selection as a business decision: How to choose the right equipment for your weldersSeveral technical articles have addressed respiratory diseases associated with welding activities and when a respirator should be used to help prevent these diseases. Once an employer concludes that respiratory protection is the appropriate option for a particular application, the next step is selecting the right respirator.
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Occupational injury and illness statistics: Where does your manufacturing job rank?In December 2003 the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) released its 2002 occupational injuries and illnesses data. A total of 4.7 million nonfatal injuries and illnesses were reported in private-industry workplaces during 2002, resulting in a rate of 5.3 cases per 100 equivalent full-time workers. Among goods-producing categories, incidence rates ranged from 4.0 cases per 100 workers in mining to 7.2 cases per 100 workers in manufacturing. These numbers are overall averages of subsets in each major category.
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Emergency preparedness: A critical safety program componentYou're at work and a fire alarm or other emergency warning device sounds. Do you know what to do? Where to go and the appropriate route to get there?
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Welding fume health hazardsAccording to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), more than 400,000 U.S. men and women are employed in welding and related occupations. Some studies suggest that these workers are at risk of serious respiratory, neurological, and reproductive effects. More and better data is needed to assess the risks.
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Changing workplace raises safety and health questionsThe current economy has altered the organization of work. This article discusses the changes and their impact on the work force in terms of job safety and health.
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Don't let your health go up in smoke: Learn about and prevent the effects of welding fumesAlthough the health effects of welding exposures often are difficult to predict, components of welding fumes have a range of toxicities that, under the right conditions, can affect many parts of the body adversely. Knowing what situations and welding process components can negatively impact your health is the first step toward learning how to protect yourself from those health hazards.
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A breath of fresh air - Taking a look at in-plant filtration systems: Taking a look at in-plant filtration systemsThe article explains how to carry out a facility and process evaluation and discusses the basics of in-plant air filtration system selection.
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Surviving an OSHA inspection: What to do if an investigator shows up on your doorstepWeathering an inspection by OSHA is a matter of knowing your operation from top to bottom and being prepared for a visit at all times.
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Workers' compensation—Managing the process |
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Beating 'world' pricing: Nu-Way Industries finds the formula to take on competition from ChinaDuring the depths of the manufacturing slowdown that has cost the fabricated metal products sector nearly 300,000 jobs since 2000, Steven Southwell, president of Des Plaines, Ill.-based Nu-Way Industries Inc., faced a depressing challenge from one of his multinational OEM customers??either meet the ??total cost of acquisition? achieved in China or purchase the part from the Chinese supplier, inventory it, and incorporate it into the family of parts supplied by Nu-Way.
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Mac's Muse: One potato, two potatoes, three potatoes ... gone! As U.S. steel industry gets its lunch eaten, many parties can share blameA lot of parties can share the blame for what's happened to the North American steel industry, and its going to take effort from them all to pull the industry out of its quagmire. Can it be done? Time will tell.
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Sick at Work?All employees have days at work when they don't feel well. Usually these days are intermittent and can be attributed to a cold or other illness or job-related stress.
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Meeting ISO 14001 requirements: Leveraging advanced forming lubricant technologyAs of July 2003 all 5,000-plus Ford Motor Company suppliers were required to be ISO 14001-certified. In 2002 General Motors required all of its suppliers to implement environmental management systems (EMS) that conform to ISO 14001. The trend will continue for the auto industry and others.
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A 'bout' with the championRep. Don Manzullo speaks about taxes, steel tariffs, health care, and manufacturing's future.
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Getting the most for your money: 12 financial tips for welding professionalsThese include the importance of contributing to an individual retirement account, retirement programs for the self-employed, tax-exempt investments, $10,000/year gift tax exclusions, charitable contributions, how much money you should keep in checking and savings accounts, liquidity, and diversified portfolios.
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Is your company a breeding ground for workplace violence?Workplace violence—many of us think about it only when national or local media reports an incident. Most of us probably think it happens infrequently and never could happen where we work. And it's likely that workplace violence victims thought the same thing, before it happened to them.
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Appliancemaker reduces downtime with stamping press feed system: Inconsistent feeds caused die jams, inconsistent partsThe Whirlpool Co. builds refrigerators at its facility in Fort Smith, Ark. The company stamps the appliance parts—large and small, galvanized, cold-rolled, and aluminum—on approximately 35 presses. The majority of its stamping presses are straight-side machines, although some are open-back inclinable (OBI), and a few are hydraulic.
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Stamping 101: Chicago-area training facility offers a hands-on educationTo promote real-world stamping training, the Tooling & Manufacturing Association (TMA) wanted to create a resource whereby stampers could receive a consistent, recognized, hands-on education on the industry's most current equipment.
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Automating your end forming operation: How to maximize efficiency in the shopEfficiency, productivity, and quality are focal points for end forming operations, and many manufacturers are looking to automation to improve those dimensions of their businesses.
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Producing holes in tubing: Comparing the piercing and punching methodsNeed to put a hole in a tube? This article provides an overview of tube punching and tube piercing, exploring the different variations of each method and comparing the two methods on cost, safety, and flexibility.
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Fabricator finds tubular niche: Job shop uses laser cutting to complement CNC machiningProduction Cutting Services was founded in 1985 as a machine shop to supply parts to agricultural equipment manufacturers in and around East Moline, Ill. It used saws and CNC machining centers to provide tubular parts, but later realized it needed to add more value. It purchased two lasers from Mazak Optonics Corp. It hasn't abandoned CNC machining, though. It uses the lasers to complement its other processes.
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Maintaining and troubleshooting HF welders: A common-sense approach for vacuum tube and solid-state machinesThe basic steps of general preventive maintenance and troubleshooting for both vacuum tube and solid-state high frequency (HF) welders should assist in keeping welders online and producing pipe or tube.
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Managing environmental risk in tube, pipe production: What you need to know about state and federal regulations |
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Examining the GTAW environment: Choosing the right electrode and booth for your applicationThe author outlines basic components of a welding booth suitable for GTAW, and offers possible solutions to a decline in availability of the thoriated tungsten used in a GTAW electrode. He also offers ideas for providing a clean air supply for the GTAW operator.
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Reviving the past: Welding students restore ironwork to Victorian-era YMCA building |
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Loading up on quality, productivity, safety: Skid steer manufacturer uses welding robots to meet customer requirements |
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Optimizing flow through robotic welding workcells: A 'Case' Study RevisitedRobotic welding systems can enhance a company's production and bottom line. However, using these systems requires careful thought and planning, building the right infrastructure, and achieving the right balance between robotic and manual operations. This article presents an overview of one company's successful implementation of robotic welding.
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Spinning your wheels?: Separate grinding wheel facts from mythsGrinding wheels used in welding and fabrication are strong, tough tools, but many in the industry have called them "rocks" or "stones," implying that they're unbreakable.
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The Brakes: Press Brakes and You -- Whose business is safety? Everybody'sWhat sort of safety measures needed in your shop depends somewhat on your equipment, but making your press brake a safe piece of equipment is largely a matter of old-fashioned common sense.
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