Just one vibrational-related injury can cost up to $56,570! Depending on your ergonomics and the number of operators that are frequently exposed to harmful vibrations, that cost can add up fast. In addition to the medical costs and operator health, poor ergonomics can affect your productivity and quality.
But where do you start to boost the ergonomics in your facility? Well, a great place to start is with the tools used by your operators. By incorporating tools designed with good operator ergonomics, such as Atlas Copco’s riveting hammers, you and your operators can reap the benefits. Read on to learn more about how our riveting hammers can improve ergonomics and cut medical costs.
Ergonomically designed
One way in which Atlas Copco’s riveting hammers are ergonomically designed is with the adjustable handguard. By including this feature, our riveting hammers are made to fit any operator, no matter their various differences. However, that’s not the only way we aim to protect operators with ergonomic features.
Vibration-damped technology is another way operators are protected when using our riveting hammers without losing any of the power of the tools. Without this ergonomic feature, the tool would expose operators to high levels of vibrational output, thus exposing them to vibrational-related injuries such as damaged nerve cells, vascular injury, or any musculoskeletal disorders caused by intense vibrational output. These injuries have many major effects on your operators and your production.
Vibration-related medical costs
Along with reducing the operator’s vibrational exposure, vibration-damped riveting hammers will also reduce medical costs. While just one vibrational-related injury can cost up to $56,570, in facilities with poor operator ergonomics, the likelihood of many operators being affected and injured from prolonged exposure to tool vibrations is high. In this way, multiple operators will likely be affected.
For example, take a facility with 100 operators exposed to daily vibrational output, if even just 10% of those workers develop damaged nerve cells, vascular injury, or any musculoskeletal disorders, the medical cost would be over half a million dollars!
Other costs
When operators are injured in this way, it is not just medical costs that can affect your bottom line. There are other costs that you may not even be aware of. For example, productivity and quality can also be affected. Productivity will be affected when the operator experiences pain. This is because it normally leads to a slower work pace in order for the operator to avoid the pain (or not being able to work fast because of the pain).
As for product quality, operators in pain may try to perform a task differently to ensure that they can complete the task without experiencing pain. This can lead to some serious issues or inconsistencies in the final product. Quality issues can be very expensive and time-consuming to correct as they often are detected late in the process and require a lot of rework.
For more information on Atlas Copco’s riveting hammers, contact us today to schedule a demo!