If you’ve ever worked in the manufacturing industry, you understand the importance of safety and ergonomics on the line. Prioritizing safety in a workstation helps prevent accidents, injuries, and hazards, as well as protects the equipment and tools the operator is using. The cost of an injury in the workplace goes so far beyond medical bills of the person who is injured. The lost revenue from the line being shut down can run upwards of $100,000 per hour. We are here to give you some tips for preventing injuries from your tool and its battery.
Use protective covers
You should look into installing insulated covers to protect the tool’s battery if it is dropped, and the operator from a number of potential hazards. The 36V STRB battery comes with a rubber cover as a standard, but for any other battery, we recommend our insulated covers.
Install a balancer on your tool
Balancers and reaction arms should be used on heavier tools with more torque. Balancers help to suspend heavy tools, so the operator doesn't have to carry the weight of the tool during their whole shift. Reaction arms keep the tools rigid to counter the reaction force on higher torque applications, which will also result in less of an injury risk for the operator.
Turn off loosening.
If an operator accidentally reverses the tool, it can injure the operator after the bolt has been fastened. By turning off the loosening function for higher torque operations, it eliminates the ability to try to loosen an already fastened joint. This is important, because at higher torque values it would take a lot of force from the operator to hang on to the tool, and this could result in an injury.
Use low reaction strategies.
The use of a tensor pulse can take away reaction in the wrist which can prevent injury and kickback from the tool which also makes the performance of the tool much more accurate.
To sum it up, there are many ways to maximize the safety of your tool use. Doing things like choosing a longer run time or lessening the weight for ergonomics go into picking and choosing what battery you’ll want for what tool or its operator.
If you’re interested in learning more about an Atlas Copco solution or our insulated tool covers, contact us to schedule a demo today!