Freddie
01-30-2015, 03:47 PM
Warning: this will be a long text. Tl;dr can be found at end of rant.
Okay, safety may not be the most amusing subject, but there must be a serious discussion about this within Formula. And no, not testing safety, I’d say that driving and testing safety is a discussion topic that is alive and well. We need to talk about safety in the shop and in the pits.
I’ve been seriously involved in Formula since 2010, and went to my first competition in 2012. In that time, I’ve talked to a lot of people from different teams and followed many teams and competitions in social media. And of course, I’ve seen what members of our team have done. I know what I, though trying to be as safety-concerned as possible, have done. So, while anecdotic, there is a lot of stuff behind this rant. I’m scared that someone will hurt them self very seriously very soon, and that it will affect Formula as we know it. I’ve been on this board for a long time, and I can’t remember that this has been discussed.
I’ve heard about people getting thermoset allergies and people getting way too close to scalp themselves in the mill. I’ve heard about people almost taking team mates out by starting the lathe with the chuck key still in the chuck. I can, without really making an effort, find photos online of teams cooking and eating food in the composite room (being a couple of meters from rolls of prepreg CFRP, and where everything should be seen as contaminated from unhardened thermosets) or doing wet layup of carbon fiber using gloves I would not use as protection for anything more potent than hand soap. I can find photos of more than sketchy setups in manual mills (the good old kind where you can touch everything and there are no protective casing), and people with no protective gear working by the machine. I could probably find people working an angle grinder like it’s a children’s toy as well. In here we are posting about welders’ wearing shorts and a shirt, nothing more. We are laughing about all-nighters and doing stupid stuff because we are so tired that we can’t think straight. This needs to stop! And for the sake of killing that argument: no, none of these examples are from young teams or teams that “could not know better”, they come from teams that should know better or are something that everybody working in a mechanical workshop should be aware of.
I’ve seen some pretty atrocious handling of chemicals, be it at the workshop or competition, and some teams have posted clear evidence of starting and running their engine in a closed, small and not nearly enough ventilated room at campus on their own communication channels.
I’ve heard rumours about students that got relegated more or less due to Formula, or more specifically their involvement in Formula. Assuming that this is actually true, what should be a fun thing to do beside your degree studies, have gotten some people thrown out of university. Is it really worth that much?
Of course, sometimes there will be a need to take risks. That is, I believe, the difference between building and thinking. But there is no need to take unnecessary risks. And there seems to be a very low level of understanding what kind of risk there is. How many have done an all-nighter by the lathe? How many of you have done it, and have the scars to prove it? I’ve done stupid things myself, I won’t even try to argue otherwise, but seeing teams doing the same mistakes over and over; maybe we need to help each other here. How can we do so?
We have a competition where large parts of the 100+ page rule book emphasizes on safety of the end product, but almost no discussion about what happens to the people building the car and not just the one driving it. I don’t feel all that comfortable about that.
How many of those working with carbon fiber (or fibreglass, for that matter) in your team really know what they are handling? Do you have some sort of safety training before letting people out in the workshop in your team? Does anyone check up on the shop safety gear to make sure that they’re still, you know, safe?
I’m not sure if I have the solution for this; saying that “safety” should be included as an event at competition is easy but I don’t think that is the correct way to go. But maybe it could be a part of design, questioning if not just performance, reliability and cost but also manufacturing and safety have been taken into consideration? And no, I have not seen a correlation between safety concerns and good design.
I think the first part is to talk about this, and start thinking about what we can do. I have my PhD student position and some of my best friends to thank Formula for, and I really don’t want anyone to get hurt while doing this. I don’t think anyone wants that. I would hate to see something that has given me so much hurt someone else. In the event of a serious incident, there are two parts; one personal tragedy and one negative impact on the competition. Universities are usually quite safety-cautious, and hearing about people getting hurt will not help convincing faculties that this is needed.
Tl;dr: building stuff is dangerous, but don’t be an idiot. Read manuals, do some thinking: even if it is legal, it might not be safe. And being cautious won’t take as long time as you think. Formula needs to get safer, or I’m afraid something awful will happen.
Okay, safety may not be the most amusing subject, but there must be a serious discussion about this within Formula. And no, not testing safety, I’d say that driving and testing safety is a discussion topic that is alive and well. We need to talk about safety in the shop and in the pits.
I’ve been seriously involved in Formula since 2010, and went to my first competition in 2012. In that time, I’ve talked to a lot of people from different teams and followed many teams and competitions in social media. And of course, I’ve seen what members of our team have done. I know what I, though trying to be as safety-concerned as possible, have done. So, while anecdotic, there is a lot of stuff behind this rant. I’m scared that someone will hurt them self very seriously very soon, and that it will affect Formula as we know it. I’ve been on this board for a long time, and I can’t remember that this has been discussed.
I’ve heard about people getting thermoset allergies and people getting way too close to scalp themselves in the mill. I’ve heard about people almost taking team mates out by starting the lathe with the chuck key still in the chuck. I can, without really making an effort, find photos online of teams cooking and eating food in the composite room (being a couple of meters from rolls of prepreg CFRP, and where everything should be seen as contaminated from unhardened thermosets) or doing wet layup of carbon fiber using gloves I would not use as protection for anything more potent than hand soap. I can find photos of more than sketchy setups in manual mills (the good old kind where you can touch everything and there are no protective casing), and people with no protective gear working by the machine. I could probably find people working an angle grinder like it’s a children’s toy as well. In here we are posting about welders’ wearing shorts and a shirt, nothing more. We are laughing about all-nighters and doing stupid stuff because we are so tired that we can’t think straight. This needs to stop! And for the sake of killing that argument: no, none of these examples are from young teams or teams that “could not know better”, they come from teams that should know better or are something that everybody working in a mechanical workshop should be aware of.
I’ve seen some pretty atrocious handling of chemicals, be it at the workshop or competition, and some teams have posted clear evidence of starting and running their engine in a closed, small and not nearly enough ventilated room at campus on their own communication channels.
I’ve heard rumours about students that got relegated more or less due to Formula, or more specifically their involvement in Formula. Assuming that this is actually true, what should be a fun thing to do beside your degree studies, have gotten some people thrown out of university. Is it really worth that much?
Of course, sometimes there will be a need to take risks. That is, I believe, the difference between building and thinking. But there is no need to take unnecessary risks. And there seems to be a very low level of understanding what kind of risk there is. How many have done an all-nighter by the lathe? How many of you have done it, and have the scars to prove it? I’ve done stupid things myself, I won’t even try to argue otherwise, but seeing teams doing the same mistakes over and over; maybe we need to help each other here. How can we do so?
We have a competition where large parts of the 100+ page rule book emphasizes on safety of the end product, but almost no discussion about what happens to the people building the car and not just the one driving it. I don’t feel all that comfortable about that.
How many of those working with carbon fiber (or fibreglass, for that matter) in your team really know what they are handling? Do you have some sort of safety training before letting people out in the workshop in your team? Does anyone check up on the shop safety gear to make sure that they’re still, you know, safe?
I’m not sure if I have the solution for this; saying that “safety” should be included as an event at competition is easy but I don’t think that is the correct way to go. But maybe it could be a part of design, questioning if not just performance, reliability and cost but also manufacturing and safety have been taken into consideration? And no, I have not seen a correlation between safety concerns and good design.
I think the first part is to talk about this, and start thinking about what we can do. I have my PhD student position and some of my best friends to thank Formula for, and I really don’t want anyone to get hurt while doing this. I don’t think anyone wants that. I would hate to see something that has given me so much hurt someone else. In the event of a serious incident, there are two parts; one personal tragedy and one negative impact on the competition. Universities are usually quite safety-cautious, and hearing about people getting hurt will not help convincing faculties that this is needed.
Tl;dr: building stuff is dangerous, but don’t be an idiot. Read manuals, do some thinking: even if it is legal, it might not be safe. And being cautious won’t take as long time as you think. Formula needs to get safer, or I’m afraid something awful will happen.