Other teams, we need help dealing with Health and Safety

[spierson]

Ever since the accident with the girl at Yale, the Health and Safety here at Drexel have gone full bore on their restrictions. Our team has been under the microscope from this and as of yesterday, we've been locked out of all of our power equipment despite our attempts to satisfy all their requirements.

My question to the other teams: For those of you under the health and safety watch, what things do you have to do to stay in code?

[spierson]

Ever since the accident with the girl at Yale, the Health and Safety here at Drexel have gone full bore on their restrictions. Our team has been under the microscope from this and as of yesterday, we've been locked out of all of our power equipment despite our attempts to satisfy all their requirements.

My question to the other teams: For those of you under the health and safety watch, what things do you have to do to stay in code?

[NickFavazzo]

We try to follow industry safety standards as best we can, attend school safety meetings and jump through every single hoop we can, UWA still doesn't allow us to use lathes or mills, but we are trying to change that...slowly..

Keep safe operating procedures for all equipment, MSDS forms etc.. Take all members through a safety induction to your work area, identify hazards, formalise training within the team (ie teach new guys how to use a grinder before they are allowed to use one).

Other than that it is very much about convincing those in charge that you are not a team full of drunk lazy 'normal' uni students and that you think with a head on your shoulders...

[P. Jayaraman]

We faced a somewhat similar situation my final year with my team (and I think it's still ongoing now, but a current team member can fill in the blanks on that). Although we weren't issued any sort of warning of losing all shop privileges, the accident at Yale had also put our workplace under major scrutiny.

One thing we did that really helped us out in this regard was that a few of us who worked in the shop (members from the formula, baja, hybrid, and other teams) formed a sort-of student-led effort to work with the department admin to create a set of rules and protocols by which the shop could be used. Basically, we set up some trainings for general shop safety as well as tool and machine usage and coupled it with an attendance system.

In the end, it wasn't the details of the program that were important as much as it was the student-led initiative. My thought is that this showing may have helped prove to the administration that we were serious about safety and that they didn't have to take draconian measures against us.

@Nick, is UWA's rule about lathe and mill use a part of university policy or does it extend beyond that (government, labor laws, etc.)? One of my best friends just graduated from UWA and he mentioned something very similar wherein you guys weren't allowed to do a lot of machining work.

[NickFavazzo]

It's university politics, personally I think the fact that so called engineers graduat without ever seeing a mill is a joke, do are you going to design parts of you have no idea how they are manufactured!

Enough of my bad mouthing the uni though, politics exist everywhere, just be smart about your teams image within the university as well as the friends you make who hold power ie school dean or workshop manager etc

[STAATSWANN]

I hear ya Nick... we got the same problems over at Curtin... barely allowed in the same room as the lathe and mills let alone use them for our own manufacturing...
I think the only team in Western Australia that are allowed to use workshop equipment is ECU... maybe they can confirm and explain why / how they are allowed to get this awesome access...
All we are allowed is a drill press, a bench grinder, a drop saw, a TIG welder and hand tools (all which we had to provide and maintain ourselves)... Every now and then if we are really nice to the techies we can use the sand blaster, plasma cutter and their welders (MIG and ARC)... anything else has to be controlled by a Curtin technician, so no lathes, mills, band saws or anything useful like that...

[theTTshark]

Wow we have it pretty lucky then. Our shop never changed even after the Yale accident. Is it the engineering department that is being the pain or is it from higher up?

[Tilman]

Heyho,

I do not know what happened at that Yale accident, but in our team things are a little different:

We are organized in a registered association, which means that the members of our executive board are liable for everything that happens... It is not a pleasant thought to know that all your funds are gone if somebody gets seriously injured...