Blasting Ergonomics 101
Let’s face it. Blasting can be a literal pain in the back, with daily stress of reaching, stooping, and contorting oneself to an ill-fitting blast cabinet. After hours of discomfort, workers may find reasons to avoid the task at hand, or take shortcuts which undermine both productivity and quality.
Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to make blasting user friendly. I always prefer to try the simple and inexpensive first, then move on to more elaborate measures where warranted.
Simplest: Several of my customers use this ergonomic “sit/stand” stool, which works great with blast cabinets. We don’t sell it but here is a link to the manufacturer’s website.
That’s just the start. We offer additional steps to help the ergonomics of manual blasting in shop settings.
Blast more, faster. I am always working with customers to lower blasting man-hours; often with simple upgrades to an existing unit. Efficient blasting is smart blasting. Ergonomic pains often go away when blasting, that used to be an all-day affair, can be reduced to just a few hours a day.
Fixed gun holder: This simple, inexpensive upgrade gives you both hands to move smaller parts
in front of the blast spray, and eliminates the resistance of the blast hose / gun. It's easy to set the gun distance and angle, which are no longer limited by your arm's reach.
Ergonomic Glove Holes: New cabinets can be ordered with tall, oval gloves ports that allow users better freedom of movement. And, nowadays, Empire builds ergonomic, quick-change glove rings into every ProFinish cabinet - these come with a supportive arm rest. (For more details, see this BlastPrep feature webpage.)
Turntables and Material Handing Upgrades: These make loading and accessing parts easier, and can present more of the workpiece to the worker for faster processing. Options include iris ports on the side of the cabinet so longer workpieces can be slid through, or a ceiling slot for an overhead crane. Blast cabinets can be made to fit your part or process, as well as your machine operator.
Give me some space. When buying a cabinet, don’t overlook extra internal space that will be needed to move the part into position in front of the operator. You may find that you need to step up a size, or go with a double-wide blast cabinet so that longer parts can be easily moved to the worker for blast access. We have even put a secondary workstation on the end of the blast cabinet to finish the ends of longer workpieces.
The ERGO blast cabinet, which I developed when I was product manager at Empire Abrasive Equipment Company, is a great option when buying a new system. It is a "sit down" blast cabinet
that puts the user in a much more natural position, by literally designing the cabinet around the human. (Why isn't this always the case?!)
More recently, Empire has introduced the “Pro-Lifter” – which raises and lowers the cabinet by simply depressing a rocker switch – to fit both tall and short operators.
Lastly, robots are making a huge impact in today’s blasting. Of course, not only do they offer better “reach,” they don’t take breaks or vacations, never complain, and don’t file for workman’s compensation. I sold a mold-cavity cleaning robotic blaster to a Massachusetts company and was blown away by its non-stop productivity.
Would you like to investigate any of these further? Many of these upgrades are fairly easy to implement. Let’s have a discussion! Simply contact me. Finding a solution is painless.
© 2015 Mark Hanna and BlastPrep.com
