Welding Gloves and Safety

Date 03-14-2006 16:37

Hi Josh,
I'm curious about your question, we don't have near as many welders as you do(70), but in the 21 years that I've been with this company, I can only remember 1 case of wire puncture of a finger as the welder was feeding a new roll of 1/16" dia. wire through the liner and it exited before he thought it would.

How are your guys managing to get hurt like this? Can you train the welders rather than requiring a puncture proof glove?
just a few thoughts,
John Wright

By Josh Clare (*)

Date 03-14-2006 16:50

John,

We fabricate large weldments that have many very small weldments, such as weld nuts, bosses, etc. The most common occurence is when the welder is holding a small part with one hand and try to iniate the arc and wire punctures his finger rather than striking an arc on the part. We have also seen instances when the weldor is handling the gun and switches from one hand to the other and drops the gun and trys to grab it before it hits the floor and punctures his had with the wire. We have made fixtures in every case possible to keep the hands away from the welding, but we still have the occosional accident when we get a puncture, which always ends up as an OSHA recordable for us.

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 03-14-2006 17:33

Josh,
The problem I see with a glove that is heavy enough to prevent wire puncture is that with small parts, the dexterity is lossed. Those really thick gloves are not very flexible and trying to hold a small part to tack it, might prove to be difficult. I googled for puncture proof gloves, but I never saw where any of them said they were heat resistant, so that might be a problem.
Are your welders using auto-darkening shields or fixed shades? I ask this because the auto-darkening shields really help when you're trying to position something small and still hold the wire close enough to tack the part.
John Wright

By CHGuilford (****)

Date 03-14-2006 17:54

It sounds like you are using GMAW ( MIG) and that often leaves a needle sharp point on the wire end. It also sounds like your welders are on piecework so they are going just as fast as they can?

I don't know of any gloves that will prevent puncture and still be flexible enough to use your fingers.

I wonder if you can have custom gloves made somewhere? John Deere must have some connections. You could review your injury reports to determine what parts of the hand are most susceptible to punctures. Then see if a glove manufacturer can add some Kevlar, or plastic, or something, in those parts of the gloves but leave more flexibility in the other portions.
It will probably be expensive but it sounds like it could pay off in the long haul.

John's comment on training people to work in a manner that reduces the likelihood of injury is a good idea. Also, the best accident prevention methods are to engineer ways that make PPE unnecessary in the first place. If that is not possible, then I would look at robots to do the risky positioning and welding. I don't know if that would add jobs, reduce jobs, or keep the jobs at the same level, but a robots's parts are replaceable.

Chet

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 03-14-2006 18:34

Another thought,
Make sure the gloves you find are not electrically conductive. Metallic wire or chain type protection in some gloves would not make a good choice as you can imagine.
John Wright

By welder5354 (**)

Date 03-19-2006 02:58

If you have small parts to hold on to, then maybe magnets could be your answer; providing its carbon steel.

Good luck!

By jwright650 (*****)

Date 03-14-2006 20:31

You know, I have to retract a statement. We have had guys get punctured by wire, but not like you would think. Take a look at this mess(pics posted below), a practice that I halted as soon as I found out who was responsible. These work tables are at crotch height for most of my guys and inner thigh height on me, we walk/climb over these things all day working and inspecting the work, one wrong snag and you are at the emergency room or at a minimum you are replacing your $30 work jeans. Trust me a pair of $15 pliers to cut your FCAW wire off is cheaper than the trip over to the ER or a new pair of work jeans.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/9wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/8wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/7wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/6wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/5wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/4wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/3wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/2wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/10wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v345/jwright650/safety%20hazzards/1wirearcedontoworktable.jpg

John Wright

By jneilson (*)

Date 03-22-2006 17:02

What I saw in your pictures would never fly where I work. We take a grinding wheel to stuff like that right away.

By aevald

Date 03-22-2006 17:12

Hey John, I know exactly what you're talking about, many guys are just plain too lazy to use a set of dykes or at the least break the end of the wire off instead of burning it off on the edge of the table or a part. One other common thing I used to see a bit of,was when a fabricator was putting together a corner to corner fit on a part and holding it in place with one hand and then tacking the inside corner with the other hand, on occasion the wire would shoot through the gap and then briefly make contact, enough to make the wire hot and burn and cauterize a hole through his hand at the same time. Common sense should be a big part of everyone's day, however, it doesn't always work that way. Great pics! Regards, aevald

By swnorris (****)

Date 03-22-2006 17:19

I agree Allan, but as you know, common sense is not that common!

By billvanderhoof (****)

Date 03-23-2006 08:34

It's well known that dykes and gloves have invisible legs, and as soon as you look away they run away and hide.
Bill