BASIC WORKSHOP PRACTICE

TME 121

Dr. David Fadare

Mechanical Engineering Department
University of Ibadan
 Course Outline

ƒ Safety in the workshop. Organisation of the

workshop.
ƒ Introduction to workshop practice: types of
machines: Lathe machine, milling machine,
sharper, drill, folding machine, shear, press etc.
their uses and tools.
ƒ Introduction to methods and tools, for producing
threads, holes, slots, tapers, etc Influence of the
shapes and sizes of the tools on the detail of these
parts.
ƒ Introduction to wood workshop tools: properties of
wood and their influence on the detailed design of
wooden structures and components. E.g. wood
fasteners and preservation measures.
 Time Table

ƒ Monday 2 - 5 pm
ƒ Wednesday 2- 5 pm

Venue: Faculty of Technology Workshop

(WS)
 LECTURE ONE

HEALTH & SAFETY

IN
ENGINEERING WORKSHOP
 Aim of this lecture

This lecture aims at informing the students of

the health and safety rules and regulations in
engineering workshops as a means of
guiding against any unhealthy and unsafe
acts that may result in accidents or injuries
during the production processes in the
workshops.
 Introduction:

What is a Workshop?
An ideal engineering workshop is a place,
where all categories of engineering workers,
use the basic hand tools, equipment and
machines, to fashion out an assembly or
product from the raw material stage, to its
finished or functional stage.
It is a place where all forms of manufacturing or
productions take place.
It is also regarded as a place, where the
workpiece, and machines are pre-arranged in
a clean and orderly manner.
It must be definitely equipped with good
lighting system, proper cross ventilation, easily
accessible doors for smooth withdrawal in
case of any emergency. There must be good
gang ways for easy movement within the
workshop as well as other essential facilities
for an efficient and effective production.
Therefore, the workshop should always be a
safe and healthy environment for the workers,
work-piece and machines.
SAFETY & HEALTH FIRST, should always be
the motto of every student.
Safety has to do with the worker, workpiece,
and machines being free of accidents or
injuries.
Health has to do with the general well being of
the workers, work-piece and machines.
 Factors of Health & Safety in
Engineering Workshops
The three principal actors concerned in any
health and safety programme are:

Worker

HEALTH
&
SAFETY
Workpiece Machineries
 (1) The Worker

This is the man-power required to carry out the

production or manufacturing process.
The worker is always in a race to make more money
by increasing production rates. The comfort and care
of this most important element in any organisation is
sometimes neglected or not given the proper regard.
The worker is an important factor that is often
neglected when planning safety and health
precautions in any workshop. We know that spare
parts for this important factor of production can not be
easily purchased on the counter at any market, or
replaced as new from the hospital.
Great care most must always be taken, where
worker is involved. The hand is the driver, so it
is important that the worker must not take
unnecessary risk and must use this part
properly.
The workpiece, tools, equipment and machines
can be easily replaced, but the worker’s parts
cannot. So, we must be very careful whenever
work is being done in the workshop.
The skill of the worker is an important asset
towards health and safety in the workshop. That
is why every organisation invest a large amount
of the profit in training their staff so that little is
spent as compensations when injury or lost of life
is incurred.
A skilful worker produces good jobs without
accident, whereas an unskilful worker produces
bad jobs through carelessness, and ignorance,
which may certainly cause accidents.
 General safety regulations for workers
are the following:

ƒ Correct protective clothing must be worn.

ƒ Flowing or loose gown must not be worn.
ƒ Correct shoes must be worn such as those that will
cover the toes against the likelihood of tools,
workpiece, or machine parts dropping.
ƒ Articles like ear-rings, wrist watches, should be
removed when working in the workshop as these are
likely to be caught by moving parts of the machines.
ƒ Physical defects must be well tested and put right
before any worker is allowed to work in the workshop.
ƒ The surrounding of the workshop must be clean, well
ventilated, spacious, and should generally conform with
factory regulations.
 (2) The workpiece

This is the raw material such as (gas, liquid, solid)

required for the production process.
Adequate knowledge of the engineering properties
of the material is essential, in order to remain safe
throughout the period of production.
The worker must understand fully how to carry out
the production of the article through proper
understanding of the working drawings or copying
of the sample.
The worker should know how to select the right
material to be used for the job. A wrong choice
of material may results in serious accidents and
injuries. Likewise, the right choice of material
wrongly produced or fitted will equally results
accidents and injuries.
Poorly fitted parts, like pins, keys, pulleys and
belts that are not tight are likely to cause
accidents, with the resultant issue of lost man-
hours.
During the process of production, carelessness
at any time may results in the damage of the
workpiece. Such material may fail to conform
to specification and hence the material and the
invested man-hours will be wasted.
Materials are very expensive and are not easy
to come by. In some production processes the
cost of material may run to millions of naira. For
this reason, it is very essential for one, to think
before hand, on the material being used in the
production.
 (3) The machineries:

These include the tools, equipment, machines

and the environment which are required daily in
the production process.
Any unsafe act in the use of the tools, equipment,
and machine may leads to serious accidents or
injuries resulting in lost of vital parts of the body
and in most cases may lead to sudden death.
Adequate knowledge of the working principles
and the safety precautions in the use of these
tools, equipment and machines is very vital.
Tools, equipment, and machines should
always be kept in proper working conditions.
Any sign of defects or mal-function in any
equipment should be investigated thoroughly
and corrected to avoid serious accident.
Some signs of mal-functioning may include
the following:
•Hearing of an unusual sound.
•Emission of heat due to wrong fixture.
•The worker experiencing electric shock.
•Leakage of oil, water or air in an assembly.
The worker must see that tools, equipment, and
machines are not damaged in any way, as they
are very expensive to obtain nowadays.
Wrongly used tools, equipment and machines
when damaged are likely to cause delays in
production process.
Unsafe use of the environment may cause
unredeemable damage to the plants and
animals in the environment. The damage to the
environment will indirectly affect the life of the
worker and the unborn generation.
 WORKSHOP LAYOUT

It is necessary for machines to be well laid out

during the installation so that ample space is
allowed for free movement of workpiece, product,
and worker for the operations of the machine and
for the maintenance the machine.
For safety, it is required that the general workers
working in the workshop knows how to STOP any
machine within the area of their duty. It is important
that the first thing you need to know about any
machine is how to STOP the machine, even before
you know how to START it.
 The safety factors concerning the use of
machines are:

ƒ The manufacturer’s instruction on the maintenance of

each machine must be strictly followed.
ƒ The worker of each machine must know how to operate
the machine and be aware of the dangerous aspect of
each machine.
ƒ All revolving parts on the machine must be well covered
and the cover or guard provided must not be removed or
when removed, must be replaced immediately before the
machine is operated.
ƒ Suspected broken or fractured parts must be replaced
immediately.
ƒ The oil must be changed regularly according to the
manufacturer’s instructions.
ƒ During installation or after maintenance, machine
should be manually operated first ‘inching’ before
switching on power to avoid accident.
ƒ Hand tools must not be left carelessly in any part of
the workshop or on any part of the machine.
ƒ Failed belts or worn/cracked gear teeth must be
replaced or repaired.
ƒ The correct lifting tackle must be used with
recommended or standard slings.
ƒ All sharp tools must be handle with care, and be
kept safe in the racks when not in use.
 General Safety Regulations to observed
in Engineering Workshop are:
ƒ There must be ample space for the location of
tools, machines, and workpiece within the
workshop.
ƒ Good electrical lightings must be provided for easy
viewing especially when the use of precision
instrument for measurement are involved.
ƒ Workshop floors, steps, passage, and gangways
must be free from oil and any other obstruction.
ƒ Protruding parts of machines must not take part of
the gangways.
ƒ Operators must not be permanently placed
along gangways.
ƒ The floor must be non-slip, capable of
supporting weight and wear resistance.
ƒ The floor should not have a surface that will
absorb water or oil and it should have resistance
to chemical attacks.
ƒ Smart and correct protective clothing must be
worn at all times while in the workshop.
ƒ Also, shoes with anti-slip soles and toes
protector must be worn.
ƒ Articles like ear-rings, wrist watches, should be
removed when working in the workshop as these
are likely to be caught by moving parts of the
machines.
ƒ Good canteen facility must be provided for the
comfort and welfare of the workers.
ƒ Heavy objects must not be lifted by applying too
much strain on the back bone. Also seek help
when object is too heavy.
ƒ Glasses or goggles must be worn especially during
any grinding operation and where chips are flying in
the workshop.
ƒ Hand gloves must be worn whenever handling
swarfs. Remember to use hand brush for cleaning.
ƒ Ensure that all machine guards are positioned
properly before operating the machine.
ƒ Avoid any form of foul play while in the workshop. Let
carefulness, concentration and consideration be your
watch words. These are the 3 safety ‘Cs’ in workshop
practice.
ƒ Never use unstable piles of boxes, inadequate
scaffolding or unsecured ladder for working at
heights.
ƒ Always ensure that handles are securely fitted to
hand tools such as files, scraper, screwdrivers,
hammers and that they are not split.
ƒ Never use hand tools in bad conditions. Such as
chisels with mushroom head.
ƒ Always ensure that hot objects being transferred
from forge to anvil are held downwards close to the
ground to minimise danger of burns resulting from
accidental collisions with other fellow-workers in
the workshop.
ƒ Hot objects and wet surfaces should be marked to
prevent other co-workers from handling them with
bare hands.
ƒ Oil and water spillage must be avoid at all cost.
ƒ Avoid all distractions such as side talks, making or
receiving phone calls in the workshop.
ƒ All tools, workpiece, semi-finished, and finished
products must be stored properly after each
production.
 Causes of accidents in Workshop

In most cases, accidents rarely happen, but

are caused by the any or combination of the
following:

ƒ Unsafe attitude to work

ƒ Unsafe conditions at work
ƒ Natural disaster
 Health and Safety Organs

The three main agents responsible for the

maintenance of health and safety in the
workshops are:
} Government agent (Health-and-
safety organisation).
} Employers.

} Employees
 The responsibilities of the Heath
& Safety Organisation are to:

ƒ Develop or formulate policies and

standards regarding the heath, safety
and welfare of both the people and the
environment.
ƒ Inspect the workshops on regular basis.
ƒ Enforce the workshops to comply with
the Heath and safety standards.
When the Health-and-safety regulations or standards at work is
broken by any workshop. The penalties that can be imposed
by Health-and-safety organisation includes:

} Issue a prohibition notice to stop any further activities

which could result in serious personal injury and
environment hazards.
} Issue a warning notice requiring a fault to be ratified
within a specific time.
} Prosecute any person or organisations who fail to
comply with the regulations which may involve the
defaulter paying of fine, imprisonment, or both.
} Seize, render harmless, or destroy any substances or
articles which is considered to be harmful to both person
and environment.
 The responsibilities of the
Employers are to:

ƒ Maintain the workshop and systems in good working

order.
ƒ Provide healthy and safe facilities for handling,
storage and transport of articles and substances.
ƒ Provide heath-and-safety information, instruction,
training, and supervision.
ƒ Ensure a healthy and safe means of entry and exist
from the workshop.
ƒ Ensure healthy and safe working environment with
adequate facilities and arrangement for welfare.
 The responsibilities of the
employees are to:
ƒ Take reasonable care of health and safety of
himself, other workers, and the general public.
ƒ Observe the provision of the Health-and-safety
regulations or standards wherever applicable to
him or matters under his control.
ƒ Cooperate with the employer in complying with the
Health-and-safety regulations or standards.
 End of Lecture One

As Engineers always be
safety conscious