US practice would be the same as well. Twin buttons that MUST be maintained during the press cycle are the most common, with the newer machines using the light curtains and often also a pair of maintained buttons.
Even punch presses. In fact, Ive seen a number of punch presses with light curtains on all 4 sides.
Gunner
"In my humble opinion, the petty carping levied against Bush by the Democrats proves again, it is better to have your eye plucked out by an eagle than to be nibbled to death by ducks." - Norman Liebmann
Very sorry to hear about your injury. I've had my left leg broken a couple of times, the pain can be quite an experience.
What do you plan to do about the tig glove situation? Is this going to require you to customize your gloves? Another alternative would be to have some form of prosthesis for the ends to make up for length, although less likely.
All the best in your recovery. Always grateful for the tips^H^H^H^Hadvice. ;-)
Something is still not right. I look at x-rays all the time including digital ones. They don't look like this. Maybe something wrong with my browser. When I bring up the picture is is black/white - no grayscale. X-rays utilize black/white and all the grayscale variations in between. This looks on my browser like an x-ray was put on a xerox machine. Kind of like when you xerox a photograph.
Earnie, I sympathize with your injury, but take exception to the statement "The cause was purely operator error and I did it to myself". This leaves a terrible safety message. The whole idea of press safety is to eliminate the possibility of injury. An instructor should never make such a statement. OSHA standards specify safety requirements. If not under OSHA, ANSI standards specify safety requirements. The current state of machine safeguarding is such that no one should be injured in this manner. Lack of attention and saying " be more careful" just doesn't cut it in this day and age. I agree with Gary C, Andy D, and Gunner's comments on press safety. Now I don't know the complete circumstances. Did this occur in a home shop, a teaching environment, or a factory? Was there a written safety program with written accident investigation? You mentioned a fix of another button for a helper. There may be some circumstances where this would be neccessary , but in general a real bad idea. At this point I can't discuss proper controls, Tables, backstops, holding devices, two hand trips, proper set-up, light curtains , automated feeding devices are some possibilities that come to mind. You may say these are not appropriate, but neither is holding a piece and tripping the pressbrake. As I understand this was a CNC machine with some functions removed and sub-standard actuating devices. Was the machine taken out of service? Does anyone else use the machine? A question of liability presents itself. I have been reading the newsgroup for a long time and I believe you are quite knowledgeble. I am sure part of your intent was to warn others. It is just that I think it is appropriate for someone to say that this was not a safe machine as it is set up, and what could/should be done to prevent this type of injury from ever occuring again.
H. Eddens.
"Ernie Leimkuhler" wrote in message news:150920040831132685% snipped-for-privacy@stagesmith.com...
Doing the job wrong? You can't be serious?! Without bragging, I have easily hit the petal/actuator/counter weight 50,000 times in my nearly 20 years of metal working on everything from a $500 finger break to a $150,000 fully automated 200 ton press brake. Holding the material in position is necessary 99.9% of the time. The only time I have seen such machines set up to hold the material for the operator is where drone workers were hired to run the machines, not qualified workmen. Granted, I may go into work tomorrow and pinch a couple of fingers or a whole hand off, but that is part of the job. I certainly hope not, and surely don't plan to, but I realize that injuries like that come with the territory. As Ernie has already said, it was not the machines fault. $hit happens
Regards, Jim C Roberts
PS Ernie, Here's hoping you heal up real soon. BTW, didn't you have a birthday this past weekend? If so, Happy Belated Birthday! JR
No you are correct. The clerk in radiology said they are intensionally low res so patients won't try to use them for diagnosis.
She didn't agree with the policy, but had no say in it. If you use the Windows based image viewer they provide, you can see the full gray scale image, but can't print or export it.
I run a press brake every day. They demand respect. It is very rare that you don't have to hold the work piece. In fact I have not come across it yet. I have a Amada RG-80 8 ft. (That's a 80 ton press brake) Bought it brand new from Amada. The pedal is a 8 ft bar at the bottom of the machine. The only safety features that came with it was a little pedal the bolted to the bar. It locks the bar so you can't push it down accidently. I did remove because you can't change position without dropping everything and getting on you knees to move it.
The press brake is the most dangerous machine in my shop. I have 2 cnc punch presses, 3 guillotine shears, 1 laser, 1 36" power rolls, 3 ferric chloride etching machines, complete anodize system, 1 silk screen machine, welders, grinders, etc.
I do not let anyone but myself run the press brake do to the safety issues. You have to have a good head on your shoulder and pay D$MN close attention to what you are doing. The light curtain is the only good way of trying to prevent such accidents. But they cost to much money for allot business to purchase.
Know the facts before posting your opinions.
PS: I just had to respond to the safety issues that Eddens posted.
PS: PS: Ernie sorry for your lose and I hope a speed recovering. My father did the same thing. He took the end of his index finger off from the bottom of the nail. On our old 4 Ft mechanical press brake. It took about 1 year before he could use it from putting to small screws and little detail stuff like that.
That's why power machinery needs safety features which enforce safe working practices. Even good workmen make mistakes. The attitude that being maimed by the machine is just "part of the job" is unacceptable.
Now it is true that you can't guard against every hazard. Even good safety design isn't perfect. But you can prevent a press brake or shear from starting when the workman has his hand in it.
The classic way to do that is to require both hands be used to depress operating buttons. You can't have a hand in the machine when your hands have to be on the buttons to make the machine move. If that means you have to fixture the part, so be it. Shortcutting safety to speed production is not acceptable.
I've run a big hydraulic shear with that feature. Several times I've thought "damn stupid machine". But then I think "1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10, yep, all still attached" and appreciate that the safety feature is there for a reason.
A company which can't afford proper safety systems, can't afford to do the job. It is unacceptable to force workers to pay the price (in blood) for lack of proper safety systems.
Look, I know there are a million ways to get injured in a shop. You can't guard against all of them. But this one you can. There is no
*good* excuse for not doing so.
Even if you own the shop, and are the only one working there, the costs of accidents impact us all. We all pay higher taxes and higher insurance premiums when you get maimed by an unsafe machine or unsafe working practice.
If you want to sell your own blood, there are better ways to do it.
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