Safe Welding With The Right Gear

Phil Black - PII Editor 20/12/2016

131 2 minutes read

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Blinding light, fierce heat, flying sparks and metal particles – welding is an intense process with plenty of risks for the welder.

From MIG/MAG to TIG welders, welding can cause burns, eyesight damage and injuries to the eyes, face and hands. Luckily these risks can all be avoided with the right safety equipment, which can and should be provided as standard for any welders in a processing environment.

This is not a time to scrimp; in order to avoid serious injury or damage to the eyesight of the welder, it is worth investing in some quality work gear that you can rely on to keep your colleagues or employees safe.

First and foremost, a quality welding helmet is essential. For very light welding some might prefer to simply wear welding goggles with a flip-down visor, but this is not suitable for more intensive welding types.

It also does not offer full protection from heat and flying particles which might injure the face. A welding helmet covers the whole face and most powerful welding helmets offer adjustable visors where the darkness of the visor can be increased or decreased depending on the type of welding being used.

The best welding helmets have a wide range of adjustment, meaning that they can be used for almost all types of welding, and several even have glass which automatically switches between dark and light in a fraction of a second.

When it comes to safety workwear, convenience and comfort is paramount to ensure that the workers in the processing environment are not disincentivised from wearing their safety gear.

A fully size-adjustable welding helmet with a convenient auto-switching visor keeps the welder comfortable and safe, making it easy to incorporate into the safety regulations of a processing environment.

Next to the face and eyes, the other body part which gets closest to the action in welding is the hands. With all that heat and the sparks flying, it would be unthinkable to weld without any hand protection.

Good welding gloves made with hardwearing and resistant materials such as leather or Kevlar should protect the hands of the welder while also enabling them to move and manipulate the welding equipment easily.

Standard leather gloves can be used, but gloves designed specifically for welding will provide better ergonomic design for the processes in welding, and offer optimal heat protection.

Welding gloves should always be combined with a long-sleeved work jacket, to keep the arms protected; long-term exposure to the heat and radiation produced by heavier welding methods can cause not only burns but also skin cancer.

With good safety equipment, a well-ventilated welding environment and reliable tools, welding can be a safe and low-risk part of any processing environment.

Whether you have teams working on components in batches, or you are dealing with a more unpredictable flow of projects and tasks, putting on the safety gear should be the crucial first step for any welder in the workshop.

By making this a part of your PPE requirements and ensuring that you have plenty of spares, your colleagues will never have to compromise their safety when welding.