WJEC Vocational Award Engineering Level 1/2

WJEC Vocational Award Engineering Level 1/2 Risk assessments A risk assessment is the analysis of the risks involved when using equipment or performing a process. Imagine making a cup of tea. Do you need to be aware of any dangers? What about the mixture of water and electricity? Would you be aware of the heat generated by the boiling water? What would you do to keep yourself safe and ensure you end up with a nice cup of tea? Identifying risks and putting procedures in place to keep yourself (and others) safe is called a risk assessment. The five-step risk assessment One of the most common (and recognised by industry) methods for preparing risk assessments is the five-step method: Step 1. Identify the hazards. Step 2. Who may be harmed and why? Step 3. Evaluate risk and choose precautionary control measures. Step 4. Record (write down) your findings. Step 5. Review and update when needed. Following is an example of a risk assessment, using these five steps, for using a bench/pillar drill. RISK ASSESSMENT FOR BENCH/PILLAR DRILL ( SCHOOL WORKSHOP ) Identify the hazards Who may be harmed and why? Evaluate risk and choose precautionary control measures 1. Workpiece spinning on drill bit. 1. User cutting hand on rotating workpiece. 1. Use machine guard to reduce risk of rotating workpieces contacting user. 2. Workpiece flying off machine. 2. User being hit by flying workpiece. 2. Use machine guard to reduce risk of user being hit. 3. Swarf flying up. 3. Swarf flying into user’s eyes. 3. Wear goggles to reduce risk of eye injury. 4. Long hair/loose clothing tangling in rotating parts. 4. User being dragged into rotating parts. 4. Wear apron and tie down loose hair/clothing to reduce risk of entanglement. Note: All manufacturer guidelines should be used when this machine is in operation. Having completed the first three steps, the fourth would be to produce a document (e.g. the above table) that would be kept on record and readily available for the users of the machine (bench/pillar drill) to access and read. Step 5 would be done if there are any changes made to the machine (or law). Quite often, risk assessments are reviewed and updated on an annual (yearly) basis to make sure the procedures used are still up to date. Swarf: small pieces of metal. Key term 94