Workplace injuries are more common than you might think — according to the National Safety Council, a worker is injured on the job every 7 seconds. That means 4,600,000 workers are injured on the job every year. According to this data, a total of 104,000,000 production days were lost due to work related injuries in 2017. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data reveals that workplace deaths stood at 5,147 workers across all industries in 2017.
The top 2 workplace injury events resulting in lost days are:
- Overexertion
- Lifting or lowering objects
- Repetitive motions
- Contact with objects and equipment
- Struck by or against object or equipment
- Caught in or compressed by equipment or objects
Unsurprisingly, two of the top five occupations with the largest number of workplace injuries resulting in days away from work are manufacturing/production and construction.
All of the above points to the fact a large number of injuries are happening due to the lack of proper material handling equipment and workplace procedures. The injuries happening due to lifting or lowering objects can be virtually eliminated with the use of positioning equipment.
The occupations like manufacturing and construction are also the ones that usually require an extensive setup of material handling equipment, especially positioning equipment.
Let us see how you can avoid employee injuries with positioning equipment:
- Pneumatic air balancers and air hoists are great tools of positioning equipment for lifting heavy weights. Manual labor should be replaced by these as they are superior in handling weights with safety. Not only with lifting, air balancers have a ‘float’ feature that make the load virtually weightless, enabling the workers to manipulate or work on the load in a far safer way than if done manually. This way, there is no chance of injury due to lifting heavy weights or getting struck by heavy objects. A handy, flexible, and universally deployable hoist is an ideal tool for a wide range of manufacturing and assembly applications. These devices even have a safety overload limit and check valve in case of loss of air supply
- Articulating Jibs are highly useful pieces of equipment when it comes to manufacturing and storage facilities. They are horizontal positioning devices designed to reach areas inaccessible or not easily accessible by workers with safety. Workers have high chances of injury while carrying and moving goods with speed around work cell obstructions like columns and corners, into or under machinery and containers, around open doors and close to the mast or building column. The risk of injury with these tasks can be eliminated by a single piece of machinery – articulating jibs.
Avoiding employee injuries with positioning equipment is beneficial in more ways than one. Not only do you provide your employees with a safer work environment, you also save up cost on compensation claims and absent days. You can shop from our range of positioning equipment, here.