Reducing health risks with robotic fiberglass cutting

Fiber­glass is used in the hous­ing, auto­mo­tive and house­hold indus­tries, as well as sev­er­al oth­ers. While it may be use­ful and cost effec­tive, it is also com­posed of mil­lions of tiny glass fibers. Even a sim­ple tap can release thou­sands of these fibers into the air, let alone the fibers released dur­ing the cut­ting process.

When a facil­i­ty uses a man­u­al process for cut­ting fiber­glass, it can cause sev­er­al health prob­lems to work­ers who come into con­tact with these fibers, includ­ing prob­lems with breath­ing and skin irritation.

Fiber­glass fibers can irri­tate the skin, eyes, nose and throat. Work­ers work­ing in direct con­tact with fiber­glass need to wear long-sleeved shirts, gloves, gog­gles and pants to pro­tect their bod­ies from these fibers.

Anoth­er health risk sits inside the worker’s chest. When these fibers are released dur­ing the fiber­glass cut­ting process and inhaled, they can get lodged into the lungs and cause scar tis­sue and tumors. Larg­er fibers can also lead to upper-res­pi­ra­to­ry infec­tions and stom­ach irritation.

These fibers can also get onto cloth­ing and cause con­t­a­m­i­na­tion to the per­son and oth­ers after con­tact. By wash­ing with warm water instead of cold water after close con­tact, fibers can work them­selves into pores, caus­ing infec­tions and oth­er health issues.

While robot­ic fiber­glass cut­ting is faster and more accu­rate than man­u­al appli­ca­tions, the removal of these health risks is one of the main rea­sons man­u­fac­tur­ers should con­sid­er automa­tion of this process.

By tak­ing human work­ers out of direct con­tact with fiber­glass and intro­duc­ing a fiber­glass cut­ting robot to the process, the health risks are cut dra­mat­i­cal­ly. Work­ers are moved behind the robot­ic fiber­glass cut­ter, to an oper­a­tor sta­tion a safe dis­tance away from the fibers released dur­ing the cut­ting process.

Robots​.com, a cer­ti­fied inte­gra­tor for Fanuc, KUKA, ABB, Uni­ver­sal Robots, and Motoman robot­ics, has an array of fiber­glass cut­ting robot sys­tems wait­ing to help you raise the safe­ty stan­dards in your facil­i­ty. For more infor­ma­tion on fiber­glass cut­ting automa­tion, con­tact Robots​.com today online or at 877−762−6881.