| | | | | | We suffered our first blood letting because of razor sharp edge clamps (DEK 265LT) and operator giving it the finger. While positioning magnetic tooling pins, one of our best slipped and really sliced off a part of his main digit. This will impact his ability to promote proper road rage inducement for some time - not to mention other possible and important uses for the ever popular middle finger. | | | | | | | | | | | | We now cover the clamp edges during tooling pin setup and all operations where the operator might tangle with the little devils. Just thought I'd share this happening with all you DEK printers. | | | | | | | | | | | | Earl Moon | | | | | | | | | | | Earl, | | | | | That's always been a very unintelligent feature on the DEK printers. You're not kidding when you say that clamp is razor sharp. I've peeled my pinky on it a couple of times. The other bad thing about that overclamp is the standoff it creates on the edge of the board. I had a packed board once with fine pitch out near the edges and there were no breakaways on the board. I'll be damned if the row of leads on the fine pitch device nearest the clamp didn't always short on me. Edge clamping is the way to go. Overclamping just doesn't cut it..... oh wait a minute, in defense of DEK, at least it cuts the operator. | | | | | | | | | | Justin | | | | | | | | | Justin, | | | | | | | | Great to see from you again. Yes, I know of that which you speak concerning getting the stencil down on fine pitch. There is a space. | | | | | | | | Why doesn'e DEK do something useful like providing real edge clamps or push ins like normal people. Maybe the head chopping (can't spell guillotine) isn't over in merry old England. | | | | | | | | Thanks for the response, | | | | | | | | Earl Moon | | | | | | Gentlemen, | | | | | | Sorry to be a bore but if you carried out risk assessments on your processes you would have been aware of the the hazards and your guy might still have his digit undamaged. | | | Old adage: A craftsman never blames his tools. | | | | | | Tony B | | | | | | No boredom taken. Point well made. Risk assessment effective. Safety procedures not effective when not followed. This was a message to all concerning safety when working in and around moving, sharp, and otherwise "onr'y chinery" because it can be dangerous out there. | | | | I'm glad everyone uses the head support assembly. I would hate, one morning, to see the DEK "Trex" having an operator's legs sticking out of its mouth. | | | | Also, I am growing rather fond of the "DEKster" except for those notable exceptions. I've always been an MPM kind of guy, but DEK has a lot to offer. It would be even better without the sharp edges. | | | | Earl Moon | | | Tony, | Slap to the head well taken. I'm relatively new to this kind of thing and I would have never even thought to consider an operator injury type assessment. I kind of thought it was always an unwritten rule, "As long as you keep your paws out of it, when it runs, you're all set." Thanks for the lesson. | | Sincerely, | Justin Medernach | Mfg. Eng. | Flextronics Int'l | PIC East | Everyone,
The lesson in all this has to be protect your most valuable investment. It is not the equipement. It is the operator. Risk assessment is the first place to start, in some people's minds. Who would have thought about injury taking from production efficiency and effectiveness.
I think Tony did. However, after making the right evaluation comes the safety then material handling procedure.
It's fine to have the best facilities, equipment, and tools. Without well trained process managers, there is nothing.
Earl Moon
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