The Importance of Proper Welding Safety Gear

Welding is a skill that folks across industries use everyday to keep business and industry moving. It’s a vital process for modern manufacturing, but it also poses risks to a welder’s safety that should not be ignored. Proper welding safety gear is vital to ensuring a welder’s health and safety, but it also makes for a better work environment and, often, a better end product. 

What Are Welding Hazards?

Welding involves high temperatures, hazardous materials, and very bright lights. These extreme conditions also include noxious gases and the potential for splattering hot metal. A welder’s eyes are particularly at risk since they are naturally so sensitive and easily injured. The electromagnetic energy, also known as radiant energy or light radiation, that’s given off by arc welding can seriously injure a welder’s eyes. Burning by hot metal slag, injuries from flying particles, skin damage and breathing irritation caused by welding smoke, gases, or chemicals are all very common risks that need to be addressed ahead of time, with the correct safety protocols and equipment.

What Welding Safety Gear Do You Need?

Welding safely begins with having the right personal protective equipment at your fingertips and knowing how best to work in the space you have. You’ll also want to familiarize yourself with established safety protocols and take them seriously. They exist because of real and present risks, and also because someone before you suffered the consequences of not following the protocol. 

Once you’re clear on how to go about welding safely, don’t cut corners with the equipment. To be fully protected, a welder should always have the following equipment on hand:

• Helmet: protects the head and face from high temperatures and molten metal, and an incorporated lens shade protects eyes as well
• Fire-resistant clothing: prevents injury from a spark or splatter of hot metal
• Steel-toed boots: boots with non-conductive soles prevent injury from falling objects and prevent electrical injury
• Gloves: protect hands from burns, heat, light radiation, sharp metal, and potential electric shock
• Safety glasses: protect the eyes from projectiles and bright lights, but can also offer clarity for more detailed and precise work
• Respirator: prevents the inhalation of dangerous gases and vaporized byproducts of the metals used to weld 
• Hearing protection: ear plugs or earmuffs prevent hearing damage from the loud sounds produced during the welding process
• Welding Screens/Curtains: this additional layer of protection is more for other workers and the welding area, ensuring that the welder can focus and work safely even with others around

Head to toe, you should be outfitted and equipped to weld with safety as your top priority. All in all, protective equipment helps welders to stay safe, but it also ensures quality work since the welder isn’t rushed or reactive. If you need to, be smart and take a break to ensure that you have the necessary concentration to weld safely. When safety procedures are followed and protective equipment is used, errors and accidents are avoided and welds are properly formed, resulting in a high quality finished product.

As one of the leading welding companies near Cleveland, M&M Certified Welding Co. also offers a full range of welding supplies for welders in the Cleveland and Akron areas. Browse our list of welding supplies and equipment.

Use Your Space Wisely

Besides using personal protective equipment, following safety protocols in the space where you’re working is important too. Adequate ventilation while welding ensures that harmful gases and vapors can quickly be carried away from the work site, posing less of a threat to your respiratory health. Exposure to these fumes is a serious risk that calls for excellent ventilation as a prevention method. If welding outdoors, work with nature and position yourself so that you can use the natural air flow to blow fumes away from your work area. If working indoors, mechanical ventilation is the way to go.

It is also vital to keep flammable materials away from a work space to prevent large scale fires and explosions resulting from the high temperatures used while welding. Regular equipment checks and inspections are also key to ensure that your welding equipment is in good working order and safe to use. Ideally, you would do this before each welding session for the very safest and most responsible approach. Check for wear or damage on cables and connections, cracks or exposed wires on your electrode holder, and replace any components that appear damaged or compromised in any way. Check with your local authorities or welding companies in Cleveland to learn of additional industry standards to follow, and carry them out to the letter for a safe operation, each and every time you weld.

Welding Services In Cleveland

Don’t risk your short- or long-term health and live to weld another day when you use all the necessary welding safety equipment and make the smartest and safest use of your work space. It’s good to know too that welding safety equipment is not a one-size-fits-all category–you have plenty of options on the market so that you can find equipment you’ll actually use and wear. Check out our array of safety products and contact us to find those just-right pieces.

And if you aren’t the welder yourself, but you’re looking for welding companies in Cleveland that offer mobile welding services or can handle custom fabrication and truck body fabrication, you’ve come to the right place. The expert welders at M&M Certified Welding do professional work and always use their safety equipment. Check out our gallery, see what our customers are saying, and get a quote for your next welding project. We can’t wait to get started–contact us today!