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Thread: We need to talk about safety

  1. #1
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    We need to talk about safety

    Warning: this will be a long text. Tl;dr can be found at end of rant.

    Okay, safety may not be the most amusing subject, but there must be a serious discussion about this within Formula. And no, not testing safety, I’d say that driving and testing safety is a discussion topic that is alive and well. We need to talk about safety in the shop and in the pits.

    I’ve been seriously involved in Formula since 2010, and went to my first competition in 2012. In that time, I’ve talked to a lot of people from different teams and followed many teams and competitions in social media. And of course, I’ve seen what members of our team have done. I know what I, though trying to be as safety-concerned as possible, have done. So, while anecdotic, there is a lot of stuff behind this rant. I’m scared that someone will hurt them self very seriously very soon, and that it will affect Formula as we know it. I’ve been on this board for a long time, and I can’t remember that this has been discussed.

    I’ve heard about people getting thermoset allergies and people getting way too close to scalp themselves in the mill. I’ve heard about people almost taking team mates out by starting the lathe with the chuck key still in the chuck. I can, without really making an effort, find photos online of teams cooking and eating food in the composite room (being a couple of meters from rolls of prepreg CFRP, and where everything should be seen as contaminated from unhardened thermosets) or doing wet layup of carbon fiber using gloves I would not use as protection for anything more potent than hand soap. I can find photos of more than sketchy setups in manual mills (the good old kind where you can touch everything and there are no protective casing), and people with no protective gear working by the machine. I could probably find people working an angle grinder like it’s a children’s toy as well. In here we are posting about welders’ wearing shorts and a shirt, nothing more. We are laughing about all-nighters and doing stupid stuff because we are so tired that we can’t think straight. This needs to stop! And for the sake of killing that argument: no, none of these examples are from young teams or teams that “could not know better”, they come from teams that should know better or are something that everybody working in a mechanical workshop should be aware of.

    I’ve seen some pretty atrocious handling of chemicals, be it at the workshop or competition, and some teams have posted clear evidence of starting and running their engine in a closed, small and not nearly enough ventilated room at campus on their own communication channels.

    I’ve heard rumours about students that got relegated more or less due to Formula, or more specifically their involvement in Formula. Assuming that this is actually true, what should be a fun thing to do beside your degree studies, have gotten some people thrown out of university. Is it really worth that much?

    Of course, sometimes there will be a need to take risks. That is, I believe, the difference between building and thinking. But there is no need to take unnecessary risks. And there seems to be a very low level of understanding what kind of risk there is. How many have done an all-nighter by the lathe? How many of you have done it, and have the scars to prove it? I’ve done stupid things myself, I won’t even try to argue otherwise, but seeing teams doing the same mistakes over and over; maybe we need to help each other here. How can we do so?

    We have a competition where large parts of the 100+ page rule book emphasizes on safety of the end product, but almost no discussion about what happens to the people building the car and not just the one driving it. I don’t feel all that comfortable about that.

    How many of those working with carbon fiber (or fibreglass, for that matter) in your team really know what they are handling? Do you have some sort of safety training before letting people out in the workshop in your team? Does anyone check up on the shop safety gear to make sure that they’re still, you know, safe?

    I’m not sure if I have the solution for this; saying that “safety” should be included as an event at competition is easy but I don’t think that is the correct way to go. But maybe it could be a part of design, questioning if not just performance, reliability and cost but also manufacturing and safety have been taken into consideration? And no, I have not seen a correlation between safety concerns and good design.

    I think the first part is to talk about this, and start thinking about what we can do. I have my PhD student position and some of my best friends to thank Formula for, and I really don’t want anyone to get hurt while doing this. I don’t think anyone wants that. I would hate to see something that has given me so much hurt someone else. In the event of a serious incident, there are two parts; one personal tragedy and one negative impact on the competition. Universities are usually quite safety-cautious, and hearing about people getting hurt will not help convincing faculties that this is needed.

    Tl;dr: building stuff is dangerous, but don’t be an idiot. Read manuals, do some thinking: even if it is legal, it might not be safe. And being cautious won’t take as long time as you think. Formula needs to get safer, or I’m afraid something awful will happen.
    __________________
    Fredrik Henriksson
    PhD Student at Linköping University

    ELiTH Racing 2009-2014
    Now: Grumpy old man and workplace safety lecturer

    Please note that my comments does not reflect the opinions or values of Linköping University, ELiTH Racing/LiU Formula Student or their related sponsors.

  2. #2
    Frederik,

    Although I am not part of any of the FS / FSAE technical inspection teams (a very valuable and challenging job), I will react here as design judge who is concerned about active safety (how to avoid the crash) and passive safety (how to minimize the crash consequences). If I see something doubtful on car I will report to the Chief Design Judge who will report it to the TI for an additional inspection.

    I thought you were going to speak about the car and the dynamics events safety at the track. Not that I do not want to care about your considerations; I welcome them and I sure will welcome the exchange of ideas on this forum.

    But safety at the workshop is not unique to FSAE / FS cars manufacturing, building and testing and is first and foremost an issue that has been to deal by each of the universities.
    Claude Rouelle
    OptimumG president
    Vehicle Dynamics & Race Car Engineering
    Training / Consulting / Simulation Software
    FS & FSAE design judge USA / Canada / UK / Germany / Spain / Italy / China / Brazil / Australia
    [url]www.optimumg.com[/u

  3. #3
    Senior Member
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    Two separate thoughts:

    Short story from over 10 years ago, it's not just machines and chemicals that are dangerous -- I know a student who fell off a raised storage area (high storage in a high-bay shop) and landed on his head. This was in a last minute rush to complete the car and sleep deprivation was a primary cause. While I don't have all the details, he was badly injured/concussed and nearly died, intensive care for perhaps a week. Luckily, he made a full recovery, but it took most of a year out of his life.

    Perhaps the best safety advice I ever received for working around machine tools was from a uni instructor who was also a genius craftsman. He said that when the machine starts making noise and vibration, "you become another person", meaning that ordinary reactions might not work the same way. The solution is very easy -- when working around moving equipment, go into slow motion so that everything you do is "closed loop". Avoid actions like a quick brush of the hand to remove some chips. The same task can be accomplished slowly with eyes completely tracking hand motions.

    I was student "monitor" in a wood shop during university, full of high speed cutters and blades. No one was injured on my watch, which I believe was partly due to the slow motion training. Touch wood, it's still working for me, I still have all my fingers.

  4. #4
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    Claude, with all due respect, I think that you're missing my point. I think that the work being done to ensure safe cars and safe tracks at competition is great, and something we all need to work with. But that is a topic that is already being discussed, and I think we need to talk about other aspects as well.

    I'd say that the combination of ambitions, time constraints, resources and lack of experience is quite unique to Formula. This is a combination that creates dangerous situations. And no matter how not unique the situation would be, if someone hurt themself really badly it will end up as something that will affect the Formula Student/SAE Community.

    Also; looking at the recent rules about testing videos from FSG (where posting of videos showing unsafe testing conditions would push the team to the end of the scrutineering queue if I remember correctly), clearly testing is not seen as something primarly for the universities to solve themselves.

    Doug: There are definately more dangers than those I described, I just took the ones I'm personally aware of. I'm happy that the guy recovered, but I hope that some sort of debate or discussion here can result in fewer of these accidents. The advice you shared is easy to follow and great, and I'll talk to people in my team about it as well as use it myself!
    __________________
    Fredrik Henriksson
    PhD Student at Linköping University

    ELiTH Racing 2009-2014
    Now: Grumpy old man and workplace safety lecturer

    Please note that my comments does not reflect the opinions or values of Linköping University, ELiTH Racing/LiU Formula Student or their related sponsors.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by DougMilliken View Post
    Perhaps the best safety advice I ever received for working around machine tools was from a uni instructor who was also a genius craftsman. He said that when the machine starts making noise and vibration, "you become another person", meaning that ordinary reactions might not work the same way. The solution is very easy -- when working around moving equipment, go into slow motion so that everything you do is "closed loop". Avoid actions like a quick brush of the hand to remove some chips. The same task can be accomplished slowly with eyes completely tracking hand motions.
    The good advice was "Don't put your fingers/hand where you wouldn't put your c**k"
    Brent

    3rd world solutions for real world problems.

    UoA FSAE 2004-2008

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