Industrial equipment used in manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, and material handling is often involved in worker fatalities and serious injuries. In 2019, manufacturing accounted for 15% of reported nonfatal worker injuries[1] in the United States, and contact with objects and equipment killed more than 700 workers.[2] Even in non-injury cases, damage to machinery can cost a company millions in lost production time.
ARCCA experts have the qualifications to provide analyses and opinions on complex industrial accidents. Our experts apply forensic techniques, evaluate workplace policies in the context of industrial standards, and conduct engineering analysis of machine guarding and safety design.
Safety Engineering Assessment
Many industrial accident investigations require an assessment of the roles that machine design, workplace policy, and worker behavior played in the accident. ARCCA experts perform these safety assessments by identifying hazards and judging how effectively those hazards were managed. By employing tools like the Engineering Hierarchy of Safety Controls, ARCCA experts can address both the human factors and engineering aspects of complex liability cases.
Evolving Safety Technology
Across every industry the landscape of workplace hazards and safety tools are constantly evolving as new technologies are introduced. Powered industrial trucks with pedestrian detection, laser-based LIDAR and RADAR fusion detection systems, hazard warnings and interlocks, real-time atmospheric monitoring systems and more are becoming common tools for managing workplace hazards. At the same time, technology creates new safety challenges, as humans work alongside automated systems in warehouses, distribution centers, and factories. As workplace hazards and the tools used to manage them become more complex, ARCCA experts keep up with the challenges of the modern workplace. When an industrial accident does occur, ARCCA experts are often called upon to determine how safety devices and workplace safety technologies could have been applied in that workplace.
Materials Failure Analysis
Many industrial failure cases ARCCA has investigated involve failures caused by a choice of material, material processing, or the environment it was exposed to. Some examples include, gaskets in an oxygen supply line cracked, leaked, and caused a fire because it was made of a hydrocarbon material that deteriorated in contact with oxygen. Workers were hurt when a weld repair on an industrial press fractured, launching pieces of metal. Pipes cracked and leaked because it reacted with the building supply water chemical composition. Even though these cases occurred in different devices used in different industries, ARCCA experts involved were able to find the root cause using materials science and engineering.
[1] US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, EMPLOYER-REPORTED WORKPLACE INJURIES AND ILLNESSES – 2019, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/archives/osh_11042020.pdf
[2] US Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, NATIONAL CENSUS OF FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES IN 2019, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf
