Safety engineering is the process of designing workplaces to prevent accidents. Engineering Safety Concepts provides detailed approaches and modes for accident reduction by using a risk management process to identify and “design out” hazards.
Accidents can and do happen. Workplaces and factories which may use machinery, chemicals, and other potentially hazardous elements, are always possible sites for accidents which may cause injury, or even death if a comprehensive engineering safety approach is not taken..ly.
The multidisciplinary nature of safety engineering means that a very broad array of professionals are actively involved in accident prevention or safety engineering.
Engineering Safety by Design
Safety engineering concepts provide the structure for both safety and industrial design engineers to develop intrinsically safe equipment, systems, processes and facilities. When employed early in a design process, safety engineers provide insight into how people will interface with the equipment and facility design. Ideally, early on safety design will ensure not only safe design for people, but also, a safe operational concept that will carry over into capabilities for the facility to handle industrial and non-industrial incidents and minimize the cause-effect. Engineered safety includes fail safe process equipment, fault-tolerant equipment, fire safety features and enclosed hazardous systems that prevent exposure to both workers and the environment.
Safety engineering also is the key component for eliminating hazards that would otherwise be controlled by either administrative controls or use of personal protective equipment as a barrier between a hazard and a worker. These engineered safeguards include machine guards, selection of less hazardous equipment, development of maintenance schedules to ensure equipment safety, audit and inspection procedures, selection of safer tools, safety review of new equipment, employee maintenance training, safe design of the flow of material and people through a facility and risk analysis for both possible man-made and natural incidents.
Safe engineered design concepts include all environmental aspects of the workplace such as lighting, noise levels, atmospheric contaminants, ambient and localized temperature extremes, slip resistance of flooring materials, emergency escape routes and fire suppression and alarm systems.
Safety evaluation of in-coming utilities includes ensuring backup supplies for process critical systems for both power and water. Electrical systems are evaluated to prevent additional facility expansion or equipment from creating stresses to the electrical distribution system.