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The first of the general objectives of the National Strategy in the field of health and safety at work for the period 2018 - 2020 in Romania was “a better implementation of the choice of occupational safety and health legislation, especially in micro-enterprises and SMEs”.In this context, this paper presents the main vulnerabilities of management in SMEs, where the occupational safety and health component has a formal role being strongly influenced by economic factors. The first part presents a statistical situation of the verification campaigns, carried out in the last 3 years by Labor Inspection, on how SMEs have implemented health and safety legislation in their activities, subsequently, an analysis is made of the economic factors that have limited the development of health and safety management. Finally, a cost-benefit analysis is presented on the economic consequences that occur in the event of an accident and / or illness that demonstrates the theory that economic factors influence the management of health and safety and health specific to SMEs both before and after an event occurs.

According to the ATEX directive, any personal protective equipment or work equipment intended to be used in a potentially explosive area must be made of materials that cannot be the source of mechanical or static electricity-related sparks. The carbon steel is one of the most widely used metallic materials, but the possibility of using it in the manufacture of equipment used in explosive environments is low. Therefore, the purpose of this article is to present an alternative solution to use metal equipment in potentially explosive atmospheres, by depositing a phosphate layer on the surface of the carbon steel. The metal was coated by a simple process, the metal being immersed in a phosphating solution based on zinc. Due to the properties of zinc phosphate deposited on the steel surface, especially electrical insulating, the steel coated with this type of layer can be used in explosive atmosphere.

In few specific applications the explosive potential of environment in case of sparks presence is very high, like petroleum or natural gaseous media or even grain mills, and usage of non-sparking materials is extremely important. The damage produce by an explosion can be more expensive, 1000 times, than the cost of the metallic elements that can produce sparks. In case of working gears, that can produce sparks in time, is recommended the use of special metallic materials. The most used material for gears is steel and in this case can be replaced with a bronze with aluminum and beryllium to reduce the possibility of sparks production. In this article the obtaining of an aluminum bronze with beryllium is analyzed and is considered the possibility to use it as alloy for gears proposed for explosive environments.

This paper aims to study the possibility of improving the chemical and surface characteristics of the Ti6Al4V alloy by depositing phosphate layers on its surface. Accordingly, an innovative phosphating solution was developed and used in a chemical conversion process to obtain Ca–Zn phosphate layers on the base material surface. Moreover, the chemical composition of the phosphate solution was chosen considering the biocompatibility of the chemical elements and their possibility of contributing to the formation of phosphate compounds. The obtained layer was characterized by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and potentiodynamic polarization tests. The wetting of the Ca–Zn sample surface was also investigated using water and two liquids similar to body fluids, namely, Ringer and Dulbecco solutions. According to the surface energy study, the polar component is almost two times larger compared with the dispersive one. The SEM and EDS tests revealed a uniformly coated surface with intercalated crystals leading to a rough surface. Furthermore, the XRD results showed not only the presence of hopeite and scholzite but also of phosphophyllite. By the vibrations of the PO4−3 groups, the FTIR test confirmed the presence of these phases. The potentiodynamic tests revealed that the samples coated with the Ca–Zn phosphate layer present better corrosion resistance and a lower corrosion rate compared with the uncoated ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In cases where an explosive atmosphere contains several types of inflammable and/or combustible gases, steams or powders, the protection measures must be appropriate to the highest possible danger. However, the employer must pay special attention to the workplace and to any factor that can influence the working conditions, especially to those related to the workers. Therefore, any device, tool or equipment used by the human operator must possess special properties. In addition to protective clothing, workers who work at heights must receive personal protective equipment against falling that includes multiple linking elements known as carabiners. The carabiners used in this equipment must be made of non-sparking material. The aim of this paper is to propose a spark characteristic improvement of carbon steel used in carabiners manufacturing by deposition of zinc phosphate coating.

In a continuously changing world where the human operator still plays an important role in most industrial activities, health and safety occupies a fundamental place, with the goal of maintaining workers healthy and in safe condition during their job activities. One of the means that make this goal achievable is the use of adequate personal protective equipment. The carabiners are connecting parts that link the components quickly and reversibly of personal protective equipment used against falls. Thus shackles can be divided in multiple elements, such as: the gate, which always opens inward and can be provided with or without the locking system, the second and the biggest element is the body which can have different form according to the BS EN 12275:2013 standard, the gate and the body are connected thru the rivet pin and nose. The personal fall arrest system used in areas such as construction, speleology, petroleum industry, includes metal components that must possess high mechanical properties, especially shock-resistance. In order to improve resilience, a layer of rubber paint will be deposited on the carabiner surface. The aim of this study is to analyse the influence of rubber coating on the carabiners shock resistance.

Occupational health and safety (OHS) is one of the most important problem of a company because each manager should consider the workers as the most valuable resource of the enterprise. This issue is all the more important as in the last decades, the types of OHS risks have changed due to technological, social and economic advances, and companies should use new approaches and instruments to control and manage these risks. The paper focuses on the application of OHS management system as an important instrument for managers to ensure healthy workplaces for all workers, addressing not only OHS management but also quality management, environmental management and social responsibility issues in an integrated context. The results are represented by practical instruments that any organization should use to assess its OHS performance. Also, the theoretical and practical aspects presented here could be easily integrated in the existing or new designed procedures of the company. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Protective helmets are very important components of individual fire-fighting equipment. They have different roles including: protecting the head from throwing objects, protecting from high temperatures or electrical shocks. In order to be used, they must ensure the absorption of shocks in the upper part of the head, to have penetration resistance, to have lateral crush resistance, to provide protection against hot liquids and high temperature resistance. The helmet material has to provide the same properties when is exposed to 90 ± 5° for 20 minutes in the area of the upper head and ear, and at 180 ± 5° for 5 minutes in the area of the neck protector. At the moment, fire-fighting helmets are made of high-quality polymers. This paper aims to analyse the thermal behaviour of a new material useful for fire-fighting helmets: hot modelling material, under the form of a glass fibre-reinforced bismaleimide composite material, compared to a molded polypropylene injection. Thermal analysis will be performed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and Dynamo Mechanical Analysis (DMA) and the thermal properties of the new material will be highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Application of the occupational safety self-assessment starts with a document containing dashboard, description of the company (name, location, object activity, organization etc.), description of the work detailing with its components and a brief description of the method of self-evaluation. It continues with a Microsoft Excel document, that is the actual application method and a second document presenting conclusions and prioritizing proposals that may lead to the execution of the protection and prevention. In this paper we treat the implementation of the Microsoft Excel document as an essential part of the self-assessment of safety. The document is divided into four worksheets showing self-assessment items, standard grid, qualitative self-assessment and quantitative self-assessment. The qualitative self-assessment provides the “Strengths – Weaknesses” details on each component of the work system; the quantitative self-assessment presents both the ratings of the assessment and the score obtained for the components of the work system - people, equipment, materials, environment – for each workplace/workstation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowing the friction coefficient to plastic deformation is needed because on the basis of it is estimated the necessary deformation forces depending on which is chosen the deformation machine, is determined manner in which deformation occurs and according to this is established the deformation technology. The paper presents theoretical and experimental conditions for determining the friction coefficient between semi-finished deformation tools, in the case of plastic deformation of the aluminium by rings pressing method. Also, are explained, processed and discussed the results of experimental tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]