Fluid Power Journal

Safety Focus

Beware of Getting HOSED

By Jamie Vokes, CFPCC Various kinds of mobile and industrial equipment use hydraulics in one form or another. While hydraulics is a very efficient use of energy to perform heavy-duty operations, very few people take the time to investigate some of the component parts of a hydraulic system. Even fewer have a formal inspection or maintenance […]

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Plan, Train, and Maintain for Safety Success

by Carl Potter, CSP and Deb Potter, PhD Safety discussions often lead to conversations about which rules and regulations will drive us to a zero-injury workplace. The issue is that many workers know the rules and regulations yet do not know how to apply them to achieve the goal that nobody gets hurt. If we […]

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Are You Competent When it Comes to Safety?

“Imagine a worksite where everyone takes responsibility for hazard recognition and control.” Competency – it’s a word we hear bantered about when we discuss a worker’s knowledge, skills, and aptitude with regard to safety. Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a fully competent workforce, where every person was fully capable of […]

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Workplace Complacency

Are We Looking at Safety From the Wrong Angle? Having worked with many industry groups over the past 25 years as an association chief executive and more recently, as an entrepreneur in the marketing-communications arena, I’m fortunate to have been exposed to dozens of industries. Some included industrial manufacturing and distribution, financial, aviation, utilities, healthcare, […]

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Technology Overview: Blue Light Inspection Kit

Helps Reduce the Hazards of High-Pressure Fluid Injection Injuries Maintenance personnel who work on heavy equipment are outfitted with hardhats, steel-toed boots, gloves, and safety glasses—all precautionary measures against accidents. But what about fluid power system safety? Mining, oil and gas, construction, and agriculture are among a multitude of industries that use equipment outfitted with […]

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Fluid Injection Injury

When I was working for a mining company, I realized an area that everyone could learn and/or refresh their knowledge in was safety, and with this in mind, I researched and investigated fluid injection injuries. The International Fluid Power Society (IFPS) believes that implementation of safe procedures is paramount in all fluid power systems, the […]

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An Employer’s Guide to Hydraulic Safety Awareness Training

Many occupational standards and regulations explicitly require employers to train employees in the health and safety aspects of their workplace. Occupational Health and Safety standards make it the employer’s legal responsibility to limit certain tasks to employees who are certified, competent, or qualified—meaning that they have completed special training to perform specific duties and are […]

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Key to Surviving Hydraulic Failure

Seal failure is inevitable, and seals are 99% less likely to be on the inspection list. If seals are in an inspection program, then it has been determined that these seals are critical in your particular application. A critical seal would be one that if failure occurs would create a hazard for personnel and/or the […]

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Hydraulics and the Environment

Component failure is often the root cause of hydraulic spills to the environment. In this article, we won’t discuss environmentally friendly fluids, but instead lean more toward the effects of failure and prevention. Spill control methods for hydraulic failure are containment, adsorbents, and establishing protocols. Stepping back to the root cause is where we should […]

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Determining Root Causes

We have read hundreds of incident reports in which some of the injuries were minor to several incidents that resulted in multiple fatalities. There are some very good investigators out there, however, there are very few investigators who are experienced enough with hydraulic systems and components to drill deep into the root cause. Language is […]

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