Alright....major accomplishments. Well last year our team won the safety award at the Houston regional and we are becoming really successful in building an entire safety plan for the whole team to follow. Periodically we'll have safety experts come in and talk to us about safety. At the beginning of the "Green Machine Pilot Program", we had an expert on Hydrogen and Hydrogen safety from airgas come in and talk to us.
Currently having our lab on one of the largest oil refineries in the world has allowed us to integrate safety more into our culture than make it just about wearing safety goggles. The most important part that we have found in acknowledging safety is keeping our work area clean, pretty obvious right...Now this is often hard to carry through after you have worked countless hours on your robot and it's now tomorrow
...So I would recommend thoroughly cleaning your lab before any work begins.
Probably the most major cause for safety concern currently is the new mill that we just got. We were lucky enough to get a grant from ConocoPhillips. It was given as a volunteer grant for our two mentors who work more with us than they do at their actual jobs there. So recently we had a parent come in who has had 15+ years of experience working with mills and machinery come in and talk to a few students individually about the inner workings of the mill. But right now we're adapting to the mill very slowly, making sure any member that works with it is under constant supervision (mentor or student
).
Also, don't use horrible safety goggles that makes it look like snow and white scratches have somehow managed to cover your entire robot
. Go out and ask one of your sponsors or something to donate a few pairs even if it's only 1 or 2.
At competition, besides just having a Safety Captain, we also have one of the greatest pit managers EVER...Last year he did a GREAT job at keeping the entire pit in an orderly fashion; making sure all the tools were put back in there respective spots, keeping all the batteries charged and ordered, and, on top of that, he kept the amount of foot trafic in our pit area to a minimum. This is a great asset to have along with the safety captain.
Alright, any comments or questions, just give me a holler.