Something Old, Something New, be OSHA Compliant or They’ll Fine You!

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I recently took on the task of getting a pair of 50 year old vintage bicycles up to snuff for riding once more.  They hadn’t moved in about 30 years, so I knew it was a tall order.  After replacing the tires, tubes and disassembling, cleaning and lubricating a 3 speed transmission (a mechanical wonder!), I decided to strip off some of the rusted old accessories.  One of these was a battery operated headlight.

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Aside from being damaged beyond repair, the headlight was outdated to say the least.  For comparison, a modern LED bicycle light is shown on the left.  These two lights have little to nothing in common.  The one of the left is powered by a rechargeable Li-Ion battery.  The one on the right uses disposable alkaline batteries.  The one on the left is made of weather resistant materials like aluminum and rubber.  The one on the right is made of steel (very pitted and rusty steel at this point…).  The one on the left is easy to mount on just about any tube of a bike frame and lightweight.  The one on the right has a special bracket that has to be mounted on the gooseneck and has enough mass to anchor a 60 foot yacht.

The point is that the old light wasn’t just rusted beyond repair, it wasn’t worth repairing even if it could have been.  Ever see that in your manufacturing environment? A blowgun that has a stuck trigger for instance.  Maybe it could be repaired, but what about that non-OSHA compliant nozzle it has attached to it?  Whatever meager savings you might get from trying to repair the old gun and continuing using an unsafe blowoff could quickly be offset by and OSHA fine.  Time to upgrade to an EXAIR Precision Safety Air Gun , Soft Grip Safety Air Gun or Heavy Duty Safety Air Gun!

Don’t get me wrong – I ABHOR the throw away society I see around me in the world today.  Why else would I bother to fix up two 50 year old bikes?  But sometimes it’s best to replace the old thing with something new that is safer and more efficient – like an LED bike light, or an OSHA compliant EXAIR Safety Air Gun.  Need help figuring out which Safety Air Gun to use? Our experienced Application Engineers are just a phone call away!

Dan Preston
Engineer-at-large
DanPreston@exair.com
@EXAIR_DP

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