Prevention through design

Safety in Design

What is Safety in Design?

Safety in Design is defined as:

The integration of hazard identification and risk assessment methods early in the design process to eliminate or minimize the risks of injury throughout the life of the product being designed. It encompasses all design including facilities, hardware, systems, equipment, products, tooling, materials, energy controls, layout, and configuration (AS&CC 2006)

Safe design is the method of ensuring the health and safety of individuals who will interact with a product during its entire lifetime. It encompasses not just those people who will operate the product, but also those who will assemble, clean, maintain, repair, and dispose of it. A designer must consider the potential risks and work to reduce them during the entire design phase through careful choices about materials, manufacturing processes, method of use, intended disposal practices, and additional safety features - whether required by law or otherwise.

Successful safe design relies on finding a balance between function, aesthetics, manufacturing costs and other such design aspects without risking the safety of all who will come into contact with the product.

Who is Responsible for Safe Design?

Safe design is influenced at every stage of the process. Those responsible include:

Design: architectural designers, industrial designers, and design engineers;
Supply: importers, plant equipment suppliers, and manufacturers;

Labour: constructors, installers, tradesmen, contractors, and maintenance;
Other parties: clients, developers, land owners, management, health & safety and ergonomic assessment practitioners;
Government: regulation bodies and inspectorate agencies;

How Successful Safety in Design is Achieved

Every decision a designer makes affects the safety and health of all those who will, or may, be affected by the product during the entire course of its lifespan. Even the earliest design choices need to include safety considerations, else considerable work may need to be done later on to retroactively implement health & safety design changes. It is also critical that this approach to safe design is continued throughout the process and addressed in each stage of the asset’s lifecycle.

Why Safe Design Matters

Just a few critical benefits of a safe design are:

Example of Safe Design: The Box Cutter

A box cutter is a small handheld tool that can cut thin material such as plastic film, cardboard, tape, and other packaging materials using a sharp razor blade. It is a tool commonly found in both the home and the workplace and a leading cause of lacerations suffered in industrial workplaces. Workers who use a box cutter or a  utility knife tend to do so multiple times a day, often rushing to open large amounts of packaging in areas where stray, slippery materials are commonly underfoot during unpacking. A safer box cutter can include safety features like a limited exposure to the blade, the ability to retract the blade, and a more ergonomic handle.

Despite most previous safety improvements focusing on an improved handle design, Designers Alfredo Muccino and Scot Herbst took a different approach. They were two designers with a wealth of experience in the field of design and both were renowned for their work. In this case, their work was an improved Box Cutter for Slice inc. Their new vision involved a ‘wrap around’ shape which encourages a more natural grip and guards the user’s hand. The ‘open loop’ shape also allows workers to conveniently hook the box cutter on a belt or pocket between each use.

This improved and highly unique design provides far safer work use. It is also entirely safe to use without protective gloves and disposal is also just as safe; no Sharp Objects disposal box is needed as there is very little chance of accidental injury. Even during use there is little chance of direct blade exposure. Every stroke is safe and controlled.

Another innovative approach that Slice took advantage of is the use of ceramic blades . Prior to this 2011 design, every box cutter used a metal blade which was excessively sharp. Not sharp because they needed to be so sharp to cut through packaging material. No. They were excessively sharp because they dulled quickly, and so a sharper blade would last longer. This is a clear example of function over safety. Slice considered the safety aspect and instead chose to use ceramic, which is 10x as durable as steel and far less dangerous to a user. Slice’s ceramic zirconium oxide cutting blade cuts precisely, with minimal effort, with a blade far less sharp than steel.

Further benefits that arose from taking a safer approach included the chemically inert qualities of these ceramic blades. This translates into zero chance of unwanted or even harmful chemical reactions in industrial application, along with a resistance to bacteria. Ceramic also doesn’t suffer from rust, as steel blades do, and so the costs and labour involved with using lubricants to prevent rust were now completely unnecessary.

Now, industries of all types benefit from this kind of safety knife with ceramic blade. A blade which is:Some safety products by Slice:
Safety Box Cutter Blades by slice
Ceramic Blade Craft Knife
Innovative Utility Knives

More resources:
1-Workplace Safety
2-Design
3-safety ideas