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Reviewing past accidents is one way to identify hazards caused by advanced manufacturing systems and to manage accident prevention efforts. However, only a limited amount of data is currently available on industrial accidents due to advanced manufacturing environments, or these data cannot be easily distinguished from general industrial accident statistics. The main objective of this study was to examine the self-reported accident data attributed to advanced manufacturing environments, based on the results of an anonymous questionnaire requesting information about one serious accident that occurred in the respondents' plant. The presented results are based on the analysis of 103 reported cases. A majority of the accidents occurred within the context of the stand-alone automated equipment, followed by flexible manufacturing systems or cells. The injured personnel were operators of automated equipment (67%), followed by maintenance or repair personnel (20%). Typical activities performed at the time of the accident were related to production disturbances, such as clearing a blockage, fault finding or rectification, and adjustment of part or machine. In 55% of the analyzed accidents and 75% of the robot accidents, the manufacturing equipment was in the automatic operating mode. In 74% of the reported accidents, the safeguarding applied to the involved equipment was claimed to be inadequate. The above results suggest a need for the design of more effective safety systems that would not interfere with the human operator's work. The study results were also compared to results of previous studies of accidents in advanced manufacturing environments. 0

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No abstract

Manufacturing automation has eliminated many traditional risks of injury, but new types of risks have appeared. In the United States only a limited amount of data is available on automated manufacturing-related accidents, or these data cannot be distinguished from general accident data. The purpose of this study was to collect data on accidents related to advanced manufacturing systems (CIMS). A questionnaire requesting information on one serious computer-integrated accident that occurred in the respondent's plant was used to collect the data. The presented results are based on the analysis of 85 cases. The cases included six fatal injuries, as well as several severe injuries that led to amputation. The results confirm the need to pay more attention to prevention of production disturbances in CIMS, especially in the case of material handling equipment. A relatively large amount of cases involving defeated safety devices calls for the design of intelligent safety systems that protect the human operator, but do not interfere with the work to be done, even during the disturbance situations.