Electric Floor Sawing Risks: At National Drilling Services our management and therefore our operators take health and safety very seriously, whether we are electric floor sawing, drilling, cutting or providing demolition services. If you are thinking about health and safety on a UK construction site, the first thing you probably imagine are hard hats and high-vis clothing. Whilst these are very important to keep our operators safe, there are other less visible factors at risk when providing drilling and sawing services. They include noise levels, dust creation and percussive activities. As you can see the operator in the image is wearing ear defenders to protect him from the persistent noise of the sawing machine. Many of our machines are now operated by remote control which eliminates the percussive risks. But what about the dust?
How do we reduce the risk of dust when electric floor sawing?
It is fairly evident to anyone who has ever cut, sawn or drilled through a hard material whether wood, masonry or reinforced concrete, that the action creates dust. When we are using our electric floor sawing equipment, we use water which has many purposes. Firstly, it cools the blade which gets hot quite quickly as a result of the friction when sawing through a hard material. Secondly the water helps to minimise the dust caused by the electric floor sawing. This means that there is less risk to the operator of dust inhalation and its longer-term health consequences. It also results in less debris to clean up around the cutting area. Using water cleans the electric floor sawing blade which extends the life of the blade. The water removes the dust from the resulting edge as well as the blade, leaving a clean, neat cut.
Electric floor sawing risks – the facts
When we discuss electric floor sawing with site managers or project managers, some of the first questions they ask are about the depth of the cut we can make and the power source we use.
National Drilling services keeps stock of a range of sizes of diamond blades for our electric floor sawing machines. This means we can create cuts up to a depth of 600mm.
As for the power source, we have the option to use petrol, diesel or electric according to what is appropriate or available on site.
To discuss how our electric floor sawing services can provide a service on your site by cutting horizontal slabs, pavements or suspended slabs give us a call on 0161 443 2822.