三菱重工Mezzanine safetig - gates的总裁、三菱重工工业集团ProGMA的主席康韦(Aaron Conway)说，在安装安全设备之前，企业需要确保在防范其他危险的同时不会产生新的危险。

康威说:“增加安全设备来提供坠落保护是一回事，符合OSHA或ANSI的规定，但如果安全设备太笨重，操作起来不方便，你的员工就不会使用它，也不会采取保护措施。”

Before installing safety equipment, companies need to make sure that it doesn’t create new hazards while guard- ing against others, said Aaron Conway, president of MHI member Mezzanine Safeti-Gates and chair of the  MHI Industry Group ProGMA.

“It’s one thing to add safety equip- ment to provide fall protection and meet OSHA or ANSI regulations, but if that safety equipment is too cumbersome to operate, your employees won’t use it and will go unprotected,” Conway said. Safety systems should not depend on someone to make efforts to move, open or close the device. Instead, in the case of pallet drop area fall protection, safety systems should always be closed through the use of a dual-gate system so when one side of the device is opened, the opposite side closes, maintaining a safe environment at all times.

安全系统不应该依靠某人来移动、打开或关闭设备。相反，在托盘掉落区域的坠落保护情况下，安全系统应该通过使用双闸门系统始终关闭，这样当设备的一侧打开时，对面关闭，始终保持一个安全的环境。

由于设置了坠落保护和双闸板安全系统，平台上的工作人员可以根据自己的工作来升降闸板，所以安全装置必须操作简单，符合人体工程学。

“安装员工需要全天移动的重型系统确实解决了防坠落保护的问题，但如果员工不得不移动重物，也会产生新的风险。”他说。如果安全门是手动操作的，公司应该使用平衡门，这样一边的门关闭时有助于另一边的门升高。

With the set up for fall protection and dual-gate safety systems, the employee on the platform will raise or lower the gate depending on the work they are doing, so the safety device must be easy and ergonomic to operate.

“Installing heavy systems that employees need to move throughout the day does solve the problem of fall protection, but also creates a new risk if employees have to move the heavy device,” he said. If the safety gates are manually oper- ated, companies should use counter- balanced gates so the gate closing on one side helps to raise the gate on the other side.

“通过精心设计、平衡的闸门系统，打开和关闭闸门的努力是最小的，”Conway说。设计还可以包括一个液压阻尼器，可以打开闸门。这使得门可以用指尖操作，并控制门的速度，这样门就可以缓慢地、可控地打开和关闭。”

他说，确保安全设备符合人体工程学的另一个选择是为系统增加动力操作。有许多不同的方式来配置电源和技术，从按钮站到远程控制操作，和电源可以添加到现有的安全门。

“With a well-designed, counterbal- anced gate system, the effort to open and close the gates is minimal,” Conway said. “Designs may also include a hydrau- lic damper that opens the gates. This allows the gates to be operated with a fingertip, and controls the speed of the gate so it opens and closes in a slow, con- trolled fashion.”

Another option to ensure safety equipment is ergonomic is to add power operation to the system, he said. There are many different ways to configure power and technology, from push button stations to remote control operations, and power can be added to existing safety gates.

引入生态学

如何安全地执行与物料搬运相关的体力任务是底线——既为了工人的安全，也为了降低昂贵的工人的补偿成本。这就是丹尼斯·唐宁1992年在加州创立未来工业技术公司的动力。

Introducing bionomics

How to safely perform the physical tasks associated with material handling is the bottom line–for both worker safety and reducing expensive workers’ comp costs. This was the impetus behind Dennis Downing founding Future Industrial Technologies Inc. in California in 1992.

在公司最初的研究中，唐宁和他的团队走访了一些已经重新调整了生产流程以使其更符合人体工程学的企业，但他们发现，由于“没有人教他们如何正确使用自己的身体”，他们的员工仍有背部和肩部受伤的经历，这是由于累积的微创伤。

In the firm’s initial research, Downing and his team would go into organizations that had retooled their processes to be more ergonomic, but found that their workers were still experiencing back and shoulder injuries due to cumulative microtrauma “because they were never taught how to use their bodies correctly.”

他说:“我们在人体工程学中创造了一个叫做生物学的领域——教人们身体抬起、弯曲、推拉时的自然法则。”

“然后我们设计了一个程序帮助员工更好地使用他们的身体，无论他们是否在一个符合人体工程学设计的环境中工作。“

“We created a field within ergonomics called bionomics—teaching people the natural laws of the body as they lift, bend, push and pull,” he said. “We then designed a program that would

help employees better use their bodies, whether or not they were working within an ergonomically designed environment.

Our field within ergonomics complements the engineering side with the human side.” The key to changing worker behavior is demonstrating how bionomics benefits them personally, so the firm tailors’ programs for the particular workers attending the workshops.

我们的领域内的人机工程学补充工程方面的人的一面。改变工人行为的关键是展示生物经济学如何使他们个人受益，所以公司为参加研讨会的特定工人量身定做项目。

此外，由于人们学会如何做适当的体育活动“只是做它们”，研讨会包括让与会者练习适当的技术。唐宁说:“在我们的背部安全伤害预防项目中，我们开发了一个实践训练模块，其中我们在一家公司仓库的角落设置了一个障碍课程，工人们在这里练习正确的举起、弯曲、推和拉——因为这与他们的实际工作有关。”“我们发现坏习惯被打破了，这不仅对工人有利，对雇主也有利。” 

Moreover, since people learn how to do proper physical activities “by just doing them,” workshops include having attendees practice proper techniques. “In our Backsafe Injury Prevention Program, we developed a practical training module, in which we set up an obstacle course in the corner of a company’s warehouse, where workers practiced properly lifting, bending, pushing and pulling—as it relates to what they have to actually do in their jobs,” Downing said. “We find that bad habits break down, which not only benefits the workers, but their employers, too.”

（本文英文由KATIE KUEHNER-HEBERT撰写, 原载于MHI Solutions，中文由索斯沃斯市场部翻译）