Case Study
Workplace design for a welder

The company is active in the field of mechanical engineering.

The man has severe spastic paralysis of the hands, which leads to a cramped and claw-like posture of the hands and fingers and is therefore severely disabled. His ability to handle loads manually (holding, lifting, carrying and gripping) is very limited.

The man works as a welder at the company.

The welder works at a welding workplace that is separated from the other workplaces in the hall by welding protection walls. At his workplace, he welds complex welded constructions using manual arc welding. During welding, the welding fumes are extracted by a welding fume extraction system. The movable extraction arm with extraction hood makes it possible to position it at the respective welding point. Due to the limited usability of his hands, the welder could only carry out the permanently required changing of the stick electrodes and holding the electrode holder and welding mask during welding with considerable difficulty. Due to his disability, he was therefore unable to carry out the welding work in the specified time and quality.
The workplace therefore had to be adapted to be suitable for disabled people. To relieve the strain on his hands, the welder uses a protective welding helmet, which he no longer has to hold, and a metal arc welding machine with a separate additional swivel arm or balancer with an installed automatic wire electrode feed and welding gun with supply hose. Thanks to the balancer, the employee feels the welding gun is almost "weightless" and the annoying hose no longer lounges on the floor. The frequent changing of stick electrodes is also no longer necessary thanks to the use of the wire electrode, which is fed automatically via feed rollers. The spool of the wire electrode only needs to be replaced after several working days. The welder is also provided with a work chair for working in a seated posture.
In addition to reducing physical strain, the set-up time is reduced and it is easier to guide or hold the welding gun during welding - which also improves productivity and quality.

The metal arc welding machine with strain relief for the welding gun and hoses and an automatic electrode feed was funded by the Integration and Inclusion Office. Advice was provided by the Technical Advisory Service of the Integration and Inclusion Office.