How to Safely Use a Hydraulic Press

Hydraulic presses are essential in any machine shop, yet can also be dangerous when not used correctly and according to safety protocols.

Keep your workers safe with knowledge, training and diligence. These simple tips can help prevent accidents or machine failures that could cause serious injuries.

Keep Your Hands Out of the Work Area

Hydraulic presses are powerful machines capable of shaping large pieces of metal or strong material. Essential in any shop that must bend, cut, punch, drill or mold materials for molding purposes. However, no machine can completely protect from human error or mechanical breakdown.

Have you seen videos on YouTube showing household objects such as sticky notes, plastic toys and metal kitchen utensils being crushed under hydraulic presses? While these videos may provide dramatic and entertaining entertainment value, these same machines may cause serious injury when not used correctly and pose severe danger.

Keep Your Head Up

Many people enjoy watching videos of household products being crushed under hydraulic presses. Pads of sticky notes disintegrate like bricks, candles burst forth into spectacular flames and kitchen tools are transformed into modern art forms.

Hydraulic presses can be an indispensable asset to machine shops, yet their misuse poses considerable safety risks. To minimize such dangers, all workers should receive proper training on how to utilize these devices.

As part of proper operation, it's also crucial that a hydraulic press be inspected thoroughly for loose or disconnected parts, oil leakage issues or overheating issues that must be immediately addressed.

Keep Your Eyes Protected

Hydraulic presses are powerful tools used in various manufacturing applications. They are useful for bending metal, shaping wood and many other tasks - yet can be potentially hazardous if misused.

Pinch points, crushing and chemical hazards are all potential threats associated with hydraulic press machines. Contact with hydraulic fluid may result in skin irritations, dermatitis and more serious conditions.

Workers should take special care to keep body parts, like hands, out of the danger zone when lowering machinery mechanisms. Personal protective eyewear that fits well will help safeguard against injuries caused by debris flying off machines or other potential risks.

Keep Your Feet on the Floor

People online often watch hydraulic press videos featuring pads of sticky notes cracking apart under extreme pressure, candles being shot through small openings, and metal kitchen utensils being transformed into modern art. Such videos often garner significant viewership due to the strangely satisfying experience of watching something familiar break under pressure.

Hydraulic presses are integral parts of many industrial machine shop operations, yet can also pose significant hazards for employees. Even with proper training, equipment maintenance, risk assessments and risk assessments in place, human error and mechanical failure still occurs from time to time - which makes preventative safety solutions such as failsafe locking systems imperative.

Keep Your Eyes on the Workpiece

A hydraulic press can generate tremendous force, crushing or pinching fingers or body parts that come close to its ram stroke area. Furthermore, its force can shatter objects into sharp pieces that fly away into space.

Electrical hazards present another hazard to hydraulic systems. They rely heavily on electricity, and improper installation or use could result in shocks or fires if installed and used incorrectly.

Hydropresses can be loud and can lead to hearing-related issues with prolonged exposure. Wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE), such as safety glasses or face shields, steel-toed boots, gloves and hearing protection devices is one way of mitigating these risks.

Keep Your Hands Clean

Hydraulic presses can be valuable tools in machine shops and can shape various materials into unique forms. However, they pose serious safety risks if misused or maintained incorrectly.

One of the best ways to prevent machine failure and injury is through routine preventative maintenance, which ensures all parts and fluids are in top shape.

Maintain a clean work area to prevent unnecessary materials from accidentally feeding into or clogging up machinery, and increase worker safety around hydraulic presses. RK Machinery offers a Security Kit designed to comply with OSHA's safety standards as an additional way of improving worker protection.