• What are the effects of excessive noise?
• Dealing with noise hazards
• Noise control measures
• Audiometric testing
• Noise in industry
  • Music entertainment industry
  • Cabinet making industry
  • Metal fabrication industry
  • Road freight transport industry
  • Shooting ranges

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Cabinet making industry

Noise in the cabinet making industry
Typical noise sources
Noise control measures

Noise in the cabinet making industry

The variety of woodworking, finishing machines and power tools have grown tremendously in the cabinet making industry over the last few decades. This growth has also brought with it steadily increasing noise levels in the workplace.

The noise from wood working machines and power tools may pose a hazard to the hearing abilities of people in the cabinet making industry. This is particularly true where exposures occur for most of the day and with shifts involving working hours in excess of eight hours.

Noise levels from a variety of woodworking machines, staple and nail guns are well above 85dB(A) and generally range between 90 and 105dB(A) at operator positions.

Impulsive type noises, such as from staple or nail guns, generally cause peak levels up to 125dB(A) (higher noise levels are possible). Because of the impulsive nature of this noise and the way our ears operate, impulsive noise is potentially more hazardous to hearing than machine noise.

An added problem is that items such as circular saws, planers and routers or air-driven tools create dominant high frequency noise, which often is tonal as well. Because of this, and the high noise levels involved, further reduction of exposure is required.

Typical noise sources

Some typical noise sources at operator ear level in a cabinet making workshop include:

Noise control measures

As with all risk exposures in the workplace, risk management must be applied through a hierarchy of control measures, for instance elimination, substitution, engineering and/or administrative controls, and as a last resort (or as an interim measure), reliance on protective equipment.

Noise from cabinet making machines should primarily be controlled through engineering and/or administrative noise control measures. These controls include:

• Providing machine enclosures (i.e. multispindle moulding machines). These kinds of machines can, once they have been set up properly, run quite well fully enclosed with acoustically treated feed-in and feed-out tunnels on either end. Noise reductions of up to 30dB(A) can be achieved this way.
• Keeping machines and equipment in top condition through regular and preventative maintenance. Noise reductions of between 3 - 8dB(A) can be achieved this way.
• Reducing vibration and whining noise in circular saws by using saws with vibration damping slots in the blades. Saw blades used in circular saws tend to ring when cutting through material, causing a high pitched whine. The ring is caused by vibration of the blade due to the shock waves from the cutting teeth.
• Providing workers with suitable hearing protectors.