A study of the thermal environment in non-ferrous foundries.

Foundries where non-ferrous metals are cast are often very hot and it is not uncommon in the height of summer for a foundry to be closed shortly after midday because conditions become too hot for sustained work. This survey of typical working environments in such foundries was made at the request of a Joint Standing Committee of the Ministry of Labour and National Service consisting of representatives of the employers and trade unions concerned, which was charged with studying safety, health, and welfare in non-ferrous foundries. The work done in these foundries fell into two main categories; in the first were tasks which involved only short exposures to intense heat, while in the second were tasks involving exposure to a hot environment continuously throughout the shift. The results of this survey show that it was only possible by the standard methods to measure very roughly the exposure in the former category of work but that a more accurate assessment could be made of the severity of the heat stress in the latter division. From the observations made in this study it has been possible to indicate the main features which gave rise to the uncomfortably warm environments. A furnace was subsequently designed in which many of these undesirable features were omitted, with the result that working conditions were much improved and the efficiency of the use of fuel was increased markedly.