During the assembly of a pcb the operator is now guided in the selection and placing of components on the board by two separate beams of light. One is used for tracing x and y axes on the board to give component location and the other, which is brought into use by a signal from either the foot pedal or by a push- but ton location on the keyboard, is switched on and projects a spot of light on to the appropriate component bin. Each Trescomp assembly station can present up to nine different component bins on the panel facing the operator at any one time. There is, however, a choice of panels which permits a presentation of up to a maximum of 17 bins.

Industrial noise tape Occupational deafness caused by

long periods of exposure to high levels of industrial noise is an uncomfortable problem for employers and employees alike. It was with this in mind that Butterworths decided to produce a talk entitled Legal Liability for Occupational Deafness in their New Law Cassettes series. Ian Acton, noise consultant with The Wolfson Unit, Institute of Sound and Vibration, at the University of Southampton, and Robert Grime, Senior Lecturer in Law at the same University, give the talk. Examples of industrial noise and how it can affect the hearing are included - using the recording medium to good effect.

The cassette has been prepared for particular use by employers and trade union representatives and all those involved with the welfare of the working population. Ian Acton describes in detail just what nozse is, how it is measured, and how it can damage people's hearing. Robert Grime follows with a guide to legal liability for occupational deafness.

For further details please contact the producer, Kyle Bosworth, at Butterworth (TelepubIishing) Ltd, 9 - 1 2 Bell Yard, Temple Bar, London WC2A 2JZ (Tel: 0 1 - 4 0 5 6900 extensions 282 and 284).

Diving equipment award winner Dagfinn Aksnes, from Bergen,

Norway, is a postgraduate student of the Royal College of Art and is a joint winner of this year's Pye Design Award, for a new concept of diving equipment. He based his design on practical experience and available technology. HIS research into the inter- relationship between a diver, his environment and his equipment, led to the design of an integrated decompression instrument which uses

microprocessor technology, and a life support and buoyancy control device.

The decompression instrument fits on to the front of the diver's harness and its light emitting diode display gives the diver instant information about his dive. It not only monitors the time and depth of a dive but auto- matically correlates this information to the Royal Naval decompression tables and computes the diver's state of decompression. As a result, if a dive is prolonged, the diver can see at a glance how much longer his air supply will last. when he needs to ascend and at what depths and for how long he needs to rest to ensure safe decompression.

In front of the newly designed harness is a lever which operates a pneumatic positive displacement pump. Whatever his orientation, this gives the diver finger-tip control over vertical movement in the water to within very precise depth limits. A system of automatic valves will either bleed-off excess pressure or compensate underpressure in response to changes in ambient water pressure. The valve system also acts as an emergency breathing apparatus, givang exactly the same high standard of breathing performance as the main breathing apparatus. Several back up and manual override facilities are provided.

Easy-to-jettison shaped weights sit in a recess on the back of the buoyancy control unit. Additional ankle weights are used to ensure the diver faces upwards on surfacing. By separating the weights in this way, ascent after loss or jettison is more easily controlled and reduces the danger of embolism.

On winning the Pye Design Award, Dagfinn said: "I see a large market in the commercial diving field for this type of equipment, which will soon incorporate further advances, such as computer information readouts,

Diving equipment

displayed on the inside of the diver's helmet visor. Surface monitoring and dive planning units like those incorporated here will soon become legal requirements to meet the new government safety regulations. In the sports diving field there is certainly a demand for this kind of equipment at the middle to top end of the market, particularly in the USA."

Foundry machine Some of the best foundry machine

guards for a variety of processes involving castings ranging in weight from a few grammes to 300 tonnes are described in a report published by the Health and Safety Executive Guarding of Foundry Machinery, HMSO, £1.75. As in the earlier reports, only those guards which have worked satisfactorily for at least six months and, in .some cases, for more than two years are described in this report. These include guards for a range of machines covering such processes as sand preparation, moulding and core blowing. When guards have been fitted it has been shown that, in some cases, the production time has not increased and in others it has even improved, the report says, adding that there have been no serious complaints about the increased time of production when guards have been fitted.

American Standard for face and eye protection

The revision has been announced of an American National Standard intended to protect industrial workers and technical students in hazardous environments from eye and face injuries. It provides methods for the testing, selection and safe use of face and eye protective equipment

Among the protective devices covered in the standard are welding helmets, hand shields, face shields, goggles,

• spectacles, and their components. Protective devices are defined and requirements are given for their size and shape, application, composition, maintenance, and for testing their resistance to impact and penetration, heat deformation, and flammability. The standard also provides specifications for lenses and plates used in protective equipment, and includes procedures for testing their ability to absorb ultra- violet, visible and infrared rays.

New to this edition are recommendations for the use of plastic lenses for protection in operations involving molten metal and for the use of both corrective and non- corrective phototropic (variable-tint) lenses for outdoor tasks that do not involve hazardous ultraviolet or infra-

252 Applied Ergonomics December 1979