BUKU ABSTRAK - Universiti Putra Malaysia

Determinants of Worker’s Health and Safety in the Malaysian Wooden Furniture
Industry
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam
Saied Reza Farrokhpayam and Ganesh Thanasegaran
Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 7175; jegaratnasingam@yahoo.com
Tool Wear Characteristics of Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch Particleboard
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Jegatheswaran Ratnasingam
Geetha Ramasamy and Saied Reza Farrokhpayam
Faculty of Forestry, University Putra Malaysia,
43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
+603-8946 7175; jegaratnasingam@yahoo.com
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Forestry & Environment
Despite its socioeconomic importance and the labour intensive nature of the sector, the status of the health
and safety of the workers in the Malaysian wooden furniture industry has not been studied and reports on the
subject are sparse. This is further attested by the fact that the wooden furniture industry in Malaysia is regarded
as a risky work environment by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of Malaysia.
In order to close the information gap, a study of the safety climate, which defines the safety level of the work
environment, in the Malaysian wooden furniture industry was carried out in thirty wood-furniture manufacturing
factories, using a structured questionnaire. The study found that although there were four determinants of safety
climate in the work environment, it was the management responsibility and the existing safety precautions that
had the strongest influence on the prevailing safety climate. Further, the primary health and safety concerns in the
wooden furniture manufacturing industry were the air-borne dust, noise, chemical exposure, materials handling
and occupational accidents. The fact that foreign contract workers are also widely employed within the sector
also contributes to the lacklustre approach taken by manufacturers t owards safety and health issues. In this
context, it is imperative that the management of wooden furniture manufacturing enterprises is made to realize the
importance of workers safety and health and its implications on labour productivity. This will possibly encourage
the management to show commitment towards health and safety and incorporate safety precautions into the
operational system, to ensure a safe working environment in the wooden furniture manufacturing industry.
Keywords: Safety climate, safety precautions, safety practices, safe work environment, wooden furniture industry
A series of machining experiments on the Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB) particleboard were carried
out using a CNC router, to evaluate the tool wearing properties of the composite in comparison to the conventional
wood-material particleboard and using high speed lathe, to ascertain the predominant mechanism of tool wear. A
single-fluted tungsten carbide router bit was used in this experiment, in which the depth of cut was 1.5 mm and
feed speed was 4.5 m/min. The router bit machined the edge of the board, moving along the full length before
returning to repeat the cycle. A high speed lathe machined a rotating disc of the OPEFB particleboard. The tool
was examined for the extent of wear after complete failure had occurred. The result found that the wear pattern
was similar in the oil-palm based particleboard and the wood-based particleboard, but the former was twice
more abrasive compared to the latter. Microscopic examination of the cutter edge revealed greater incidence
of micro-fracture when cutting the oil-palm based particleboard, indicating the presence of hard impurities in
the composite. Mechanical abrasion and micro-fracture was the primary mode of tool failure when machining
OPEFB particleboard, as low cutting temperature was recorded during the machining. This evidence can eliminate
any significant effect of electromechanical and oxidation mechanisms on the wear of tungsten carbide tools.
From an economic perspective, the tooling cost for machining oil-palm based particleboard was determined to be
twice of the cost for machining wood-based particleboard. This study shows that the high tooling cost during the
machining of oil-palm based particleboard will be a primary concern, if the board is to find widespread application
as a potential substitute for wood-based particleboard.
Keywords: Oil palm, particleboard, tool wear, micro-fracture, process economics, machining, abrasive material, mechanical
abrasion