Posted By Rob Malcolm My organisation requires a high level of test & inspection criteria for the aerospace industry. Allocated staff members are required to spend several hours if not days lookng through bench top magnifiers trying to identify small flaws in PCB circuit boards/soldering joints etc. My question is, does anyone know of any regulation/legislation/ACOP etc that highlights the criteria for this type of activity i.e. limited time on the task, the effects of over use? I'm not aware of any serious adverse effects & have only begun to follow this up since an operator raised concerns about long term use of a magnifyer for close work. All comments greatly appreciated Thanks Rob

Posted By jason telford Just a thought Could you not have the image of the PCB board transmitted onto a monitor or large screen? This would make inspection much easier

Posted By Ron Hunter There is no specific legislation/ACoP etc. i'm aware of. Your organisation might consider 'multi- skilling' the workforce to allow a bit of variety. You may find benefit in improved quality/levels of detection based on time spent on task. Previous posting on rest breaks also valid. I suggest a stereo image is crucial to detection of poor solder joints, TV screen probably a non-starter?

Posted By Clive Cooper Jason You may be spending lots of money unnecessarily on cameras and monitors, when it may be more simply a case of varying work routine as you are recommended to do if you are using a monitor (display screen).

Posted By Rob Malcolm OK folks its like this. I think the options of multi skilled/job rotation etc. are the more suitable solutions for my organisation, as the cost of new equipment would have the directors running for their lives. BUT It's true to say that job rotation and further training is just never going to happen. So If I tell them what they want to hear i.e. that there is no specific legislation, then they will do the usual thing and simply forget about it. Thanks for your comments all the same Rob