Some product warning labels are borderline ridiculous:“Do not place (toaster oven) inside working conventional oven”
“Do not use (microwave) for drying pets”
…or my latest favorite:
“Remove infant before folding (stroller) for storage.”
Then again, it seems some other warning labels can’t be serious enough.
Like the ones on industrial cutting equipment.
Safety warning signs for blades range from the absolute mundane to what could easily be a storyboard cell from the latest Friday the 13th Movie.
Unfortunately somewhere in the attempt to seem “serious as an involuntary amputation” they end up being, well, a little funny.
To illustrate my point, here’s a collection of 13 (increasingly disturbing) machine blade warnings to make you smile while not-so-subtly reminding you how much it would suck to not have hands anymore just because you didn’t slow down and think for a second.
(Note: These are actual signs, found for sale in safety stores or installed on actual machinery, but that doesn’t make some of them any less graphic. View at your own risk)
I know better than to go around fiddling carelessly with our stacks of wicked sharp band knives, bologna slicers, and tree-eating band saw blades in our own factory. But, when I see the warnings on end-user equipment I have to think twice about the attention the factory workforce at large is paying when it comes to hanging around high-speed, high-power industrial cutting equipment.
Some of you may think these signs are over the top, but what’s a little cartoon blood to remind you how seriously deadly-sharp industrial blades of any kind can really be.
Besides, the manufacturing skills gap is big enough without perfectly good workers going and removing themselves from the talent pool by removing a limb.
So be safe around your equipment – the machines have no brains, so use your own, ok? Please?