Welding and fabrication risk assessment (NSW)
Welding fume, hexavalent chromium from stainless steel, zinc fume from galvanised, ozone, UV, electric shock, hot-work fire and hydrofluoric acid pickling – 51 hazards already identified and rated by a Certified Industrial Hygienist. You answer Yes, No or N/A; the calculator does the rest.
Section C – Welding and Fabrication. 8 activities, 51 hazards, 215 controls.
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The 8 activities in this section
Every activity is assessed in three parts – General Safety (18 hazards), Fire and Explosion (8) and Occupational Hygiene (25). Untick any activity you do not carry out and it drops out of your assessment.
✓Access to the Section C online calculator, tied to the email address used at checkout. Untick any activity you do not carry out and it drops out of your checklist, results and report.
✓A finished Word report (.docx) with every hazard, your answers, the residual risk and your Action Plan already in it – to print, sign and keep with your safety records.
✓The pre-written Inherent Risk Assessment (.docx): every hazard in this section with what could go wrong, the possible consequence and its inherent risk rating – your reference copy, to read before the walk and share with the people you consult.
✓A printable Word walkthrough checklist for marking by hand on the workshop floor, an illustrated Quick Start Guide (PDF) and a one-page calculator login sheet.
What this pack is
Regulator scrutiny on heavy fabrication has never been higher. This module targets the complex occupational hygiene and physical risks of tank welding and fit-up, providing an audit-ready baseline for your most heavily regulated workshop activities.
Welding fume is classified as a cause of cancer, and the workplace exposure standard for it in Australia has been cut sharply. That puts every welding bay under scrutiny: an open roller door and a pedestal fan are no longer an answer, and a regulator will ask what you have at the source and what your air monitoring shows.
Nearly half of the hazards in this section are occupational hygiene hazards – the ones a general safety checklist misses. It treats galvanised steel, stainless steel and aluminium separately, because the fume is different: zinc oxide and metal fume fever, hexavalent chromium and nickel, ozone. It then covers fabrication of ladders, platforms, nozzles and manways, tack welding and fit-up on jigs, pickling and passivation of stainless welds (including hydrofluoric acid pastes) and zinc-rich touch-up.
Electric shock, UV and arc flash, hot-work fire, gas cylinders, noise and manual handling are assessed for every welding activity. The section suits any workshop that MIG or TIG welds – tank manufacturing is simply where it was written.
Section C – Welding and Fabrication
Workplace risk assessment for a bolted steel tank manufacturing workshop in New South Wales, Section C: Welding and Fabrication: 8 activities, 51 hazards and 215 controls covering welding fume, hexavalent chromium, ozone, UV radiation, noise and local exhaust ventilation. Completed in the online calculator, which works out control scores, residual risk and a prioritised Action Plan and produces a finished Word report to print and sign. Includes a printable walkthrough checklist and a Quick Start Guide.
- ✓51 hazards across 8 activities, each with its consequences and inherent risk already rated
- ✓215 controls listed for you, ranked by the hierarchy of control – you answer Yes, No or N/A
- ✓Colour-coded residual risk and a prioritised Action Plan, worked out for you
- ✓A finished Word report to print and sign
- ✓The pre-written Inherent Risk Assessment in Word, a blank walkthrough checklist, an illustrated Quick Start Guide and a calculator login sheet
Section C – Welding and Fabrication. 8 activities, 51 hazards, 215 controls.
Secure checkout via Stripe. Sign in and start as soon as the payment goes through.
Need more than one section? See the complete workshop
The most serious hazards in welding and fabrication
A sample of the 51 hazards in this section, each shown with its consequence and the inherent risk rating given by a Certified Industrial Hygienist before any controls are counted. The controls themselves are in the calculator.
Hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) and nickel compounds are IARC Group 1 carcinogens (lung and nasal cancer); Cr(VI) also causes skin ulcers, nasal septum damage and asthma; welding fume is IARC Group 1. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 4D.
Deep tissue burns; HF is absorbed and causes systemic toxicity (hypocalcaemia, cardiac arrest) – small burns can be fatal. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 4C.
Workshop fire; burns; major property damage. Fire and Explosion · inherent risk 4C.
Electric shock, fatality. General Safety · inherent risk 4B.
Zinc oxide fume causes metal fume fever (flu-like illness); welding fume is an IARC Group 1 carcinogen (lung cancer); manganese causes neurological effects. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 3D.
Burns. General Safety · inherent risk 3C.
Crush injuries to hands, feet or body; fractures. General Safety · inherent risk 3C.
Falls causing fractures, head injury, permanent disability or death. General Safety · inherent risk 3C.
Fire; toxic nitrogen oxide fumes. Fire and Explosion · inherent risk 3B.
How one hazard is rated
Hazard C2.4 – Welding fume – stainless steel – starts with an inherent risk of 4D, rated before any controls are counted. The calculator lists 7 controls for it, from elimination and engineering down to PPE, monitoring and emergency arrangements. You answer Yes, No or N/A for each on the floor. Once the last one is answered, the calculator works out the control score, applies any severity reduction earned by physical controls, and shows the residual risk as RED, YELLOW or GREEN. Every control you answered No to goes into your Action Plan, most urgent and most effective first, ready for a responsible person and a due date.
How your controls are scored
Not generic advice — the specific, hierarchy-of-controls measures written into the pack, matched to how these assets actually fail.
Built for the people who do this work
If you operate, maintain or contract to these assets in NSW, this pack is written for your duties.
- ✓Any workshop MIG or TIG welding galvanised, stainless or aluminium
- ✓Businesses that need a welding fume risk assessment after the change to the exposure standard
- ✓Fabricators of ladders, stairways, platforms, handrails, nozzles and flanges
- ✓Sites pickling or passivating stainless steel welds with acid pastes or gels
- ✓Owners who want to know whether their extraction and respiratory protection would satisfy a SafeWork NSW inspector
Authored to the codes and the law
The Codes of Practice and Australian Standards these documents are measured against, and the legislation behind them.
- §Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (NSW)
- §Work Health and Safety Regulation 2025 (NSW)
- §SafeWork NSW Code of Practice: How to manage work health and safety risks
Frequently asked questions
Add an in-house CIH risk assessment review
Complete your risk assessment using our digital engine, then have our in-house Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and Full Member of the Australian Institute of Occupational Hygienists (MAIOH) review your specific results to ensure bulletproof compliance.
Post-completion expert review
Not sure if you categorised your site’s controls correctly? Complete your online assessment and send us the generated report. Our in-house experts will review your residual risk scores, validate your “N/A” selections, and ensure your action plan adequately addresses your highest liabilities (like hexavalent chromium or LEL environments) before you sign off.
- Scope
- Remote CIH and MAIOH review of your completed calculator report and hazard register.
- Turnaround
- 3–5 business days.
- Pricing
- Remote review is billed at an hourly rate of $250 AUD/hour (total quote based on the number of sections reviewed).
Walk it, answer it, sign it.
The calculator generates a finalised, fully formatted .docx record with your Action Plan already inside it. Print it, sign it off, and you are audit-ready for this part of your workshop.
Price includes GST · Jurisdiction: New South Wales – WHS Act 2011, WHS Regulation 2025 and SafeWork NSW Codes of Practice applied
This is a generic risk assessment for a typical workshop, to support your due diligence – completing it is not compliance in itself. You must answer it for your own site, consult your workers, put the missing controls in place, and get competent advice where it says so – for example exposure monitoring by an occupational hygienist. The limits of the assessment are set out in “How it works” and at the front of every report.