Aluminium Fabrication risk assessment (NSW)
57 hazards and 453 controls for marine craft builders, boat yards and architectural aluminium fabricators, already identified and rated. Answer Yes, No or N/A online and download a finished Word report.
Tier 3 · Toxic metallurgy and confined work. 18 activities, 57 hazards, 453 controls.
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The 18 activities in this assessment
Every activity is assessed in three parts — Safety (16 hazards), Process Safety (12) and Occupational Hygiene (29). Untick any activity you do not carry out and it drops out of your assessment.
✓Access to the Aluminium fabrication 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 inherent hazard register in Word: every hazard here with what could go wrong, the possible consequence and its starting risk rating, to read before the walk and share with the people you consult.
✓A printable walkthrough checklist for marking by hand on the workshop floor.
What this pack is
Intense ozone production at the arc, respirable aluminium oxide fume, and reflected ultraviolet radiation to skin and eyes.
Each industry here is a complete risk assessment for one kind of workshop, with the hazards and their starting ratings already identified by a Certified Industrial Hygienist. You answer Yes, No or N/A to the controls, and the calculator works out your residual risk, builds the Action Plan and produces the finished report.
Aluminium Fabrication
Workplace risk assessment for marine craft builders, boat yards and architectural aluminium fabricators in New South Wales: 18 activities, 57 hazards and 453 controls across safety, process safety and occupational hygiene. 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.
- ✓57 hazards across 18 activities, each with its consequences and starting risk already rated
- ✓453 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 inherent hazard register in Word and a printable walkthrough checklist for the workshop floor
Tier 3 · Toxic metallurgy and confined work. 18 activities, 57 hazards, 453 controls.
Secure checkout via Stripe. Sign in and start as soon as the payment goes through.
Run more than one kind of work? See every industry
The most serious hazards in aluminium fabrication
A sample of the 57 hazards in this assessment, each shown with its consequence and the starting risk rating given by a Certified Industrial Hygienist before any controls are counted. The controls themselves are in the calculator.
A mixture of fine aluminium dust and iron oxide is a thermite mixture, which once ignited burns at a temperature no extinguisher will control and cannot be put out with water. A shared dust collector is the usual place this mixture is created and stored. Embedded steel also destroys the corrosion resistance of the aluminium. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 5B.
Dust flash fire or explosion in the collector or ductwork, with a secondary explosion as settled dust is lifted and ignited. Hydrogen released in a wet collector can accumulate and ignite. Aluminium fires cannot be put out with water and will react with it. Process Safety · inherent risk 5B.
Oxygen displacement by argon causing collapse without warning; fume and ozone accumulating to many times the levels measured in the open shop; heat stress; and a rescue problem that has killed more responders than original casualties. Process Safety · inherent risk 5B.
Welding fumes are classified IARC Group 1 (carcinogenic to humans). Aluminium oxide fume is extremely fine and deeply respirable, and the limit for welding fume of 1 mg/m3 is reached quickly at spray transfer currents. Aluminium alloys also contain magnesium, silicon, copper, zinc and manganese, each with its own limit. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 4C.
Chronic manganese exposure causes irreversible neurological injury: tremor, rigidity, impaired balance, cognitive and mood change, resembling parkinsonism. From 1 December 2026 the workplace exposure limit falls from 1 mg/m3 to 0.1 mg/m3 inhalable and 0.02 mg/m3 respirable, a tenfold and fiftyfold tightening. Manganese typically makes up several per cent of mild steel welding fume by mass, so a workshop sitting on the 1 mg/m3 total fume limit can already be at or above the manganese limits. Manganese is normally the first limit a mild steel workshop exceeds, and it is exceeded well before total fume becomes a problem. Occupational Hygiene · inherent risk 4C.
Crush injuries, multiple fractures, fatality. Vehicle and mobile plant incidents are consistently among the leading mechanisms of work-related fatality in Australia. Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Load dropped onto a person: crush injuries, multiple fractures, fatality. Sling angle is the most common miscalculation, because working load limit falls sharply as the included angle opens up. Safety · inherent risk 4C.
Entanglement and degloving, amputation of fingers and hands, severe lacerations; a workpiece drawn into the gap between wheel and work rest can shatter the wheel and eject fragments at lethal speed. Safety · inherent risk 4C.
How one hazard is rated
Hazard S1.1 — manual handling of sections, plate and offcuts — starts at 2D, rated before any controls are counted. The calculator lists 8 controls for it, from elimination and extraction at the source 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 it 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.
Ozone, fine oxide fume and a reflective arc
Marine craft builders, boat yards and architectural aluminium fabricators run MIG in spray transfer and AC TIG, plus routing, linishing and polishing. Aluminium MIG runs at high current with high deposition, producing a large volume of extremely fine, deeply respirable aluminium oxide fume, and the 1 mg/m3 welding fume limit is reached quickly at those currents. Alloys also bring magnesium, silicon, copper, zinc and manganese into the plume.
The governing exposure, though, is ozone. The facts treat ozone from the arc as the controlling hazard in aluminium welding, because the bright, ultraviolet-rich arc generates it at the welder's breathing zone. That same arc produces direct and reflected ultraviolet and infrared radiation, and bright aluminium throws it back onto the face, neck and forearms of the welder and anyone nearby. Pre-weld cleaning and etching chemicals and noise from aluminium MIG and high-frequency AC TIG complete the hygiene picture.
What makes this trade different from any steel shop is fire and explosion. Fine aluminium dust from grinding and routing is combustible and explosible in suspension, and wet fines release hydrogen. Mixed with iron oxide in a shared collector it forms a thermite mixture no extinguisher will control. Boat work adds welding inside hulls and compartments, where argon and fume build up behind a hatch too small to pass a stretcher through.
Dust collection is where the inspection starts
In an aluminium shop the assessment puts the dust collector ahead of everything else, and five of its controls are unconditional gates. It asks whether you have a dedicated wet collector designed for combustible metal dust sited outside the building, whether it is vented, earthed and bonded with spark-resistant fans, whether hydrogen from the collector headspace vents to outside, whether aluminium extraction is physically separate from any steel or welding extraction, and whether sludge is kept wet, removed daily and never sealed in a drum.
Next comes work inside hulls, tanks and compartments: forced ventilation, oxygen and fume at the work position, a standby person, and a rescue plan that works through the actual hatch. Segregation of steel and aluminium tooling, abrasives and benches is checked because cross-contamination is how the thermite mixture gets made.
The general plant questions still apply, including emergency stops to AS/NZS 4024, grinder and linisher rests per AS/NZS 1788, and lifting gear inspected against AS 3775, AS 4497 and AS 2741.
What a boat yard's first pass usually shows
Aluminium shops often answer Yes to arc protection for the welder and No for everyone else. Screens are missing between bays, so reflected ultraviolet reaches fitters working nearby. Welders wear short sleeves in summer. The extraction arm is on the bench while the real welding happens inside a hull. Ozone has never been measured because the shop has only ever thought about fume, and the pre-weld etching chemicals are decanted without anyone reading the safety data sheet.
Top-tier controls make the difference on the dust side. A collector that meets every gate plus complete separation from steel work is what lets the combustible dust hazard be rated at all, and then pulls it down sharply. On the air side, forced ventilation inside compartments and capture at the gun do more than any respirator for ozone.
NOT RATED in this trade is very easy to reach. You run a single dust collector for the whole shed, drawing from the aluminium linisher and the steel grinder bench through the same ducting. Aluminium extraction physically separate from any steel or welding extraction is an unconditional gate, so a shared duct means the combustible dust hazard shows NOT RATED no matter how well the rest is answered.
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.
- ✓Marine craft builders, boat yards and architectural aluminium fabricators
- ✓Owners and managers who need a risk assessment that stands up to a SafeWork NSW visit
- ✓Safety coordinators covering several workshops or several trades
- ✓Workshops whose insurer, principal contractor or client has asked for a documented assessment
- ✓Trainers and supervisors inducting apprentices onto workshop hazards
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)
- §Workplace exposure standards for airborne contaminants (Safe Work Australia)
- §AS 1674.1 and AS 1674.2 — Safety in welding and allied processes
- §AS/NZS 1715 and AS/NZS 1716 — Selection, use and maintenance of respiratory protective equipment
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 finished, fully formatted .docx record with your Action Plan already inside it. Print it, sign it off, and you are audit-ready for this workshop.
Price in AUD, no GST charged · 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 of this kind, 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 — exposure monitoring, for example, is work for an occupational hygienist. The limits are set out at the front of every report.