Trade Safety, Tools, and Workshop Practice
What this domain tests
The AITT theory paper checks that you can work in a body shop without injuring yourself or others: PPE selection, booth and ventilation rules, compressed-air safety, hand and power tool handling, fire prevention, housekeeping, and safe start-up and shutdown of spray equipment.
Core rules
- Wear the right PPE: nitrile gloves for paints and solvents, chemical goggles, coveralls, and an organic-vapour respirator for solvent-borne materials. Two-pack isocyanate paints require supplied air, not a cartridge mask.
- Keep ignition sources out of the spray area: no smoking, open flames, grinding, or welding near open solvent, and bond and ground containers when decanting.
- Treat compressed air as a hazard. Regulate cleaning air to a safe low pressure, never point a blow gun at skin, and never use air to dry solvent-soaked clothing.
- Inspect tools before use: damaged cords, cracked gun bodies, missing guards, and leaking hoses are tagged out of service.
- Keep clean and dirty work separated. Sanding dust must not drift into the booth; vacuum or wet-sweep rather than dry-sweep a primed panel.
- Know extinguisher classes and locations. Solvent fires need foam, dry powder, or CO2, not water.
Worked example
A technician finishes spraying and blows thinners through a gravity gun with a blow gun in the open shop. What is wrong? Reasoning: atomised solvent creates a flammable mist, static can ignite it, and the technician inhales solvent. Correct method: disconnect air, relieve pressure, disassemble, soak and brush parts in a closed gun washer or lidded tray, wear gloves and goggles, and clean the air cap with a soft brush, not a wire probe.
Traps
- A dust mask does not protect against solvent vapour.
- A cartridge respirator is not adequate for 2K isocyanate clearcoat.
- Never use a wire or drill bit to clean a spray-gun nozzle; it destroys the orifice.