Free fire escape plan · metal fabrication
A fab shop fills up with welding screens, a plasma table, cylinder carts and racks of steel, and each of them can narrow the way out. Drop in a CAD layout, a floor plan or a sketch and the free draft maps every exit, a route to each one and a place to meet outside; the welding-bay, cylinder and aisle notes below show what to check next.
A planning draft, not a fire inspection or a hot work permit. OSHA rules and your local fire code both apply, so walk the shop floor before you post the map.
Welding and cutting bays
Welding screens protect the people walking past, but a row of booths can also wall off the way out. Leave each bay open toward an aisle, and know when the rules call for someone to watch for fire.
Where the work permits, the welder works in a booth or behind noncombustible screens with a low-reflectivity finish, the booths and screens let air move at floor level, and people working nearby are protected from the rays (29 CFR 1910.252(b)(2)(iii)). Leave each bay open on the aisle side so the welder can walk straight out.
Before welding or cutting, movable fire hazards go to a safe place. If they can’t be moved, guards confine the heat, sparks and slag, and if neither is possible, the work doesn’t happen there (29 CFR 1910.252(a)(1)(i) to (iii)). A plasma table is cutting work, so the same applies around it.
No cutting or welding in areas management hasn’t authorized, in sprinklered buildings while the sprinklers are impaired, or in explosive atmospheres (29 CFR 1910.252(a)(2)(vi)). Before work starts, the person who authorizes cutting and welding inspects the area (1910.252(a)(2)(iv)).
| Situation near the work | What it means on the shop floor | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Combustibles within 35 feet | Pallets, cardboard or a paint cart inside that radius call for a fire watch, unless you move them first. | 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)(A) |
| Combustibles farther away that sparks can easily ignite | Loose rags or packing across the shop can still need a watch if sparks can reach them. | 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)(A) |
| Wall or floor openings within 35 feet | Gaps and openings can carry sparks into the next room or a hidden space in the wall or floor. | 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)(A) |
| Combustibles behind a metal wall | Heat moving through the steel can ignite what’s stacked against the other side. | 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)(A) |
| When the welding stops | The watcher has an extinguisher ready, knows how to sound the alarm, and stays at least half an hour after the work ends. | 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)(B) |
Mark the authorized welding bays and the plasma table on the posted map, so a new hire can see where hot work belongs and where it doesn’t.
Gas cylinders
Oxygen and fuel gas ride together on a torch cart, but in storage they have to be kept apart. Where the cage sits matters too, because nobody should have to walk past the cylinders to reach a door.
| Rule | What it says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Oxygen apart from fuel gas | Oxygen cylinders in storage stay 20 feet from fuel-gas cylinders and from combustibles such as oil and grease, or sit behind a noncombustible barrier at least 5 feet high with a fire rating of at least half an hour. | 29 CFR 1910.253(b)(4)(iii) |
| Inside the building | Cylinders are kept in a well-protected, well-ventilated, dry place at least 20 feet from highly combustible materials such as oil or excelsior. | 29 CFR 1910.253(b)(2)(ii) |
| Away from the ways people move | Storage sits away from elevators, stairs and gangways, where cylinders won’t be knocked over or tampered with. | 29 CFR 1910.253(b)(2)(ii) |
| Checking the cylinders | The employer visually inspects the compressed gas cylinders under its control. | 29 CFR 1910.101(a) |
Decide ahead of time whether someone closes the cylinder valves or shuts down the plasma table on the way out, or whether everyone simply leaves. If someone does, the emergency action plan spells out what employees who stay to run critical operations do before they evacuate (29 CFR 1910.38(c)(3)).
Assembly point · the generator
Use a floor plan, a CAD layout, a PDF, a phone photo or a sketch, with the office, the break room and the shop floor labeled and every man door drawn. The draft adds routes, exits, safety symbols and a meeting point. Then check the welding bays, the cylinder cage and the steel racks against the routes yourself.
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Yes — you can generate your first OSHA-aligned evacuation map draft completely free. Just upload a floor plan and our AI drafts a professional map in about 30 seconds. No credit card required.
Our AI drafts maps that follow OSHA 29 CFR 1910.36–37 and NFPA 101 Life Safety Code standards. Every map includes clearly marked exits, fire extinguisher locations, assembly points, and directional evacuation arrows. Supervisor review is required before posting to your facility.
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Most maps are generated in 20–40 seconds. Complex multi-floor plans may take slightly longer. You see the preview instantly — create a free account (no credit card) to download the file.
Yes — every generated map opens in a free drag-and-drop editor where you can move, resize, and recolor exit signs, routes, and equipment icons. Enterprise features like multi-floor support and branded maps are available on paid plans.
Yes. All uploads are encrypted in transit (TLS 1.3) and processed in secure cloud environments. We do not share your floor plans with third parties.
Each result is a draft. Walk the routes past the bays, the cage and the racks before you post it, and follow your local fire code.
Before and after
The plain plan shows the office, the break room and a shop floor with three screened welding bays, a plasma table, a grinding bench, a cylinder cage and steel racks along a crane aisle. The draft adds routes to four doors, exit signs, extinguishers and pull stations, and an assembly point out front, away from the roll-up and the steel yard.
What the draft adds to a fab shop plan
Grinding and metal dust
A grinder throws sparks across the floor, and fine metal dust can burn or even explode. Keep the grinding bench away from rags, cardboard and the routes, and clean up dust before it builds up.
OSHA lists metals such as aluminum, chromium, iron, magnesium and zinc among combustible dusts, and lists metal working and processing among the industries involved. Materials that don’t burn in larger pieces can be explosible in dust form, and OSHA’s page recalls a 2010 titanium dust explosion in West Virginia that killed three workers (OSHA, combustible dust).
OSHA’s list of explosive atmospheres where cutting and welding aren’t allowed includes those that may develop where combustible dust has accumulated (29 CFR 1910.252(a)(2)(vi)(C)). Clean around a bay before the torch comes out, not after.
Where combustible metal powders, flakes, shavings or similar particles are produced at least once every two weeks, an extinguisher with a Class D agent sits within 75 feet of travel of the work area (29 CFR 1910.157(d)(6)). Show it on the map next to the grinding or cutting area.
Ask your extinguisher supplier which agent matches the metals you cut and grind, and write it on the map beside the extinguisher symbol.
Cranes, plasma tables and racks
A crane aisle is open floor by design, so it often doubles as the main route out. It only works as one if steel, carts and scrap from the plasma table never end up parked in it.
Draw the crane aisle and the rack rows on the plan you upload. Seeing them on the draft makes it easier to tell whether a route runs along open floor or squeezes between racks, and to fix it before the map goes on the wall.
Keep planning
Guides for trades with welding, cutting and heavy stock, plus pages for the written plans and exit routes that go with each map.
Questions
Yes. Drop in your fab shop’s floor plan, a CAD layout, a PDF, a photo or a sketch with the welding bays marked, and you’ll get a watermarked preview with no sign-up. Free accounts need no credit card and include 5 free floor-plan uploads per month, with up to 5 regenerations per upload and the editor. Until the posting review is done, every export is marked as a draft.
In storage, oxygen cylinders stay at least 20 feet from fuel-gas cylinders such as acetylene, or are separated by a noncombustible barrier at least 5 feet high with a fire rating of at least half an hour (29 CFR 1910.253(b)(4)(iii)). The 20-foot rule is written for cylinders in storage.
Under OSHA’s general industry rule, a fire watch is required when more than a minor fire could start, when combustibles are within 35 feet, when sparks could easily ignite combustibles farther away, when wall or floor openings within 35 feet expose combustibles, or when combustibles sit against the other side of a metal wall. The watch stays at least half an hour after the work ends (29 CFR 1910.252(a)(2)(iii)).
Yes. Showing it lets you check that it sits away from the exit doors, the main aisle and any stairs or gangways (29 CFR 1910.253(b)(2)(ii)), and it tells everyone which part of the shop to stay away from in a fire.
If the shop produces combustible metal powders, flakes, shavings or similar particles at least once every two weeks, OSHA calls for an extinguisher with a Class D agent within 75 feet of travel of that work area (29 CFR 1910.157(d)(6)). Ask your extinguisher supplier which agent matches the metals you work.
Yes. A PDF or image export of the CAD layout works, and so does a phone photo of a printed plan or a hand sketch. If you can, turn off the dimension and grid layers before you export, so the walls and doors are easy to read.
Illustrations on this page use fictional layouts made for this page. They are not customer plans or live generator results.
Upload your fab shop layout and see routes from every welding bay on a free draft.
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