What are Milling Machine Guards Made Of?


What are they made of? How do they protect employees from getting hit, cut, burned, or crushed by machines? Milling machine guards are tangible materials used to keep employees from having direct contact with a machine’s moving parts. Some guards help protect you from kickbacks, flying chips and splashing liquids. Guards can come in the form of sheet, woven or expanded mesh steel. Some machine guards are made of wood. This is usually the case in chemical or wood manufacturing industries, or operations that involve chemicals that might corrode metal.

Machine guarding is basically guarding or protecting machine parts that are the most dangerous. Any machine part, function, or process which may cause injury must be safeguarded. Machine guarding reduces the likelihood that an accident will occur because of things like mechanical failure, human error, electrical failure, or poor design.

Using a machine safely, to avoid a potential injury, entails many factors. There are many different types of machine safeguards. The type of guard that has to be used depends on the machine and the hazards it can pose. Before using any equipment the operator should be trained in how to use the safeguards, where the safeguards are located, the kind of protection they provide and which hazards they protect against. Operators need to know how and under what circumstances guards can be removed and they should be able to identify when guards are damaged, missing or inadequate.

Machine guarding helps to prevent amputations, lacerations, crushing injuries and abrasions. Without such guarding, the resulting injury can be severe or even fatal. There’s never a good reason to remove a guard on a machine that you’re using, even if you think you can work faster without it. Guards are there to protect you!

Machine Guarding and Your Protection
Machines account for hundreds of injuries in the workplace every year. For this reason, employees must secure machines to prevent them from causing injuries and fatalities. No I’m not talking about using tagout, lockout, and block out procedures here. Instead, I’d like to discuss the importance of machine guarding safety in the workplace. While tagout, lockout, and block out procedures are needed for disabled or unused equipment, machine guards save as your protection for equipment while they’re in use.

Remember, with a combination of the use of milling machine guards, tagout, block out, and lockout procedures, along with the right PPE and proper training of employees in machine operations, you don’t have to worry about machine-related accidents in your workplace. Additionally, this document describes all aspects of machine guarding use, inspection, personnel accountability for the condition and use of the equipment, safe work practices, training requirements, and record keeping. Having an understanding of how a machine works, and how the guards can protect you, will result in a reduced risk of injury.

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