Important Guidelines on Machinery Guards Operations and Processes
Moving machine parts possess the
potential to bring about serious workplace injuries, for instance crushed
fingers or hands, amputations, burns, or blindness. Amputations, lacerations,
and abrasions are expensive and have the potential to enhance workers' compensation
premiums. Amputation is one of the most severe and crippling varieties of
injuries in the occupational workplace, usually resulting in permanent
disability. As a result of this fact, OSHA (Occupational Security & Health
Administration) has established a set of standards around machine guarding. The
purpose of machinery guards is to protect the machine operator and other
employees in the work area from hazards created during the machine's normal
operation. This would include hazards of concern including: ingoing nip points,
rotating parts, reciprocating, transversing, and/or flying chips & sparks.
Any machine part, function, or process
that might trigger injury must be safeguarded. When the operation of a machine
or accidental contact with it could injure the operator or others in the
vicinity, the hazards must be either controlled or eliminated. Dangerous moving
components require safeguarding because these three areas in the machine are
most likely to lead to injuries:
The point of operation
That point where work is performed on
the material, for instance cutting, shaping, boring, or forming of stock.
Power transmission apparatus
All components of the mechanical system
that transmit energy to the part of the machine performing the work. These
components include flywheels, pulleys, belts, connecting rods, couplings, cams,
spindles, chains, cranks, and gears.
Other moving parts
All components of the machine that move
while the machine is working. These may include reciprocating, rotating, and transverse
moving parts, as well as feed mechanisms and auxiliary components on the
machine.
Approaches to Machinery Guards:
Guards
Guards are physical barriers that
enclose dangerous machine parts and prevent employee contact with them. They
must be strong and fastened by any secure method that prevents the guard from
being inadvertently dislodged or removed. This is the preferred method of
protection.
Safe Guarding Devices
Safeguarding devices are controls or
attachments that usually prevent inadvertent access by employees to hazardous
machine areas, when properly designed and installed. Examples include: presence
sensing, pullback, restraint, safety controls, and gates.
Secondary Safeguarding Methods
Detection safeguarding devices,
awareness devices, safeguarding methods and safe work procedures are secondary
safeguarding methods. These methods provide a lesser degree of protection than
the primary safeguarding methods as they do not prevent employees from placing
or having any part of their bodies within the hazardous machine areas. These
methods are acceptable only when guards or safeguarding devices cannot be
installed as a result of reasons of infeasibility. Secondary machinery guards
must not be used in place of primary safeguarding methods.
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