Risk Management and Machinery Guards
Machinery guards on machinery and equipment
can greatly assist in the prevention of injuries and accidents caused by part
of a person's body accidentally coming into contact with dangerous parts of the
machine. These parts can be dangerous for one or more reasons, including being
sharp, being hot, being extremely cold, having a risk of entanglement, trapping
or crushing to name just a few.
However, whilst guards can greatly improve
the levels of health and safety within a workplace, if they are poorly designed
or implemented incorrectly then they can actually contribute and increase the
risks to workers, which completely goes against the reasons for having them at
all.
As machinery guards will be there to
prevent contact between the danger area and part of a person's body, a number
of guards will partially block or obstruct the view of the operator which may
make them more likely to make a mistake and have an accident. Many guards will
only partially prevent the opportunity for incidents, as for example in a disc cutter
there needs to be a gap to get the wood or other material to the blade which a person could still put their fingers through.
Guards which are in place on machinery
involved in industries such as food preparation or medicine production will
require regular cleaning and sterilization, otherwise, they risk introducing
harmful bacteria into the products if this was allowed to grow unchecked on the
guard. The protective guard must not interfere too much with the cooling of the
machinery. Although measures such as meshing will affect the cooling to a small
but acceptable degree, too much of affect may cause the machine to overheat
with the subsequent risks of fire and explosion that could ensue.
Although not relevant to most types of
equipment guards added to portable machinery may significantly add to its
weight and/or dimensions. This can increase the potential for manual handling
related injuries caused by the lifting, carrying and moving of the equipment. Guards
which are loose or are not fitted correctly to machinery which vibrates or has
high speed rotating parts my cause excessive noise which could damage the
hearing of the operator and those nearby, especially if they are exposed to it
over a long period of time.
To prevent this, machinery guards should be
fitted where practicable wherever there is a danger, as well as the presence of
warning signs and providing workers with health and safety training courses to
make them more aware of the dangers that they face from the various pieces of
equipment that they work with or around. The features of these guards should
prevent injury whilst still allowing the machinery to operate correctly, for
example fan casings with holes which allow air to move freely but are not big
enough for a person to get their finger through them.
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