Our Safety Training Tips editor gives some advice for training your employees on the essentials of machine guarding.
Amputations are all too common injuries for employees who work on or around machines. Because of these and other sometimes gruesome machine dangers, OSHA has extensive regulations for machine guarding in 29 CFR 1910 Subpart O Machinery and Machine Guarding, 1910.211 through 219.
The basic rule states that “one or more methods of machine guarding” must be provided to protect the operator and nearby workers from such hazards created by the point of operation, nip points, rotating parts, flying chips, and sparks.
Whatever safety meeting you need, chances are you’ll find it prewritten and ready to use in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library on CD. Try it at no cost or risk. Here’s how.
OSHA requires operators and maintenance personnel to receive training for certain types of machines, including woodworking machines and power presses. Operators of machines with presence sensing device initiation (PSDI) must be trained at least annually in how to use the machine in PSDI mode. This training should include:
- Areas of the machine most likely to cause injury
- Description, purpose, and functions of machine guards
- Importance of ensuring that machine guards are in place and working properly
- Hazards of using machines
Many types of machinery expose workers to risk of serious injury, including:
- Saws, presses, conveyors, and bending, rolling, or shaping machines
- Powered and nonpowered hand tools, forklifts, doors, and trash compactors
The danger areas on machinery include:
- The point of operation where the cutting, punching, shearing, or bending of material takes place
- The power transmission apparatus, which can grab and injure body parts
- The operating controls and moving parts
We challenge you to NOT find a safety meeting you need, already prewritten, in BLR’s Safety Meetings Library. Take up our challenge at no cost or risk. Get the details.
OSHA rules specify which guards to use with different machines. Train employees to recognize guards and report when they are not working properly.
- Fixed guards enclose danger areas and cannot be removed easily.
- Interlocked safeguards automatically shut off and stop the machine or apparatus if they are removed.
- Some guards adjust to the size of the material being work on.
- Photoelectric presence-sensing devices (often called light curtains) shut down the machine if a worker’s hand or other body part enters the danger area.
- Restraint and pull-back devices are attached to the operator’s hand, wrist, or arm, and make it impossible to reach into a danger area.
- Two-hand control devices make it necessary for both of a worker’s hands to be used to operate the machine.
- Pressure-sensitive devices are also designed to act as emergency stops if an operator gets too close to a danger zone.
Finally, warn employees not to take any of these unsafe actions around machinery:
- Reaching around, under, over, or through guards into hazardous areas
- Removing, deactivating, or bypassing guards
- Reaching into equipment to remove stuck or jammed material
- Failing to follow lockout/tagout procedures
- Not following electrical safety procedures
- Not wearing appropriate personal protective equipment
- Attempting to operate or repair machines without proper training
- Not reading manufacturer’s manuals or following their instructions
- Feeding machine by hand
Why It Matters …
- Employees who work with or around machines suffer approximately 18,000 nonfatal injuries every year, including amputations, lacerations, and crushing injuries.
- More than 800 workers die from machine injuries.
- Amputation, in particular, is one of the most severe and crippling types of workplace injuries, and often results in permanent disability.