The Fundamentals of Machine Safeguarding Essay

Introduction

According to Soranno (2005), refers to machine safeguarding as the composite application of engineering knowledge, appropriate work practices and administrative controls to mitigate or eradicate incidences of injury to the employees handling machines, and those that may be within the vicinity. It is a comprehensive amalgam of efforts to ensure minimal machine-related injuries that are acquired as a result of direct contact with the machine, or items such as tools accidentally hitting workers as a result of being in contact with a device. This is a brief report on the fundamentals of machine safeguarding, including the significant classes of safeguards.

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Objectives

• The primary objective of machine safeguarding is to identify the parts of machines that are considered hazardous.
• The second objective is to identify all risky motions and actions in the workplace.
• Coming up with the most potent methods and strategies to eliminate or mitigate the levels of hazard.

Identifying Where the Hazards Occur

Primarily, hazards occur in three areas, namely: the point of operation, the apparatus that transmit power, and other moving parts. The point of operation hazards are those risks associated with the places where work is performed on the materials. It is connected to such activities as cutting, creating stock, shaping and boring. Secondly, the power transmission apparatus refers to those equipment associated with the transmission of energy and power from the point of generation to the point where it is needed for the actual work. The machines related to this point of mechanical hazard include conveyor belts, cams, pulleys, gears, flywheels, and cranks. Other moving parts include those parts that stay in motion when the machine is in operation, and they include rotating reciprocating and transverse items. The diagrams below show examples of hazardous machine parts.

Fundamentally the rule of thumb states that any machine function, process or part that may harm someone must be effectively safeguarded (Allen, 2012). It goes on to say that if the operation of a machine or unforeseen contact with it is likely to cause injury, elimination or mitigation of the associated hazards must be prioritized. For instance, all hazardous moving parts of a machine must be covered as seen in Figure 2 below.

Major Types of Machine Guards

Machine guards are those physical measures taken to ensure that the employees do not get injured through direct contact with machines, or unforeseen occurrences and accidents.

• Self-adjustable machine guards
• Fixed machine guards
• Interlocked machine guards
• Adjustable

The Machine Guarding Process

Machine guarding is a comprehensive process that is executed in a step-by-step manner with continuous evaluation remaining constant at all stages. The steps are as follows.

The first step in the machine safeguarding process is to recognize the danger by identifying all the potentially dangerous actions and movements.

The second step is to evaluate and prioritize the efforts of machine safeguarding, based on the predictability of the various risks in the organization.

The third step is to create and implement a comprehensive machine safeguarding program that encompasses the robust methods and installation procedures.

The last step is evaluation and provision of feedback for the continuous enhancement of the systematic machine safeguarding program.

References

Allen, R. L. (2012). Machine Safeguarding. Professional Safety, 57(8), 66-69.

Carrie, H. (2016). Do I really need to safeguard machines? Machine Safety. https://www.rockfordsystems.com/blog/do-i-really-need-to-safeguard-my-machines/

Occupational Safety and Health Administration, OSHA (2018). Chapter 1: Basics of Machine Safeguarding. Retrieved on April 18, 2018 from https://www.osha.gov/Publications/Mach_SafeGuard/chapt1.html

Soranno, C. (2005). Machine Safeguarding: Risk Assessment and Risk Reduction. Occupational Hazards, 67(3), 48.