Machine Guarding

General Information
(A) Initial Training
One of the most common reasons that a good safeguarding device or
technique fails is that the worker was unaware of how and why to use it. No
matter how proficiently constructed the safeguarding system is, it becomes
effectively useless when there is no thorough understanding of its purpose
and controls. It is vital that you are provided with detailed training on these
safeguarding systems as well as the hazards from which they are designed to
protect. Consider the following as you receive machine guarding training at
work:
How and why to use the safeguards.
Who is authorized to remove or alter safeguards and under what
circumstances. Find out whether there is a chain of command.
Who to contact and what to do when you notice that a safeguard has
been rendered faulty, missing, or altogether ineffective in providing
thorough protection.
What the hazards are associated with each individual machine used on
your work site.
Exactly how the safeguards work and what they are designed to
protect you from.
How to recognize when lockout/tagout procedures are necessary.
(B) Retraining
Training should remain constant and residual. Seek to refresh your
memory or undergo new training any time:
You are working with new employees or maintenance personnel.
You are assigned to operate a new or different machine.
A safeguard is replaced with a different model, or is altered.
(C) Machine Guarding Requirements
A Machine guard is designed to protect the user and nearby employees from
injury. Lets look at some of the basic requirements of these guards.
Preventing contact: The guarding technique needs to prevent parts
of the workers body (such as the arms and hands) from touching
dangerous parts of the machinery. The most effective methods of
safeguarding will entirely prevent a worker from getting anywhere near
moving parts that can cause injuries.
Create no new Hazards: The safeguard must not become its own
hazard. Rendering its purpose ineffective. The safeguards surfaces
and edges need to be smooth and finished, not rough or jagged in such
a way that they can cause abrasions or lacerations. Hardware used to
mount the safeguard, such as bolts or adhesives, should also be
installed in a manner that is mindful or new hazards.
Secure: The safeguard should be properly secured to the machine. If
the safeguard is open to being tampered with, altered, or removed
altogether, then its effectiveness is either reduced or eliminated

altogether. Any safeguarding device must be durable enough to

maintain effectiveness even through the conditions of regular wear,
tear, and use.
Protect from falling objects: If an object falls into an area of the
machine where parts are in motion, that object may be dislodged and
propelled at high speeds, becoming a dangerous projectile.
Safeguarding devices must be in place that ensure that these areas of
the machine are protected from foreign objects.
Create no interference: Safeguarding should never become
something that forces a worker to work around it in order to get their
job done safely and efficiently. Inconvenient guards are just asking to
be moved or disabled, at which point the purpose becomes null and
void. A safeguard that has been installed to be as effective as possible
while at the same time having as minor a presence as possible.
Allow safe lubrication: Workers should have access to oil reservoirs
outside of the guard points. The further away from the hazardous
machine parts a worker can get while performing routine lubrication,
the better. This should, when possible, include no having to remove or
disable the guard at all.
(D)Hazardous Machine Actions
Using Machines present a number of hazards. These hazards include rotating
parts, nip points, sharp edges and more. Lets take a look more in depth at a
few of these hazards.
1. Rotating
Rotating parts are dangerous because, even when theyre moving slowly,
they can catch loose articles such as hair, jewelry, and clothing. In
addition, brief personal contact can grip hands and arms and force them
into the machinery. This hazard becomes more severe when items are
exposed that can easily catch the body, such as bolts, screws, frayed
parts caused by wear or damage, or projecting keys. Common machine
parts associated with a rotating action hazard are cams, flywheels, collars,
couplings, horizontal or vertical shafting, meshing gears, spindles, and
shaft ends.
2. In-Running Nip Points:
When mechanical parts are rotating near one another, they create an inrunning nip point hazard. In-running nip points are present in three main
forms:
When rotating parts are in contact with or in close proximity to each
other, a nip point is created. These points are commonly present in
machines with calendars, intermeshing gears, and rolling mills.
Machines where there is a contact point between a power
transmission and the pulley, a rack and pinion, a sprocket and a
chain, or any other point between a rotating and tangentially
moving part, create nip-point hazards.
Nip points are also present between parts where one may be fixed
or stationary and the other rotating. These points create hazards
that involve shearing, crushing, or abrading. This is common in

machine parts such as: screw conveyors, spoked handwheels

and/or flywheels, and the outside of an abrasive wheel that has
been improperly adjusted in its rest.
3. Reciprocating: Machines that work with reciprocating motions are
dangerous because uncontrolled motions may cause the worker to
become struck by the moving part or crushed between the machine and
another stationary object (such as a wall).
4. Transversing: Parts which move transversely are those that move in a
straight, continuous line, such as a belt rotating around two rotating
pulleys. This action may cause an unprotected worker to become struck
by the moving part or caught in a pinch point.
5. Cutting: Rotating, transversing, or reciprocating motions may be involved
in cutting actions. Cutting actions create two primary hazards:
The point of operation where the body (usually hands, fingers, or
arms) can come in contact with the cutting device, and,
Where material, such as scrap material or wood chips, stricken free
by the cutting action pose hazards for the eyes, face, and head.
These hazards may surface during cutting of a wide variety of materials:
wood, plastic, metal, etc. Common machines where cutting-action hazards
are present are: circular saws, turning machines, milling machines,
bandsaws, and drilling and boring machines.
6. Punching: Iron workers and power presses are examples where a punching
action creates a hazard at the point of operation. A source of power
connects with a slide in order to blank, stamp, or draw working materials
like metal. The hazard exists where the material is placed and removed by
hand.
7. Shearing: Shearing action hazards are present where materials is inserted
at the point of operation and held until being withdrawn by hand. Shearing
involved a slide or knife under a power source being used to trim or shear
the working material, often metal. Machines that perform this action are
usually shears powered hydraulically, pneumatically, or mechanically.
8. Bending: when a power source applies pressure to a slide of material
(such as metal) for the purpose of drawing or stamping, a bending action
occurs. Tubing bends, power presses, and press breaks are all examples of
equipment that use this action. The hazard is present where the material
is inserted into the machine and held until it is withdrawn by hand.
(E) Quiz
1. Safeguarding techniques or devices are useless if you dont know how and
why its there.
Ture
False
2. Which of the following is not a general machine guarding requirement?
a. The guard should prevent contact between the worker and the
hazardous area
b. The guard should be properly secured to the machine
c. The guard should be fitted in such a way that workers can easily
override it

d. The guard should protect workers from falling objects

3. An in-running nip point is created when:
a. Two hinged parts close in on one another
b. Rotating parts are in contact with or in close proximity to each other
c. Air is being suctioned into the machine
4. Parts that move in a straight, continuous line are performing this action:
a. Transversing
b. Reciprocating
c. Cutting
d. Rotating
5. The hazard of a machines punching action exists:
a. At the power source
b. At the control station
c. At the point of operation