Machine Hazards and Safeguarding
Crushed hands and arms, severed fingers, and blindness are just a few of the potential injuries that can result from machinery-related accidents. Hazards from moving machine parts are as varied as the machines themselves, making proper safeguards essential to protect workers from preventable injuries.
Effective Machine Safeguarding
Properly installed machine guards make it difficult for anyone to access the machine’s danger zones. A key safety principle to remember is: Whenever the operation of a machine—or accidental contact with a machine—can injure the operator or others nearby, the hazards must be controlled or eliminated.
This course highlights the hazards associated with mechanical motion and introduces techniques to protect workers. It covers where mechanical hazards occur, the dangers posed by different types of motion, the requirements for effective machine guarding, and a brief overview of non-mechanical hazards.
Requirement for Machine Guards
Any machine part, function, or process that could cause injury must be properly guarded.
Where Mechanical Hazards Occur
Dangerous moving parts typically fall into three main areas requiring safeguarding:
- Point of Operation: The location where work is performed on material, such as cutting, shaping, boring, or forming stock.
- Power Transmission Apparatus: Components that transmit energy to the machine’s working parts, including flywheels, pulleys, belts, connecting rods, couplings, cams, spindles, chains, cranks, and gears.
- Other Moving Parts: All machine components that move during operation, such as reciprocating, rotating, or transverse parts, as well as feed mechanisms and auxiliary machine parts.