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QUALITY PROFESSIONAL ELECTRICAL SERVICE

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MACHINE GUARDING

OVERVIEW

As part of their obligations under the Health And safety Employment Act, employers using machinery in a place of work are required to perform a hazard identification and analysis. This hazard analysis will precede an informed decision about eliminating, or isolating, or minimising the hazards people at work are exposed to.

Machine guarding assumes the presence of a hazard, so the process is a method for isolating people at work from the hazard or is a method for minimising the likelihood of the hazard becoming a source of harm.

 HOW WE CAN HELP

We can help persons with control of plant and machinery to undertake a hazard identification audit, document that audit and to install an appropriate safety interlocking system.

For complex jobs, we can also work with Qualified Electrical and Mechanical engineers who specialise in the design of safety related equipment.

 It is better to design machinery to prevent access to moving parts than to try and stop machinery once people are caught in it.

 Machine guarding can be mechanical guards, limit switches, safety mats, beam sensors, or light curtains.

ERGONOMIC CONSIDERATIONS

Ergonomic considerations, like the machines a person works with, the work places in which they are situated, the design of machine controls, seating, lighting, and especially data on human measurements, have an important influence upon the proper design of machine guards.

The location and choice of guards are generally based on the speed of, or distance a person can reach.

Reach is limited by the arms and, in the case of openings, by fingers and hands also. The distance or speed a man can reach determines the minimum distance or height of certain types of guards.

This is a brief description of the service ...