Machine Safeguarding

Machine safeguarding is essential to protecting employees from preventable injuries caused by moving machine parts.

Moving machine parts have the potential to cause severe injuries. Machine safeguards are essential to providing protections from these preventable injuries.

Any machine part, function or process that may cause injury must be safeguarded. These safeguards can be divided into three categories: Operational Controls, Physical Controls (or barriers) and Engineering Controls.

Operational Controls are documents we use to train employees how to use the equipment and establish operational constraints – basically, our process. These controls are linear, in a step-by-step process, and completely depend on the employee to maintain a safety focus and execute each step as instructed to maintain operational control. Examples include:

• Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)
• Work Instructions
• Job Safety Analyses (JSAs)
• Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Assessments
• Lock-Out/Tag-Out (LOTO) policies and machine-specific LOTO procedures
• Customer specifications or requirements

Physical Controls (Barriers) are guards designed to prevent an employee from interacting with a hazard. When used correctly, physical barriers are a good way to keep our team members safe, but they do not offer operational flexibility. Some requirements for physical barriers/guards include:

• Guards must be in place prior to machine start-up.
• Guards must be durable and protect employees from the hazard.
• Guards cannot allow access from any direction.
• Guards must be installed tool tight and tool removeable.
• If a guard is not tool removable, it must be monitored by an electronically monitored safety interlock.
• Damaged or ill-fitting guards must be repaired or replaced.

Engineering Controls are also referred to as Presence Sensing Devices (PSDs). When setup correctly, engineering controls are flexible and allow employees to safely interact with machines or equipment for production needs. Examples include light curtains, safety mats and area laser scanners. Basic requirements for these devices include:

• All PSDs need to be validated prior to the start of operation on each shift.
• Machines designed to operate with PSDs cannot be operated without them (cannot bypass their function).
• The safety distances of all PSDs must be validated annually.

Each division, as part of their 2021 Safety Action Plan, will conduct a risk assessment on all production equipment within the facility to document safeguards that are currently in place and to identify opportunities to reduce the risk of injury.

“These risk assessments will guide us to targeted safety improvement actions for years to come and increase machine safety knowledge for the entire organization,” says Tony Dominic, Director – Safety, Health and Environment.

To learn more about machine safeguarding controls, schedule training or report improvement opportunities, see your Divisional Safety Representative.

Safety First. Always. And, it starts with me.