Is your plant machinery both safe and compliant? Has your company experienced a machine-related injury, a close call, or received a regulatory compliance citation associated with the operation or maintenance of plant machinery? Understanding machine safety requirements can be a complex undertaking. Plant machinery can also be unknowingly hazardous to your employees resulting in serious, if not fatal injuries. These tragic events can also create significant liability for your company.

In these times, just being lucky or safe isn’t good enough. Your plant machinery needs to be safe and compliant with a wide array of regulatory and industry-consensus standards and guidelines. In most cases, it is the legal responsibility of the equipment owner to ensure continued compliance, not the original equipment manufacturer (OEM).

Machine guarding devices and safety control systems must be designed, engineered and installed in a fully integrated and reliable manner to ensure a safe and compliant design without negatively impacting productivity, quality, cycle times or machine life. To determine if your machinery is both safe and compliant, you need to understand the risks associated with normal machine operation as well as any risks associated with service, maintenance or repair tasks. Risks need to be communicated to your employees, so they are aware of the hazards and are trained, equipped and proficient in safe and compliant operation.

Typically, the first step to understanding the risks and regulatory regulations associated with your plant machinery and any gaps in machine safeguarding is to complete a machine safety survey or risk assessment. This process identifies the required functionality of your machinery, including material handling, and the tasks associated with start-up, normal operation, clearing of jams, periodic adjustments as well as service, maintenance and repair. Risks associated with these tasks are then analyzed based on frequency, severity and avoidance to allow for the selection of the most suitable guarding or safety control solution.

There are a few important considerations when selecting a machine safety survey or risk assessment provider. First, the assessment process needs to conform to an industry-recognized methodology and be completed by someone experienced in both hazard recognition as well as the design of compliant machine safeguarding solutions. Ideally, a turnkey provider should be selected who has experience not only with guarding, but also with the design and operation of machine controls and safety control systems. This helps prevent “finger-pointing” between multiple vendors. Selecting a vendor who also represents several manufacturers of safety control devices can allow for the selection of the best available technology for your machine safety needs.

 

The next five basic machine safety requirements represent a few of the areas that a comprehensive machine safety survey or risk assessment would typically evaluate, but in much greater detail. Review these basic machine safety requirements to determine the current state and urgency of your machine safeguarding needs.

Each hazardous energy source must be provided with a suitable means to safely remove and relieve all active or accumulated forms of hazardous energy (electrical, chemical, pneumatic, hydraulic, gravity, etc.) before service maintenance or repair tasks are undertaken.

Properly designed and installed ZES isolation devices can cut maintenance and repair times drastically and allow your employees to quickly and safely apply their personal Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) devices to achieve a safe and compliant zero-energy state.

These devices can include the following:

Plug disconnect devices

for cord and plug power supply

The key words are durable and tamper-resistant.

Machine guarding achieves little if a machine operator can defeat the purpose of the guarding. Durable and tamper-resistant barrier guarding prevents machine operators from reaching Around, Under, Though or Over (A-U-T-O) fixed guarding to gain access to moving or hazardous machine parts.

Robust and durable structural barrier guarding devices and systems can include the following:

Drill press safety guarding

You are playing with fire (and very likely in violation) if your current safety control system relies on the use of general purpose mechanical relays, standard photoelectic sensors, toggle/limit switches, or a standard programmable logic controller (PLC). Only listed or approved safety-rated control devices ensure a complete mechanical stop or physically prevent access to a moving or hazardous machine part.

The correct selection of these devices must be based on the machine operator’s duties, access needs, materials handled and the frequency and speed of moving or hazardous parts. The use or reliance on standard-service machinery control devices and circuit components may not be a suitable or compliant option. These safety-rated control devices can include the following:

These safety-rated control devices can include the following:

Solenoid interlocks

Do your machine stop controls conform to applicable standards such as NFPA 79 and ISO-13850?

Normal machine stop and emergency stop controls have two completely different objectives and may have completely different technical requirements.

Machine stop control devices can include the following:

Rope pull switches

Machine stop times must be tested and confirmed in order for the proximity or access control devices to detect AND stop any machine motion before the operator has exposure to the hazardous machine part.

In order for the proximity and access controls devices (e.g., light curtains and scanners) to properly function, they must also be properly installed, calibrated and tested according to the manufacturer’s specifications.

Machine stop control devices can include the following:

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