3020 – 07 – Standard Safeguarding Procedures

1m

Any machine that could injure a worker is required by law to be safeguarded by an employer. The majority of modern machinery has safeguarding built in, but not all manufacturing shops will have brand new machinery. Some older machines may not meet modern safety standards and therefore will need to have new guards built and installed by professionals. OSHA also recommends that the equipment manufacturer look over the design in order to ensure that it will protect the worker without disrupting the machine’s capabilities.

Manufacturers use machine guards and safeguarding devices to protect workers from hazardous machine components. Machine guards shield workers from dangerous moving machine parts. Safeguarding devices offer a variety of ways to interrupt the machine’s operating cycle to keep any workers away from dangerous machine parts.

Machines will either have safeguarding devices that always shield their hazardous parts, or the guards will activate when the machine is turned on. Some machines will have both types of systems.