Why safeguard Machines?
Machine guarding is one of the most important safety aspects of any industrial or manufacturing facility, with the requirement to maintain a safe working environment. Within most industrial sectors there is human interaction with moving machinery equipment. Moving parts can cause hazards and potential machine related risks, making it fundamentally vital for the installation of safeguards to protect employees from hazardous machinery interactions.
Safeguards have key fundamentals for increasing workplace safety; these are to detect or prevent entry into hazardous areas and eliminate hazards before they can present a danger. Required areas for guarding under OSHA is a point of operation, ingoing nip points, flying debre, and sparks exiting a machine.
The Centreline safety solution focus is on the three industrial machine components that include: a point of operation, power transmission apparatus, and operating controls. Even though manufacturing machinery have a similar configuration, the guarding requirements differ due to varying operator requirements and equipment characteristics.
At Centreline, we have been providing guarding solutions for over 32 years, so we know the correct installation systems required to comply with HSE standards and machinery directives. As machinery vastly differs in the build up of components, this makes using bespoke designs considerably more essential to obtain complete safety of your machine or industrial facility.
machine guarding importance!
benefits of guarding!
- Reduced downtime's - Increasing facility safety creates a safer working environment that minimises injuries and enhances inefficiencies by relieving workers of any safety apprehensions.
- Compliances - Across manufacturing, there are many regulations regarding machine guarding. Being compliant is paramount for facility safety and law adherence.
- Containment - Machines have a vast variety of applications i.e. welding, painting, cutting, and moulding. Our guarding can be designed to contain items like paint and sparks ejecting from a machine. While containing debris to a small area allowing for cleaning and maintenance to be carried out efficiently.
- Provides a physical barrier - We produce guarding using solid materials steel, welded or woven mesh, and aluminium. Other materials can be used, speak with a technical advisor for more information on 01902 897 285.
- Optimising facility space - Guarding is primarily designed for safety, but we can develop guarding to accommodate a floor plan and workflow. Minimising a safety hazard can open additional space that may otherwise have coursed injury or avoidance.
Why guarding is so important
- In 2015/6, 27 workers were fatally injured in the manufacturing sector.
- During the same year, an estimated 7920 non-fatal workplace injuries resulted from contact with machinery.
- From 2010/11-2014/15 there have been 110 fatal manufacturing injuries recorded. 4 injury kinds accounted for three-quarters of all manufacturing fatalities these include:
- Struck by object (26 cases)
- Contact with machinery (22 cases)
- Fall from height (19 cases)
- Trapped by something collapsing (12 cases)
- Other (31 cases).
- The UK annual average hours lost due to workplace injuries is 0.6 million days a year.
- A 2014 survey, commissioned by the European Union Occupational Safety and Health Agency identified machines or tools boding an 85% physical risk factor.