Exposed Moving or Mechanical Hazards

Exposed machinery, or moving parts are common to all industrial sites, often with varying speeds and different applications. The hazards associated with exposed machinery and moving machinery include: pinch points and moving parts, moving materials or slip, trip and fall hazards. Exposed and moving machinery poses serious safety risks to workers, maintenance workers, technicians. Pinch points and moving parts are entanglement hazards commonly found in areas leading into pulleys, shafts, couplings, sample cutters or rollers along the carry and return sides of the conveyor belt.

Slip, Trip & Fall

Hazards

Moving materials on conveyors may be large masses moving at high speeds, are hot, have jagged edges, or are toxic. Fugitive material escaping from the system can cause various hazards. Workers can easily slip and fall if pellet-like fugitive material lands on walkways. Lump materials, or piles of spillage, create an uneven walking surface, significantly increasing the risk of ankle and back injuries.

What can you do?

To mitigate the hazards of exposed and moving machinery, Australian standard compliant guarding needs to be installed. To be Australian Standard compliant the guarding must:

• provide a protective physical barrier, which removes the foreseeable risk of personal injury by accidental contact or approach;
  
• be identifiable as guarding, primarily through safety colours;
  
• not allow anybody parts to fit through the guarding apertures and reach the hazard;

• allow visual inspection without the ability to physically contact the hazard;
  
• not impede the operation of the plant;
  
• be safe and easy to remove for maintenance access, and quickly and easily replaced when the work is finished;
  
• not create a new manual handling hazard, such as overly large and heavy panels;
  
• be secured in position so they cannot be removed without the use of tools unless an interlocking device is provided to automatically stop the conveyor when the guard is removed.
  

ESS Products & Solutions

to minimise risks and hazards