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Safety-related machine controls for maintenance risk reduction.

Etherton JR

Proceedings of the American Society of Safety Engineers Professional Development Conference and Expo, June 9-12, 2002, Nashville, Tennessee. Des Plaines, IL: American Society of Safety Engineers, 2002 Jun; :1-20

20023559

A well-rounded safety professional should be able to systematically communicate the fundamentals of safe machine maintenance. This means being able to: coordinate with electrical engineers and maintenance personnel to oversee the selection of controls, interlocks, and disconnects; evaluate with a vendor why their device does or does not match your safeguarding need; describe for your boss why a safeguard should be purchased; specify to your purchasing agent the exact kind of safety devices needed on a new machine; and help a line worker understand how to avoid doing something that could degrade the performance of a machine safeguard. In this presentation, you will learn why a machine's start and stop control functions are vital for machine risk reduction evaluators to consider, especially as safer machine maintenance becomes a global concern. Specifying machine control devices that fit well with lockout procedures can help prevent an unexpected startup when machine maintenance personnel are in a dangerous location.

Machine operation; Safety measures; Safety practices; Maintenance workers; Safety equipment; Machine operators