Machine Guarding 29 CFR 1910 Subpart O

General Background:

Thousands of workers are injured every year due to non-existent or improperly installed machine guards.  Death, serious injury, crushed hands and arms, severed fingers, blindness and a host of other types of injuries can be the result of improper machine guarding.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that most of these accidents can be prevented if proper safety precautions at job sites are initiated.  This poses a serious problem for exposed workers and their employer.  The OSHA Machine Guarding Standards establishes uniform requirements to ensure that the hazards of non-existent or improper machine guarding in U.S. workplaces are evaluated, safety procedures implemented and that the proper hazard information is transmitted to all affected workers.

The following course outline is designed to make employees aware of the hazards involved when working with and / or around equipment that is not properly guarded.

I Introduction

    1. Methods of Machine Safeguarding
    2. General Requirements For All Machines

II Guards

    1. Fixed
    2. Interlocked
    3. Adjustable
    4. Self-Adjusting

III Devices

    1. Presence Sensing
    2. Pullback
    3. Restraint
    4. Safety Controls
    5. Gates

IV Location / Distance

V Potential Feeding and Ejection Methods to Improve Safety for the Operator

    1. Automatic feed
    2. Semi-automatic feed
    3. Automatic ejection
    4. Semi-automatic ejection
    5. Robot

VI Miscellaneous Aids

    1. Awareness barriers
    2. Miscellaneous protective shields
    3. Hand-feeding tools and holding fixtures

NOTE:  CSEM, Inc. may be contacted in the future to schedule a work place evaluation and program review in an effort to help maintain compliance.