Machine guards protect against accidental contact with equipment, machinery, or parts by personnel where there is a danger of potential injury. Some best practices include:

• Never remove a machine guard without the proper lockout/tagout procedures in place.

• Never pry, bend, or manipulate a machine guard.

• Never use any equipment with damaged or missing machine guards.

• Never attempt to bypass or poke tools or objects into machine guards.

• Report any damaged or missing machine guards, and isolate the area with warning labels or caution tape until resolved.

• Always completely reinstall or reapply a machine guard before removing lockout/tagout conditions and returning the machine to operation.

Report any damaged or missing machine guards, and isolate the area with warning labels or caution tape until resolved.

Basic Terminology For Parts of the Machine Requiring Guarding

• Point of operation – area where the machine performs work on material.

• Power transmission apparatus – Belts, gears, flywheels, chains, pulleys, spindles, couplings, cams, and machine components that transmit energy.

• Moving parts – reciprocation, rotating, traversing motions, and auxiliary machine parts.

Always completely reinstall or reapply a machine guard before removing lockout/tagout conditions and returning the machine to operation.

Types of Mechanical Motion That Must Be Guarded

• Pinch points – points at which it is possible to be caught between moving parts or between moving and stationary parts of a piece of equipment.

• Rotating – circular motion of shafts with a protrusion that can grip clothing or pull body parts into the point of operation.

• Reciprocating – back-and-forth or up-and-down motion that may trap/strike an employee between a moving object and a fixed object.

• Traversing – movement in a straight, continuous line that may strike or catch an employee in a pinch or shear point between a moving and fixed object.

• Cutting – action of sawing, boring, drilling, milling, and slicing.

• Punching – action resulting when a machine moves a slide (ram) to stamp a sheet of metal or other material.

• Shearing – movement of a powered slide or knife during metal trimming or paper cutting.

• Bending – action occurring when power is applied to a slide to draw or form metal or other material.

Source: Glenn Dickey, All-Safe Program Manager, AgriSphere Services, LLC, Decatur, IL; gdickey@agrisphere.com.