Simple Verbal Instruction: Fixed Machine Guarding Is A Fail

Simple Verbal Instruction: Fixed Machine Guarding Is A Fail

Simple Verbal Instruction: Fixed Machine Guarding Is A Fai – I was working at a factory which had an old Flexographic printer. A Safety Audit picked up exposed moving parts and Verbal Instruction was given to the maintenance department to fit fixed machine guarding. This was done over a weekend.
However – When the production crew started to run the machine – they discovered that the guard, which was fixed in position, blocked their “line of sight” to an important observation point on the print web as it was running. Although the machine used automatic tracking for the paper – this function was not absolutely foolproof and the operators wanted to see the actual print as it traveled around rollers in order to verify that the tracking was working correctly. Also, certain “change over” adjustment points could not now be accessed and the crew had to use a difficult access point for the change over adjustments.
“Tough” was the response from the maintenance people when this issue was raised with them. “We were instructed to fit a guard and that’s what we have done – you will have to work around any “minor” issues” was their comment

I was brought into the company on a contract basis to work on another project. At some stage I needed to discuss my project with the machine operators and as an ancillary issue – they brought up the problem of blocked vision and access to adjustment points. My manager (who was not the same manager who issued the initial verbal request) was happy for me to look at this problem and I subsequently redesigned the guard in such a way that it complied with all statutory safety standards and allowed “line of site” to verify the print position and gave them back their access points.

Engineering Drawing for redesigned front Guarding on Flexographic printer

Cross reference with Engineering Drawings For Minor Works

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