Yesterday, we began a review of machine shop safety, and today we continue with more suggestions for making your shop a safe and productive place.
Proper storage is right up there with good housekeeping when you’re working to make your machine shop a safer place. Raw materials and finished products, which are usually found in abundance in machine shops, and everything else needs to be stored in an orderly and safe manner.
Numerous accident scenarios come to mind including a heavy-laden shelf falling to the ground or sharp edges sticking out of stored items.
To avoid storage-related accidents:
DO make sure:
- All storage racks and shelves are securely anchored and in good condition.
- Employees stack materials on a flat base.
- Workers place heavy objects at the bottom.
- Employees use a ladder to reach stored items overhead.
- Workers wear gloves when handling materials to avoid splinters, fasteners, nails and sharp edges.
- Employees know to watch out for plastic or metal strapping, which can snap without warning.
DON’T let workers:
- Leave remnants of packing material on the floor
- Stack items so high that they block the fire sprinkler heads
- Pile materials too close to sources of heat or electricity
- Place items so that they stick out into walkways
- Stand under or beside loosely piled materials
- Lift improperly or lift more than they can carry safely
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Respect the Machinery
All machine shops have machinery, such as saws, power presses, metal stamps, etc., with some kind of guard in place to protect the operators from inadvertently contacting moving parts. Often, to speed up work or make the job easier to accomplish, workers will remove the guards at their own peril. That’s why there is such a high incidence of amputations in machine shops.
Make sure your employees understand why the guards are necessary and how to use them properly. If a guard is too cumbersome to use, contact the equipment manufacturer to see if they can help you with a safe modification.
An effective lockout/tagout program is another essential tool for preventing amputations. All employees should receive training on the lockout or tagout procedures for the equipment they will be using.
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Keep Up the Training
Besides lockout/tagout procedures, make sure your machine shop employees are trained on all aspects of your safety program. Include the following safe practices in your on-going training program:
- Proper disposal of trash and debris
- How to handle a fire and how to use a fire extinguisher
- When to evacuate the premises
- How to safely lift heavy object
- How to use conveyors, cranes, hoists and other lifting devices
- Hazard communication about hazardous substances used in the shop
- How to handle small spills of hazardous substances
- Proper use of personal protective equipment
That’s a lot of training on a lot of different issues. But you’ll be glad to know that you can find ready-made, easy-to-use training outlines all in one place for all the safety topics machine shop workers need to know. And that goes for all your other employees, too.
That’s right. BLR’s Safety Meeting Repros’ offers 50 completely turnkey safety meeting modules, each responsive to a key OSHA regulation, with trainee materials in reproducible form. Just check off the outline items as you proceed through the meeting and you won’t miss a single point of importance. Then follow up with the fully prepared quiz (with instantly available answers) and illustrated handouts that also come with each lesson. You’ve completed a full training cycle, with little more work than running a copier, at a cost equivalent of under $6 a session.
We don’t think you can appreciate how much this program can ease your training task without looking it over. We invite you to do so at no cost (we’ll even pay any return shipping) and no risk. Here’s how you can arrange a trial run, at our expense.
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