Guard your manufacturing operations
Steve Jackson, Technical Sales Manager for Crescent Machinery, part of Group Rhodes, looks at ways to enhance safety and reduce risk in the manufacturing process.
“In today’s manufacturing operations it is essential to ensure that all employees are protected and can operate in a safe and healthy working environment.
PUWER (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations) regulations aim to make life safer for everyone using machinery and work equipment. There are a number of requirements that must be met, for example, that the equipment must be safe for use and maintained in a safe condition. This includes inspection by a trained and fully competent person to ensure it is correctly installed and does not deteriorate. It also covers factors such as that operatives must have received adequate training and instruction on use of the equipment.
According to PUWER Regulations, businesses must take effective measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of the machinery ie those which could cause harm. This normally means that guarding needs to be in place which prevents a worker from being in contact from dangerous moving parts. They are effectively barred from reaching the danger zone. Where it is not possible to add guarding to a machine, for example, the blade of a circular saw, it must be protected as far as possible and a safe system of work must be used.
Our Crescent Machinery division specialises in designing and manufacturing guarding to ensure that all types of machinery complies with PUWER legislation. Our specialists are able to identify hazards and items that can cause harm, by carrying out a PUWER assessment. We also provide risk reduction solutions to ensure all types of machinery complies with PUWER legislation. Crescent Machinery are experts in providing bespoke machine guarding solutions for equipment large or small.
The Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act introduced back in 2007 meant that, for the first time, companies and organisations could be found guilty of corporate manslaughter as a result of management failure resulting in a gross breach of their duty of care. Businesses are therefore recognising how vitally important it is to protect their staff and to reduce their own risk.
We have recently designed, manufactured and installed new machine guarding equipment within the Rhodes Interform machine shop. This includes perimeter fences, which have been fitted to two Kearns Horizontal Borers, a Gear Cutting Cell and two Butler Planers. We have also installed bespoke guarding to our Webster Bennett Vertical Turning Lathes.
In addition, we have undertaken rigorous assessments in line with PUWER for all Rhodes Interform machinery to ensure it is compliant with the regulations.”
For more information or to receive a quote on machine guarding for your business, contact Steve Jackson at Crescent Machinery on 01924 371161.