How safe are your machines?

In a workplace incident in Victoria, a young butcher had his hand partially amputated after it was caught in a mincer while he was cleaning it. Amputations are an all-too-common type of injury that can result from unguarded, unsafe machines in the workplace, and nobody wants a workplace accident to happen under their watch.

One of the best ways to prevent and control occupational injuries, illnesses and fatalities is to design out or minimise hazards and risks early in the design process. The SafeWork Australia National Strategy 2002-2012 set ‘eliminating hazards at the design stage’ as one of five national priorities and there has been a 28% decrease nationally over this period in the incidence rate of serious injury.

The law is very clear about eliminating risk and if that is not possible, risks should be minimised through engineering means. Those engineering means are not described in legislation, except the guarding hierarchy which defines the guarding types and the order in which they should be examined and employed, so far as is reasonably practicable. The AS 4024.1-2006 Safety of Machinery standard covers all the fundamental requirements of machine safety from risk assessment via safety control systems, interlocking, emergency stop, unexpected start, guarding design to a complete set of ergonomic considerations.

“When it comes to machine safety, there is no ‘big brother’ watching over you to make sure your equipment is safe,” said Frank Schrever, director, Machine Safety by Design. “But if an incident does occur, the law looks at the employer or PCBU (person conducting a business or undertaking), the designer, manufacturer, importer and the supplier; all are similarly liable and can be prosecuted.

“Front and centre in the machine safety design, productivity must be taken into account,” he says. “Safety solutions should never reduce productivity. If the design doesn’t look at productivity, it can lead to people manipulating (defeating) safety controls to improve productivity and operability, and this is when many accidents occur.”

Many machines need to be used at some stage when the guards are open, but Schrever says you can design that to be safe. “The interlocking system can be safely suspended if the machine safety solution has further controls that only allow operation via an appropriate operator control device that slows the machine down to a safe level for instance.” These include devices such as two-hand controls or hold-to-run devices and inch or limited speed controls.

New and retrofit equipment safety

Another major challenge for machine safety in Australia is to ensure both new and retrofitted equipment meets the Australian standards for safety. “People who have bought a new machine could rightly be excused for thinking the machine is safe,” says Schrever. “But unless the designer/manufacturer/importer is diligent and followed the rules, and done its own risk analysis to make sure the machine complies, sometimes a machine that is not compliant can be sold and ends up in the workplace.”

So how can we solve this problem? Schrever says anyone who buys a machine should demand a risk assessment and compliance statement from the importer or whoever they are buying it from. “But even having this, it’s important to do your own risk assessment and compliance checks,” he says. “If the importer has it wrong, it doesn’t absolve you!”

Despite all the recent plant closures in Australia, Schrever says safety will continue to improve in manufacturing. “Safety control systems continue to become more capable and economical to implement; people are generally much more aware of what has to be done,” he says. “Understanding the need for design-based risk minimisation and harmonising of OHS legislation has removed most variations from state to state, so we all sing from the same hymn sheet these days.”

Schrever has also been working on updating the AS4024-2006 machine safety standard. The new AS4024-2014 standard, which has just gone for public comment, includes updates to the 26 global standards (primarily ISO standards and European Norms) that are applicable to Australia. “The standard is essentially a compilation of all the fundamental standards that everyone in the machine world needs,” he says. “It has been a long process to ensure this standard is updated, and even though there are no big surprises, it’s important that the standard sets a global baseline for best practice in machine safety.”

Education is the key

“Ignorance of the laws and standards is no defence when it comes to safety,” says Schrever. “As margins tighten there is the pressure not to spend, but simple, economical machine safety solutions are available and can provide a safe and productive workplace environment. Better education is the key.”

Schrever will be presenting further discussion on Safety of Machinery AS4024 1.1-2006 at workshops over two days during the upcoming ACI connect event. In his first session on Wednesday 9 April, he will cover the key legal obligations regarding machine safety. He will also look at the matching requirements in the machine safety standard AS 4024 and how these obligations can readily be met. The issues surrounding risk assessment are explored and the interface between risk assessment and safe design is studied. Safety control system design is explored in detail.

The second workshop on Thursday 10 April will continue examining the safety control system, moving into physical guarding principles and then onto a thorough review of interlocking and unexpected start-up, and a detailed examination of emergency stop requirements and design issues.

To register for the ACI connect event, visit aciconnect.com.au/pages/register.