Machine Guarding

Safeguards or machine guards are designed to prevent you from accidentally coming into contact with dangerous machine parts.  Motors, gearboxes, presses, laminator and cutters all have safeguards to protect you and your employees from being injured. Many operators claim the safeguards get in the way or slow them down.  A safeguard is supposed to get in the way.  That's its job -- to create a barrier between you and a dangerous moving part that could seriously injure a finger, hand or other body party. There are six types of machinery hazards typically found in a specialty imaging business:  pinch or nip points, rotating motion, cutting action, transverse motion, punching action and impact hazard.  There are several different types of safeguards typically found in our industry including fixed guards, adjustable and self-adjusting guards, interlocks and light curtains. Common hazards that require safeguarding in the screen printing process include: Screen stretching areas.  Scress that are stretched and held in place for drying with pressurized clamps can cause a hazard if one of the clamps breaks loose.  A method of safeguarding the clamps is to place a 2 x 4 or other board behind each bank of clamps on all four sides of the table.  Then, if the screen rips, the board will keep the clampfrom flying backward. Ink mixing.  Using a rotating shaft to mix ink should be guarded to protect technicians from possibly catching loose clothing or a finger.  A plexiglass cover that fits over the mixing container wiht an opening for the shaft would work to provide protection. In line press (feed end).  The drive rollers on an automatic feed mechanism creates a pinch point where the substrate enters the machine.  A nip guard should be positioned that allows the width of the substrate but narrow enough that a finger cannot be pinched between the two drive rollers. Carousel press.  The printing beds on a carousel press present an impact hazard.  Safeguarding would entail screening or gating off the areas where an operator could be caught when the beds are automatically rotated. Common hazards that require safeguarding in the digital printing process include: Digital press.  The primary hazard with digital presses is found on those that have an exposed printing area, so that wehen the printhead mvoes toward the user interface, a pinch point is formed between the printhead and the interface.  A simple safeguard canbe a piece of plexiglass permanently attached to the press.  Many presses are equipped with a safety hood that covers the printhead thus eliminating the pinch point hazard. Eyelet/grommet machine.  If the machine has a footpedal, than it must be safeguarded against begin accidentally pressed.  All machines must have a telescoping cage at the point of operation to safeguard agains the punching hazardd. Laminator.  The feed mechanism on the laminator forms a pinch point and should be guarded with a nip guard. For more information or if you have specific facility questions, please contact SGIA's Government & Business Information Department at govtaffairs@sgia.org.