7.standard machine operating procedure

Procedures and Specific Requirements
Accident risks can be reduced with adequate machine safeguarding. Identifying obvious and hidden hazards should be the first step in planning and reviewing the need for machine tool safeguarding. The information presented in this chapter should be considered as a starting point.
Most incidents leading to injury are the result of inadvertent or unwise contact with moving machine parts. Because of the great diversity of machine designs and functions, appropriate safeguarding to protect workers from such hazards may also have numerous forms. Certain principles, however, are basic to any effective safeguarding design.
Machine Safeguarding Evaluation and Design
A uniform process should be applied and used to evaluate each of the hazards on the machine to develop the required level of safeguarding. The evaluation can be performed by a knowledgeable and experienced person internal to SLAC, or for more complicated machine designs and safeguarding issues, the evaluation can be conducted by a qualified third party.
The OSHA/ANSI hierarchy for controlling machine hazards is as follows:
Eliminate the hazard by design
Control the hazard by guarding or devices
Warnings
Personal protective equipment
Training
If the results of the hazard evaluation show the equipment to be safe (that is, poses no hazard to the employee), changes to the equipment may not be necessary. This may be true for manually-powered equipment.
See Tools, Machine Safeguarding Design Considerations, for further explanations and information.
General Safeguarding Methods and Options
See Tools, Machine Safeguarding General Methods and Options, for general ideas and approved types of guards and devices.
Equipment-specific Techniques
See Tools, Machine Safeguarding Equipment-specific Techniques, for information on the recommended techniques for the guarding of specific types of machines.
Equipment Maintenance
Machine custodians will establish and follow a program of periodic and regular inspections and maintenance of their equipment to ensure that machines, parts, and auxiliary equipment are in a safe operating condition and necessary safeguards are present. Records of these inspections should be maintained and made available for inspection upon request.
Only authorized personnel will be permitted to maintain or repair machine tools. When service occurs that requires entry of any body part into a danger zone within the equipment, or unexpected startup or energizing of the machine could cause injury, maintenance personnel will first isolate hazardous energies as required by the SLAC Lock and Tag Program for the Control of Hazardous Energy.
Other Requirements
Positive Disconnecting Means
To enable proper isolation of hazardous energies before and during equipment maintenance and repair, machines and equipment operated by electric motors or other hazardous energy will be provided with a positive disconnecting means. Examples of positive disconnecting means include quick disconnect knife switches, circuit breakers, valves, and power cords and plugs. Push buttons, selector switches, software interlocks, control circuit type devices, and computer controlled software cannot be used to isolate hazardous energy.
Stop Buttons and Power Controls
Machines should have an emergency power off (EPO) or stop button or other readily-accessible and clearly designated power switch within easy reach of the operator to cut off the power to each machine. The power controls must be located so as to make it unnecessary to reach over or near the hazard to make adjustments. For larger machines, power switches should be located in multiple locations on various sides so that power can be easily deactivated by bystanders in case of emergency.
Machine Anchoring
Machines designed for a fixed location will be securely anchored to prevent walking or moving due to vibration, rotation, or seismic activity.
Manual Reset
Proper restart systems must be installed on all powered equipment and tools so that manual reset is required to restart the tool after it has been stopped by any safety device or mechanism. For example, if an interlocked guard stops tool operation when the guard is removed, manual reset is required to restart the tool after the guard is replaced. Replacing the guard alone must not allow the tool to restart. Manual reset is typically achieved by requiring the tool operator to press a reset button in order to restart the tool.
Anti-Restart Devices
Anti-restart devices (ARDs) or other effective provisions must be present on all woodworking machines and mechanical power presses which could create hazardous conditions to employees if motors were to suddenly restart after a restoration of voltage conditions following a power failure. It is strongly recommended that any machine that could pose a hazard to employees upon restoration of power also be provided with an ARD. Although there is no explicit regulatory requirement for metal working or other machines to have ARDs, the machines should at a minimum be listed and labeled by a Nationally Recognized Testing Laboratory (NRTL) and conform to the applicable standard in the American National Standards Institute B11 series (see Resources)
In addition, the machine should be evaluated (see above Section, “Machine Safeguarding Evaluation and Design”) to determine the risk to employees if an ARD is not present. A sudden restoration of power following an interruption should not create hazardous conditions to employees. (See Tools, Machine Safeguarding Anti-restart Devices, for more information and detailed requirements.)
Malfunctioning Machinery or Safeguards
Malfunctioning machinery or safeguards must be reported immediately to the area supervisor or machine custodian. If the malfunction presents a safety hazard, the machine must be taken out of service by disconnecting and locking out the power source(s). A warning sign indicating the problem should be placed on the machine to communicate its status to affected personnel.
Safe Operating Procedures
Machine users will follow safe operating procedures as developed and enforced by the machine custodian or supervisor in charge. An example of a written program containing acceptable safe operating procedures is available (see Tools, Machine Safeguarding Safe Operating Procedure Topics).