The National Safety Council has prepared a detailed article on OSHA’s Top 10 most-cited violations for fiscal year 2024. Machine guarding violations remain in the top ten most-cited serious violations with 1,635 violations. OSHA defines a “serious violation” as “one...
Dear valued customer / supplier, As you know with the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic many people have been asked or required to limit personal contact and stay home. Machine Guard & Cover Co. is a critical source of components and solutions to the food...
Identifying and mitigating exposures to occupational hazards before work begins is the objective of all safety and health professionals. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) offers a basic outline to improve workplace safety through its...
Despite the inherent hazard of motor couplings, Machine Guard & Cover Co. finds many couplings improperly guarded or completely unguarded during site visits. Couplings are both exposed shafts and grab points that present hazards to anybody with loose clothing,...
When designing turbine shaft guarding for hydroelectric dams, there are numerous challenges of size, space and simplicity that must be addressed. Although these aren’t exactly new challenges for Machine Guard & Cover Company, since we regularly work in...
This water treatment facility had a cast pump housing with a coupling that required guarding. The shape of the housing and the constant rotation of the coupling provided an opportunity to use perforated plastic mesh as a guarding material. The plastic mesh was used as...
The fan provides necessary cooling and ventilation for the new shop floor of Machine Guard & Cover Company. Unfortunately, the exposed fan blades and belt and pulley system create an unsafe work environment. Proper guarding will be required to maintain the guard...
Point guarding addresses a single hazard location of a power transmission system with a physical barrier. This is a very common type of machine guarding solution. Point guarding has many benefits in addition to the safety provided by the guard. Maintenance staff and...
Locations that contain very large moving assemblies may require an enclosure guarding system. This technique, also known as barrier guarding or area guarding, creates a large barrier around the entire assembly instead of just the hazard location. Access points to the...
The Challenge Machine Guard & Cover Co. was asked by the Army Corps of Engineers in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, to bring seven pump and motor coupling assemblies up to current ANSI B11.19-2010 guarding safety standards. The couplings were covered by bent metal...
