In addition to making sure that workers understand how potentially dangerous pinch points can be, it is important to ensure equipment is properly guarded to keep workers away from hazardous areas. This can happen even before equipment is purchased.

New equipment should be evaluated with a safety checklist based on input from engineers, workers and safety personnel. The manufacturer should be asked to make adjustments to eliminate hazards before the equipment is purchased.

Once equipment has been purchased and installed, it is important to monitor workers’ behavior to ensure that they are not exposing when the machine is running, but when it’s stopped and the guard is removed, if the equipment is not de-energized, a worker is not safe.

The best protection from pinch-point hazards comes not from procedures, but from the personal attention of employers and workers to potential hazards.

• Review the dangers of pinch points and the procedures for working safely on a regular basis.

• Perform frequent, targeted inspections to ensure that guards are not missing and procedures are being followed.

• Reward employees for identifying and reporting hazards and quickly resolve those hazards.

The following safeguarding requirements apply in a manufacturing facility, according to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Heath Act:

• Provide training to each newly assigned employee regarding the operating procedures, hazards, and safeguards of the job.

• Powered electrical equipment must have an on/off switch.

• When unexpected motion can cause injury, an actuating machine control (except for an emergency device for a powered fixed or transportable machine) must be guarded or located to prevent accidental actuation.

• Unless its function is self-evident, each operating control device shall be identified as to its function.

• Equipment that is operated in a series so that one piece of equipment automatically supplies another shall be interlocked so that when any equipment in the series is stopped for any reason, the initial stopping causes the upstream equipment to stop if continued operation would create a hazard. Reactivation requires a separate, positive action by the employee who initiated the stop.

• Two hand-control devices must be the anti-tie down and located in a manner to prevent bridging. Operation shall require manual activation of both controls until a point is reached in the cycle where the operator cannot remove his or her hands and place them within a pinch point. If repeating would cause an injury to the employee, an anti-repeat device shall be incorporated into the control system.

• Guards shall be secured to the machine, if possible, or to other fixed objects. The guard must not create a hazard in itself.

• A point of operation guard or device must be as prescribed in a specific standard or, in the absence of a specific standard, must be designed and constructed when required to prevent the machine operator exposed to the hazard from having any part of his or her body in the hazardous area during the operating cycle.

• Blades of a fan, located within seven feet of a floor or working level and used for ventilation or cooling of your employee(s), must be guarded with a firmly affixed or secured guard. Any opening in the guard shall not have more than one of its dimensions more than one inch, parts of equipment which transmit power be safeguarded so that employees do not become entangled, pinched, or caught in moving parts. Belts and pulleys, flywheels, chains, sprockets, and gears must all be guarded. These areas are commonly referred to as pinch points.

A pinch point means a point at which it is possible to be caught between the moving parts of a machine, between the moving and stationary parts of a machine, or between material and any part of a machine. A point of operation refers to the point on a machine where work is performed.

In manufacturing industries, employees can become exposed when machine panels are removed to service or provide maintenance and then not replaced when the service or maintenance is completed. MIOSHA requires guarding of these hazards that may exist in manufacturing industries:

• A point of operation or pinch point;

• Feedrolls and rollers;

• A revolving barrel, container, or drum exposed to contact;

• Belts and pulleys seven feet or less above a floor or platform;

• Blades of a fan, within seven feet, used for cooling or ventilation;

• A horizontal belt more than seven feet above the floor or platform if it is located over a passageway or work area;

• A band or circular saw;

• Gears, sprockets, shafting, and chain drives exposed to contact; and

• An extractor, parts washer, or tumbler manually controlled.

If safeguarding one of these hazards requires that you make a guard, the guard should be durable and not result in a new hazard to employees, such as burrs or sharp edges.

There are specific requirements for various types of materials and clearances that must be followed when guarding machines. For example, expanded metal used to guard a moving part less than four inches away from the pinch point cannot have openings larger than one-half inch. FSM