Forensic Engineers and Consultants

Tag Archive: Safety of Machinery

  1. Danger Within Reach

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    How far away from a hazard should you stay?  Your parents or grandparents would probably have told you to stay far away, but what are you to do when a hazard is present, and you must work around or near the hazard?  And what exactly is a hazard?  ISO 12100 Safety of machinery – General principles for design – Risk assessment and risk reduction defines a hazard as a “potential source of harm.”

    Where would a designer of a machine or product start if they wished to protect the user from a known hazard?  Consensus standards are a great place to begin the quest for safety. (more…)

  2. HEY…Cover Up Please!

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    Machine guards can be compared to the clothes we wear every day.  Indeed, they serve a very important purpose.  Imagine someone leaving their home on a fine, sunny morning wearing nothing but a smile.  Wonder how far they will get through the day before things start going poorly for this individual?

     

     

     

     

     

    There will be more than a few raised eyebrows and blushes when he stops into the local Starbucks for his usual morning double-dipped and whipped, chocolaty chip with a touch of pumpkin spice cappuccino fix.  Good luck with that!  Probably going to leave disappointed, empty-handed, and likely wearing handcuffs.  This will be the beginning of a very long, very bad day for that individual.  Had he recognized the risks associated with this type of behavior, and then put forth a little effort to cover up, he would have prevented many unfavorable and possibly life-changing personal and legal problems from ever occurring!

    And so it is with properly guarding a machine.  Machine safeguarding helps to protect workers from preventable injuries. (more…)

  3. WARREN Welcomes Mechanical Engineer Bob Hickman, P.E.

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    Please join us in welcoming Mechanical Engineer Bob Hickman, P.E., to the WARREN family! Bob has over 30 years of manufacturing and machine design experience in production and quality-driven environments. Bob holds a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Clemson University.

    Bob’s Areas of Expertise Include:
    -Machine Safeguarding
    -Machine Design
    -Equipment Failure
    -Mechanical Engineering
    -Industrial Accident Investigation
    -Codes & Standards
    -Machinery & Equipment Damage Assessment
    -Products Liability (more…)

  4. The Concepts of Hazard, Risk, and Harm in Machine Safeguarding

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    Hazard, risk, and harm are terms that are used in the world of machine safeguarding.   How do these words shape the concept of machine safeguarding? Let’s look a little deeper….

    Hazard, which Merriam-Webster defines as a noun, lists its first meaning as a source of danger.

    1: a source of danger

    2a: the effect of unpredictable and unanalyzable forces in determining events : CHANCE, RISK

      b:  a chance event : ACCIDENT  (more…)

  5. Conveyor Backstops: Sometimes One Isn’t Enough, Part 2

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    This is the second in a two-part blog series about conveying equipment that severely injured a worker at a mine. In case you missed it, click here to read Part 1 where I describe the incident and the mining equipment. In this part, I will discuss my engineering analysis of the incident and the machinery involved and share the conclusions I reached.

    The injured miner was a front-end loader operator. He was not a maintenance worker. He simply responded to a radio request for help with the conveyor. Power to the electric conveyor motors was locked out, but none of the maintenance workers did anything to lock out or block the hazardous gravitational potential energy in the heavy load of stone on the belt. (more…)

  6. Conveyor Backstops: Sometimes One Isn’t Enough, Part 1

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    This is the first of a two-part blog series describing an incident involving conveying machinery that seriously injured a miner. Part 1 describes the machinery and the incident. In Part 2 I will summarize my engineering analysis of the incident and share the conclusions I reached.

    A loaded, inclined conveyor belt may contain hazardous levels of energy due to gravity. To protect workers, anti-reverse devices called backstops are installed on inclined conveyors to prevent unexpected downhill movement. The Conveyor Equipment Manufacturer’s Association (CEMA) defines a backstop as: (more…)

  7. Unguarded Shear Point on Force Tester Amputates Worker’s Finger

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    A worker was injured while testing gas springs similar to the type that hold the hatchback of an SUV open. The hazard that injured the worker was an unguarded shear point. The tester contained a mounting plate that was raised and lowered by a pneumatic cylinder.

    The pneumatic cylinder lowered the mounting plate while the worker’s fingers were in the hazardous, unguarded shear point. (more…)

  8. Case Study of an Injury Involving a Soil Mixer

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    In May, 2014, a plant farm worker was seriously injured when he fell into the hopper of an electrically powered soil mixer.  The mixer in question used a rotating steel ribbon powered by a 7-1/2 hp electric motor to mix batches of materials such as sand, mulch, wood shavings, fertilizers and other landscaping materials to create potting soil. At the top of the hopper sidewalls, within 6 inches of the ribbon, was a steel grate. (more…)

  9. A Case Study in a Coal Mine: What are a Machine Rebuilder’s Responsibilities?

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    In November of 2010, a miner was injured by a roof bolting machine (roof bolter) in an Alabama underground coal mine. The roof bolter in question had undergone a complete rebuild intended to return the machine to the original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM’s) specifications. Warren was hired to analyze both the design of the roof bolter and the actions of the rebuilder to determine if either contributed to the unfortunate coal miner’s serious injury. Background information on coal mining and roof bolters, as well as an analysis of the roof bolter and the actions of the rebuilder are included. (more…)

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