Machine Safety and Isolation Policy

Purpose. This policy sets the rules for guarding, interlocks, isolation and lock out on every moulding machine, extruder, mill, calender, press, drawing machine and ancillary across the business.

1.Guarding standard

Every machine must be guarded to the Australian standard for safeguarding of machinery. Fixed guards must need a tool to remove. Interlocked guards on moulding machines, presses and mills must stop hazardous motion before access is possible and must not allow restart until the guard is closed and the operator resets. Nip points on calenders, haul-offs, capstans and take-ups must be guarded or fitted with trip devices. Emergency stops must be within reach at every operating position.

2.Weekly checks

Supervisors must check every interlock and emergency stop on their machines each week using the machine checklist and record the result. A machine with a failed interlock or emergency stop must be tagged out of service until repaired. Guards must not be removed, wedged, bypassed or defeated for any reason, including to speed up a die change or clear a blockage.

3.When isolation is required

Isolation and lock out is required before any person places any part of their body between the platens, inside the mould area, into a hopper, feed throat or barrel, between mill rolls, into a press, inside a die head or calibrator, or near a drawing capstan or take-up, and before any maintenance, cleaning or clearing of a blockage. Setting a die, purging a barrel with the guard open and changing a screen pack all require isolation of the energy sources that can cause motion or release of pressure.

• Electrical isolation at the machine main isolator, locked
• Hydraulic pressure released and accumulator drained
• Pneumatic supply isolated and vented
• Heating isolated where hot surfaces or purgings are a hazard
• Gravity: platens, cores and mould halves blocked or supported

4.Lock out method

Each person who will work on the machine applies their own personal lock and tag to the isolator or lock box. The person who applied the lock is the only person who removes it. The setter or maintainer must test that the machine cannot start after locking out. Group lock out with a lock box is used when more than one person is working. A lost lock is removed only under the lost lock process with the Tooling and Maintenance Manager's approval.

5.Mills and calenders

Open mills must have a functional trip bar or cable that reverses the rolls, tested at the start of each shift. Mill operators must work alone at the mill only when the trip has been tested and must never reach across or behind the nip. Calender and haul-off nips must be guarded and threaded only with the machine at threading speed.

6.Authorisation

Only workers whose training matrix entry shows the isolation and lock out competency and the machine-specific setter or maintainer competency are authorised to isolate, set, clear or maintain that machine. Operators must call a setter rather than attempt a clearance themselves.

7.Review

This policy will be reviewed annually, after any incident involving machine access and after any change to machinery or guarding.