Shop Floor Safety — A Cause for Concern

“We see operators who have the tendency to take a lot of chances with equipment, who will defeat machine guards, defeat safety systems and interlocks, because they view those as an interference in productivity,” Jones remarks.

“There are also instances where the safety systems don’t work and (printers) either don’t get them repaired or don’t realize that they have stopped working. Often there is not a routing program checking to see if the safety systems are working. You don’t want to find out the stop button isn’t working when someone’s being pulled into a machine. Most importantly, you never rely upon an interlock or interlocked guard as your primary means of protection.