Keeping Safety at the Forefront with Conveyor Equipment
There are several steps to take to ensure your staff stays safe with moving equipment in your facility.
The vast majority of warehouses use some sort of sortation and conveyor equipment, but the technology is always evolving and getting better, so the opportunities to add more always exist. Before, during, and after installation of conveyor and sortation equipment, safety should always be front and center. To ensure safety is in place, you’ll need to work hand-in-hand with your OEM partner or integrator throughout the implementation process and beyond.
There are multiple areas of focus when it comes to safety. The first begins with a pre-installation audit. Design engineers will give a thorough walk through your facility to identify places that will deserve attention when installing the equipment. Your equipment manufacturer tries to “bake” in all the necessary equipment safety features, but having a set of eyes on your operations at the outset never hurts.
The equipment itself offers many areas for worker protections. You can complement every conveyor and sortation system with safety features like emergency off buttons; light curtains that shut down equipment if someone crosses the barrier; guards on the sides of the conveyors themselves that keep items like clothing, hair or jewelry from getting caught. You can also add in fencing and signage as extra safety features to keep your operators safe. Ask your partner about all of the above and determine together which features you’d like to install.
Another key piece of safety is training, which you can do in coordination with your equipment manufacturer. Anyone who might be operating the equipment should learn all of the pre-shift inspections, how to operate the equipment safely, how to stop the equipment if needed, and how to operate a strict lockout/tagout process. This prevents anyone from operating the equipment while the equipment is being checked on and helps keep accidents at bay.
Additional tools that you can implement include a combination of Bluetooth and remote access control that maintenance people can stand back from the equipment they are working on, while still running it. When it comes to the operation of the conveyor itself, speed controls are also important, and you should aim to avoid maximum speeds if possible or use a safety-rated control to shut down a conveyor if the set maximum speed is exceeded.
One piece of safety that is often left out of the equation is ergonomics. You want a set up that prevents your staff from having to bend over and stand up frequently, if at all possible. Another part of that approach is the noise that your conveyor equipment makes. You’ll want to pay attention to OSHA recommendations on decibel levels and provide PPE if it helps protect their hearing.
It also never hurts to schedule regular, short training sessions and reminders of the safety measures needed whenever using or near conveyor equipment. Even a 10-minute reminder prior to each shift can go a long way. No matter how you go about it, safety should always be a top priority when operator conveyor equipment.
Source: Matt Taylor, Gebhardt USA
To learn more about MHI’s Conveyor and Sortation Solutions Industry Group: www.mhi.org/css
For more articles and podcasts about Conveyors and Sortation:
Understanding the Motors in Your Equipment
Combining Sortation with Robots
Using Simulation and Digital Twins to Increase Productivity and Quality and Reduce Cost
Purchasing Conveyors With Sustainability In Mind
Using Conveyors for Loading and Unloading Trucks & Containers
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