When running a machine shop, safety must be your top priority. Check out the following guide to machine shop safety to ensure you are implementing what is in the machine shop safety checklists and best practices.
Machine Shop Safety Checklist
Always Wear Safety Glasses When Required
When using machinery and completing other tasks in a machine shop that require eye protection, safety glasses with side shields should always be worn. Make sure all of your workers know when they are required to wear safety glasses.
Wear Appropriate Attire
Loose clothing should never be worn in a machine shop, as it could cause accidents to happen. For example, loose clothing could get trapped inside a piece of machinery. Loose neckwear and jewelry should never be worn either, for the same reasons.
And ensure your workers always wear appropriate protective attire, such as gloves and steel-capped boots, when performing certain tasks.
Long Hair Must Be Tied Up
It is not only items like loose clothing and jewelry that could potentially be caught in machinery and cause accidents. Long hair can also cause such accidents. Therefore, make sure all workers with long hair tie up their hair securely before coming onto the shop floor.
A Safe Distance Should Always Be Kept from Moving Machine Parts
Just as important is ensuring workers’ hands and other body parts do not get caught in moving machinery parts. So, make sure you implement strict rules about safe distances to maintain when using machinery.
Preventive Maintenance Should Be Regularly Carried Out
It is important you regularly perform preventive maintenance on all of your machine shop’s machinery and equipment.
Ensuring your machinery is in good working order and does not suddenly stop and need repairing or replacing, which would dramatically disrupt production, is not just good business sense. It is also good for safety sense.
If machine maintenance and repairs are not carried out regularly, problems and safety concerns are more likely to arise. So, make sure you have a maintenance schedule in place. Also, ensure maintenance logs are always completed and up-to-date.
If maintenance and repairs are not carried out, your machinery could fail. When that happens, you have the option to replace your CNC machinery with reliable used CNC machines, for example, but you do not have the option to go back in time and prevent an injury that happens due to improper maintenance procedures.
Workers Should Receive Thorough Training
Everyone who works in your machine shop must be aware of all the safety guidelines you have in place.
Every worker should know how to prevent accidents and how to ensure the safety of themselves and others.
That ranges from things like picking up items that should not be left in walkways to not wearing open-toed shoes in the machine shop.
It is the responsibility of employers, managers, and supervisors to ensure workers always follow health and safety rules, and that begins with thorough training. Every new employee should be trained in health and safety. That training should be done in person, as you need to guarantee that the information sinks in.
If you simply hand out a health and safety guide for your new employees to read, you have no guarantee that the employees will read all rules and understand them. It is a good idea to hold a test at the end of the training session to make sure everyone comprehends your health and safety practices.
Also, you should intermittently hold reminder sessions for existing employees to make sure no one has forgotten or become slack in following your health and safety rules.
