Machine Guarding Handbook is a must-have reading for safety engineers and managers in manufacturing and other industrial settings who need to incorporate an effective machine guarding safety program, meet OSHA requirements, and protect workers. It provides a basic overview of OSHA's requirements, making compliance easier to achieve, thus preventing the risk of worker injury or mutilation and reducing the occurrence of costly penalties and OSHA audits. This 106-page book explores and discusses the hazards of unguarded machines, common safeguarding methods, the safeguarding of machines and robots, the importance of guarding, the varying methods of machine guarding, training, inspection and maintenance, and safeguarding techniques. In addition, it provides both regulatory information and the material required to implement a viable machine guarding program. Special features include a sample lockout/tagout program, checklists, a machine-guarding case study, chapter summaries, and the complete OSHA Machine Guarding and Lockout/Tagout Standards.

Every year workers across the United States suffer from injuries sustained from unguarded or inadequately guarded moving machine parts. The unguarded use of machines can lead to injuries such as: amputations, crushed hands and arms, lacerations, abrasions and blindness. It is estimated that approximately 18,000 injuries and over 800 deaths occur each year among workers who operate and maintain machinery. Knowing the basics of machine safeguarding can prevent you from becoming a statistic. Any machine part, function, or process which may cause an injury must be safeguarded. When the operation of a machine or accidental contact with it can injure the operator or others in the vicinity, the hazards must be either controlled or eliminated.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which effective machine-guarding practices / systems are being utilized at Company XYZ in order to protect employees from experiencing serious and potentially life-threatening injuries. The study had four goals: to collect and analyze Company XYZ employee injury reports in order to identify accidents that were caused by inadequate machine-safeguards; to evaluate employee training records to identify the degree to which workers are educated on the effective means of machine safety as well as meeting the minimum compliance OSHA machine-guarding requirement; to assess drill bit production machines to determine the degree to which existing machine-safeguarding practices are appropriately protecting workers from experiencing serious bodily injures or death; and to assess Company XYZ employee hazard training records to determine the level of employee adherence to the training records as well as OSHA compliance minimum requirements.