Machine Guarding

Guarding of moving parts of machines and equipment is important to the safety of oilfield workers.  A Hazard Assessment of the equipment on a rig should identify what equipment needs guards and the type of guards needed.  It is the worker’s responsibility to report any equipment that may be in the need of additional guarding.  It is also the worker’s responsibility to ensure that guards are in place and that they are reinstalled after maintenance or repair.  As with many self-improvement processes, machine safeguarding can be broken down into a 12-step process.

  1. Identify Machine/Process: More often than not, identifying applications that require some level of safeguarding is the easiest step for the individual responsible for safety, as these applications usually present themselves through a review of the rig’s accidents and near misses. Additionally, common sense plays a large role.
  2. Collect Proper Information: Once the machine or process has been identified for a risk assessment, the next step is to collect all of the pertinent information relating to the application.
  3. Gather Proper Individuals: Gather input from all individuals who have a vested interest in the safeguarding process.
  4. Observe the Machine in Use
  5. Identify Hazardous Areas: Types of hazards include in-running nip points, pinch points, crushing, caught in, struck by, electric shock, release of stored energy, ergonomic strain and slips, trips and falls.
  6. Identify the Risk Level: After the foreseeable task/hazard pairs have been identified, the next step is to assign a risk level to each task/hazard pair.
  7. Evaluate the Risk Level: Evaluating the risk level helps determine if further safeguarding methods should be applied to the machine or process to make it safe.
  8. Create an Appropriate Risk Reduction System: If each risk is not initially tolerable, protective measures need to be applied that will effectively reduce the risk of a hazard to an acceptable level.
  1. Hazard elimination or substitution 
  2. Engineering controls
  3. Awareness (After selecting the most appropriate engineering controls for the hazard, the next step is to apply any awareness means that could help reduce the level of risk further.)
  4. Administrative controls (The next step toward reducing risk is to implement administrative control, including training and safe work procedures.)
  5. Personal protective equipment
  1. Accurately Estimate System Costs
  2. Provide All Required Services and Materials: No matter how the installation will be completed, it is important that proper materials are selected and installed using tried and true methods.
  3. Conduct Follow-Up Risk Assessment
  4. Process Close-Out and Sign-Off: Before releasing the machine to full production capacity, the final step is to complete the required documentation. First, the residual risk should be identified and documented. Next, the safeguarding system should be verified for effectiveness and compliance. When validating the installed system, ensure that individuals are not placed at risk.

Although the following list is not all-inclusive, it reflects the kinds of equipment/machines on a rig that may require some type of guarding:

  • Rotating shafts
  • Radiator fans
  • Fans for cooling systems
  • Compound chains
  • Drawworks chains
  • Rotary chains
  • Pipe spinner rollers/chains
  • Drawworks drum
  • Air hoist drum
  • Shale shaker counter weights, belts and shafts
  • Electrical boxes