Best Practices with Heavy Equipment
Working with tools and heavy equipment is a major hazard at sites.
Working with tools and heavy equipment is a major hazard at sites.
Injuries can result from equipment hitting or running over personnel, impacts from flying objects, burns from hot objects, and damage to protective equipment such as supplied-air respirator systems.
The following precautions will help preclude injuries due to such hazards:
- Install appropriate equipment guards and engineering controls on tools and equipment. These include rollover protective structures, seat belts, emergency shutoff in case of rollover, and backup warning lights and signals.
- Provide equipment such as cranes, derricks, and power shovels with signs saying "Unlawful to operate this equipment within 10 feet of all power lines."
- Use equipment and tools that are intrinsically safe and not capable of sparking, and pneumatically and hydraulically driven equipment.
- Where portable electric tools and appliances can be used, use three-wire grounded extension cords to prevent electric shocks.
- At the start of each workday, inspect brakes, hydraulic lines, light signals, fire extinguishers, fluid levels, steering, and splash protection.
- Prohibit loose-fitting clothing or loose long hair around moving machinery.
- Do not exceed the rated load capacity of a vehicle.
- When an equipment operator must negotiate in tight quarters, provide a second person to ensure adequate clearance.
- Have a signalman direct backing as necessary.
- All onsite internal combustion engines should have spark arrestors that meet requirements for hazardous atmospheres.
- Lower all blades and buckets to the ground and set parking brakes before shutting off the vehicle.
- Inspect all tools and moving equipment regularly to ensure that parts are secured and intact with no evidence of cracks or areas of weakness, that the equipment turns smoothly with no evidence of wobble, and that it is operating per manufacturer's specifications. Promptly repair or replace any defective items. Keep maintenance and repair logs.
- Keep all heavy equipment used in the Exclusion Zone in the zone until the job is done. Completely decontaminate such equipment before moving it into the clean zone
Knowledge Check Choose the best answer for the question.
2-7. When operating a powered industrial truck (forklift), be sure to _____ before shutting off the vehicle.
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