Safety Training / Correct Safety Audit

I am looking for help, as I grow my knowledge with controls and automation I realize that I need training on machinery safety and the safety audit process.
I am familiar with many of the different safety components and their electrical implementation but not the complete audit and implementation process.

If those of you that build control systems and safety systems could point me in the right direction, it would be much appreciated. I want to be able to build safe and legal control systems. Not just functional.

We sit with members of all groups involved with the machine (Production, Engineering, Maintenance) and identify how the machine will be operated and the hazards that the different groups will be exposed to. What the hazards are, how often they may be exposed to them, and what needs to be done to guard from that exposure. Those parameters are usually enough to determine what level safety is required for the different situations.

Now, we do make many machines that are very similar, so we don't do these huddles for every single one. Many times we apply the same risk analysis to the same type of machine or ones very similar. New or different situations we go back through the analysis.

I know a lot of the times they want to just make the controls guys make it safe. But how I imagine a machine operating or being repaired isn't always how it ends up being done by the people actually doing it. Our OSHA inspector has told me many times that safety is everyone's responsibility. Getting all parties involved usually makes the safety system safer, and easier to use.

where I used to work and even now,

we write down the sequence of events, we do the programming and pass it to others to look at.
we then meet and discuss the programming and ask why did you do this, and what if this happens.

The what if questions MUST be answered. If you can ask what if, there must be an answer ! that 1 in a million chance of happening will always happen in front of the customer, safety, or plant manager. Then @#$##@@&&.

You MUST plan to reset a machine back to home in reverse order, last thing that happened, is the first thing to move.

I saw a machine tore apart because the programmers told everything to home at the same time. $250k in damages and that company had to foot the bill.

How to recover from power loss.
how to start / stop the auto cycle.

you learn from experience and seeing other machines around you.

regards,
james

I recently took the TUV Functional Safety Technician course offered through Rockwell. It was a pretty good 2 day course that gives you a solid grounding in the risk assessment and the ISO safety standards and directives.

For the price I found it was actually worth while, not just a sales pitch.

Buy a copy of your favourite Machine Safety Standard, too.

Mine is ISO 31849-1.

justblaze,
In all seriousness, you are about to enter an arena where it will be difficult to get a straight answer and the more questions you have the more you may start to pull your hair out.

Like someone else here said, find your favorite safety standard and start there. Be prepared to ask your supervisors for more training or to hire someone to come in and help. Many safety standards are expensive and you may get resistance for trying to obtain them.

Sorry if this sounds too negative but I've been through this and still have more questions than answers.

Finally, if you're the one to implement a safety program make sure you skin gets thickened up. No one will be happy. I now have more scar tissue than anything else.

dogleg43 said:

justblaze,
In all seriousness, you are about to enter an arena where it will be difficult to get a straight answer and the more questions you have the more you may start to pull your hair out.

Like someone else here said, find your favorite safety standard and start there. Be prepared to ask your supervisors for more training or to hire someone to come in and help. Many safety standards are expensive and you may get resistance for trying to obtain them.

Sorry if this sounds too negative but I've been through this and still have more questions than answers.

Finally, if you're the one to implement a safety program make sure you skin gets thickened up. No one will be happy. I now have more scar tissue than anything else.

Click to expand...

Agree with what he said. Safety is far more about committees and lawyering (not necessarily actual lawyers, but interpreting arcane rules) than it is about programming. Safety is an interative, layered process.

If you're just starting out, I strongly recommend hiring someone to help you on this journey. TUV offers classes, as someone mentioned above, but they also offer consulting services, as do many other places. They can't take on all the liability, but they can keep you from doing anything too boneheadedly stupid.