OSHA's Double Standard When it Comes To Machine Guarding.

Preface

It's a foregone conclusion that OSHA's Control of Hazardous Energies Standard falls flat on its face when it comes to hydraulic energy considering that less than 1% of hydraulic systems comply with the standard.

OSHA's impotence creates the "perfect storm" for American workers to get injured and killed at work for numerous reasons:

1.?? Over 99% of hydraulic systems do not comply with OSHA's Control of Hazardous Energies standard.

2.?? Less than 1% of American workers that work on, and around hydraulic systems have received hydraulic safety training.

3.?? Over 85% of workers cannot identify hazards because they cannot pass a competency test in fundamental hydraulics.

4.?? Most technical colleges don't teach students hydraulic safety, which means they enter the workplace without having the skillsets to protect themselves from hydraulic hazards.

Machine guarding

Here’s another example of the double standard that seems to permeate the fluid power industry – guarding. Here’s what OSHA says about machine guarding:

"One or more methods of machine guarding shall be provided to protect the operator and other employees in the machine area from hazards such as those created by point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts, flying chips and sparks."

However, according to OSHA, the safety fraternity, and the fluid power industry, oil spraying out of an unguarded opening at a velocity of 600 feet per second, isn't the same as flying chips or a broken grinding disc. As I see it, oil traveling at 600 feet per second as the liquid equivalent of "flying chips and sparks."

Ironically, it's unlawful for a company to allow a worker to operate a grinder that does not have a shield. However, it is lawful to give a worker a valve/component that can release a stream of fluid with sufficient energy that it can severely injure or kill them.

Maybe it's because the problem isn't injuring or killing enough workers to make fixing the problem worthwhile. Here's an example of a worker that would have still been present in his family’s lives if it was unlawful to install unguarded pressure relief valves on some type of hydraulic cylinders.

A guard would have saved the life of a machine operator in Anoka, MN. He was fatally injured when he opened an unguarded air-bleed valve, which injected hydraulic oil deep into his arm. According to his colleagues, he suffered miserably for two-years before he finally died.

Mechanics that transition from the automotive industry to manufacturing plants, construction, agriculture, and mining are sitting ducks when they are confronted with unguarded air-bleed valves.

Most mechanics have at one time or another bled air out of a brake system. It’s a simple process. While the brake pedal is depressed the mechanic open the air-bleed valve, and a small amount of fluid flows out of the valve. ?There is hardly enough pressure in a brake system to create a safety hazard.

However, when they see the identical valve on a hydraulic component, they expect the outcome to be the same - a non-threatening stream of fluid. Little do they know that if they open the valve while it under high-pressure, and the oil strikes them, the "liquid missile" will bury itself deep into the skin, which could cause them to suffer severe injury or death.

It's obvious that OSHA, the safety fraternity, and the fluid power industry aren't going to do anything anytime soon to mitigate the problem. Consequently, you need to take the matter into your own hands. If you see this type of valve on a hydraulic component NEVER open it under any circumstances.

Beware of high-pressure tool manufacturers. If you peruse their websites and you search “double-acting cylinders,” you will notice that if they have pressure relief valves – most do, they will be unguarded.

If you see a pressure relief valve screwed into the side of a cylinder that is unguarded, DO NOT use it. Discuss the problem with your supervisor and your company's safety supervisor.

Only when the workers that are “in the line of fire” take a stand against inherently unsafe hydraulic system design will the industry pay attention. Remember, the root cause of the problems stems from that fact that the folks that design hydraulic systems don’t work on them and the folks that work on them don’t design them.

“Hydraulic safety doesn’t just happen; it has to be vigorously pursued.”