Conveyor Safety Policy

Like many companies, you may use conveyors in your workplace to move materials from one place to another. But while conveyors eliminate the need for manual lifting and carrying, workers can suffer serious or even fatal injuries if they get caught in pinch points or make contact with spools, pulleys, rollers and other moving parts of the conveyor. Here’s a template you can adapt to create a conveyor safety policy at your workplace.

CONVEYOR SAFETY POLICY

  1. PURPOSE

ABC Company has adopted this Policy to prevent amputation, crushing, electrocution, and other injuries to personnel operating or working on, with, or near conveyors in accordance with the [province name] Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (“Regulation”), Occupational Health & Safety Act (“Act”), the ABC Company Occupational Health and Safety Program (“OHS Program”), and other applicable requirements and standards.

  1. DEFINITIONS

For purposes of this Policy:

  • “Guard” means a type of safeguard consisting of a physical barrier that prevents a worker from reaching over, under, around, or through the barrier to a moving part or point of operation;
  • “Safeguard” means the use of a guard, safety device, shield, awareness barrier, warning signs, or other appropriate means, either singly or in combination, to effectively protect workers from hazards;
  • “Safety device” means a type of safeguard consisting of an arrangement of operating controls, an active or passive physical restraint, an interlock, or a presence sensing device that ensures that a worker cannot access or be in a hazardous area while a machine is operating.
  1. POLICY STATEMENT

ABC Company recognizes that workers who make contact with or become entangled in machinery or the moving parts of machinery are at risk of suffering fatal injuries, amputations, and other gruesome injuries and will take all reasonable measures to prevent this by ensuring that machinery is properly safeguarded in accordance with the Regulation and this Policy.

 

  1. SCOPE

4.1. Machinery & Workers This Policy Covers

This Policy addresses a specific kind of machinery, namely, conveyors. The intent of this Policy is to ensure that all workers engaged to work at ABC Company work sites who are at risk of conveyor injuries are properly protected regardless of who pays or employs those workers, including:

  • Full- or part-time workers employed by ABC Company;
  • Temporary employees placed by an outside agency to work at the site;
  • Contract labourers engaged to perform work at the site;
  • Volunteers who work at the site for free; and
  • Workers employed by prime contractors, contractors, and subcontractors to perform work at the site under a contract with ABC Company.

4.2. What This Policy Does Cover

This Policy establishes general requirements for safeguarding conveyors.

4.3. What This Policy Does Not Cover

The actual technical devices, methods, and systems of guarding or safeguarding specific conveyors found at the workplace are not set out in this Policy but rather will be developed and implemented in accordance with the principles set out in this Policy based on the particular type of machinery or equipment involved and the manufacturer’s specifications.

The performing of maintenance work on conveyors requiring de-energization and lockout is addressed not in this Policy but instead the ABC Company Lockout and De-Energization Policy.

  1. SAFEGUARDING OF CONVEYORS

5.1. When ABC Company Will Provide Safeguards

Subject to the exceptions required or permitted by the Regulation and the OHS Program, ABC Company will ensure that conveyors are fitted with adequate safeguards that:

  • Protect workers from contact with hazardous power transmission parts;
  • Ensure that workers cannot access a hazardous point of operation; and
  • Safely contain any material ejected by the work process that could be hazardous to workers.

5.2. Minimum Standards for Safeguards

ABC Company will ensure that safeguards:

  • Are applied, designed, constructed, and used, including with respect an opening in a guard and the reach distance to a hazardous part, in a way that meets the requirements of CSA Z432-94, Safeguarding of Machinery;
  • Are capable of effectively performing their intended functions; and
  • Are designed, where practicable, to allow lubrication and maintenance without having to remove the guard.

5.3. Ban on Certain Fixed Guard Modifications

ABC Company will ensure that fixed guards are not modified to be readily removable without the use of tools.

5.4. Other Safeguarding & Safety Measures

ABC Company will also ensure that:

  • Conveyors are located or safeguarded so that their operation does not endanger workers who move through the workplace using normal passage routes or operate adjacent machines;
  • Physical hazards are marked in a way that clearly and effectively lets affected workers know about the hazard.
  1. GUARDING OF MECHANICAL POWER TRANSMISSION PARTS

6.1. Guarding of Rotating Parts

ABC Company will ensure that rotating parts that workers may make contact with, such as friction drives, shafts, couplings and collars, set screws and bolts, keys and keyways, and projecting shaft ends, are guarded.

6.2. Guarding of Gears & Sprockets

ABC Company will ensure that:

  • Where practicable, every gear and chain sprocket is completely enclosed; or
  • Where complete enclosure is not practicable, that the gear and chain sprocket has band-type guards with flanges that extend below the root of the teeth;
  • Rotating spokes that pose a hazard to workers are guarded on the sides that are accessible to workers.

6.3. Guarding of Reciprocating Machinery

ABC Company will ensure that a crank, tail rod, extension piston rod, or other reciprocating or oscillating part that a worker may make contact with is guarded.

6.4. Guarding of Drive Belts

ABC Company will ensure that a power transmission belt, rope, or chain is guarded to protect workers who would be endangered if the belt, rope, or chain were to fail.

6.5. Guarding of Flywheels & Pulleys 

ABC Company will ensure that:

  • A pit for a flywheel or pulley has curbs or toe boards around the pit’s upper edge;
  • A flywheel or pulley that is defective or exposed to excessive heat is removed from service and not returned to service unless and until it is either:
    • Repaired according to the manufacturer’s specifications; or
    • Certified safe for use by a professional engineer.
  1. GENERAL SAFETY STANDARDS FOR CONVEYOR EQUIPMENT

Unless the Regulation permits otherwise, ABC Company will ensure that a conveyor meets the requirements of ANSI/ASME B20.1-1993, Safety Standards for Conveyors and Related Equipment.

  1. GUARDING OF BELT-TYPE CONVEYORS

ABC Company will ensure that the accessible nip points of spools and pulleys of a belt conveyor are guarded to prevent workers from making contact with them.

  1. GUARDING OF SCREW-TYPE CONVEYORS

ABC Company will ensure that:

  • The moving parts of a screw-type conveyor are guarded to prevent workers from making contact with them;
  • Each guard on a screw-type conveyor is secured by fasteners that can be removed only by using a tool; and
  • The openings in mesh and grid guards meet the requirements of Appendix A of CSA Z432-94, Safeguarding of Machinery.
  1. FEED POINTS

ABC Company will ensure that if the feed point for a conveyor cannot be guarded because of the work process, any workers who are required to be in the area have and use suitable devices and tools that prevent them from making contact with the moving parts of the conveyor system. For the purposes of the above:

  • Suitable devices include but are not limited to safety belts and lanyards rigged to prevent the worker from contacting moving parts;
  • Suitable tools include but are not limited to materials-handling tools such as shovels or rakes—but not shovels or other tools that have “D” handles.
  1. PROTECTIONS AGAINST FALLING MATERIALS

ABC Company will ensure that a conveyor has guards or sideboards to keep material from falling from the conveyor into areas occupied by workers if those falling materials pose the hazard of impact injury or burns.

  1. EMERGENCY STOPPING SYSTEMS

ABC Company will ensure that:

  • A conveyor has an emergency stopping system;
    • Exception: Such a system is not required if guards are used to prevent worker access to the conveyor;
  • The emergency stopping system is designed and installed so that the system activates:
    • As a worker falls onto the conveyor; or
    • If a worker who falls on the conveyor moves an arm or leg off to one side of the conveyor;
  • If the emergency stopping system uses a pull wire, the system activates by a pull of the wire in any direction, or by a slack cable condition;
  • The conveyor emergency stopping system is designed and installed so that it must be manually reset after an emergency stop before the conveyor can be restarted;
  • A conveyor is not restarted after an emergency stop unless and until an inspection is performed and finds that the conveyor can be operated safely.
  1. WORKERS’ RESPONSIBILITIES

To ensure their own safety and the effective implementation of this Policy, workers must:

  • Wear clothing that does not expose them to hazards:
    • Wearing clothing that fits closely about the body;
    • Not wearing bracelets, rings, dangling neckwear, wristwatches, or similar articles (other than a medical alert bracelet with a transparent band that holds the bracelet snugly to the skin; and
    • Confining their head and facial hair or wearing it at a length that will prevent it from being snagged or caught in the work process;
  • Comply with all applicable safe work procedures;
  • Refrain from disabling, removing, tampering with, or manipulating machine guards or safeguards without their supervisor’s authorization;
  • Refrain from walking on or climbing over conveyors unless they are authorized and instructed to do so;
  • Immediately report any defective or missing guards or safeguards to their supervisor.
  1. TRAINING & INSTRUCTION

ABC Company will ensure that all operators and workers who work with or near conveyors receive appropriate safety information, instruction, and training in:

  • The hazards posed by conveyors that they work with or near;
  • The guards and safeguards in place to protect them from those hazards;
  • The limitations of those guards and safeguards;
  • The proper use and handling, if any, of those guards and safeguards.
  1. EVALUATION

This Policy will be reviewed, in consultation with the workplace Joint Health and Safety Committee, Health and Safety Representative, or, where no Committee or Representative exists, directly with workers at the site, at least once a year and more frequently in response to changes and developments affecting workers’ health and safety.