General points of machine Guarding

Many builders of todays single purpose machines provide point of operation and power transmission guards as standard on their machines.
Manufacturers built in safeguards offer two main advantages, firstly they usually conform to the design and the function of the machine, and secondly they can be designed in a way to add strength to the machine and in many cases add to the functionality of the machine.
However not all machines still in use today have the manufacturers built in safeguards.
Custom built guards are sometimes necessary for a multitude of reasons.
On older machines they are often the only practical safeguard solution, and may be the only choice in some older facilities where machines are not powered by individual motor drives.
They can provide point of operations safeguards when designed and built by skilled personnel, they can also be designed to fit changing and unique situations.
There can however be disadvantages with user built safeguarding.
In house designed and built guards may not conform well to the function and or configuration of the machine.
There is also the risk of poorly designed, built or installed safetyguarding, with no application of current machine guarding specifications.
Point of operations guarding can be complicated by the complexity of the machine, but in most cases inhouse safety guarding can be well designed ,built and installed after a complete and thorough hazard analysis of the work requirements.
But we should always remember, poorly designed, built or installed guards can create a hazard rather than eliminating one.
The most effective guards, safeguard the employee while allowing work to continue with minimum disruption to the process.