MSHA has an increased focus on conveyor safety in hopes to continue to see a decline in conveyor accidents and fatalities. Heavy fines and citations are being issued to those in violation.
Root Causes:
- Poor conveyor design
- Equipment that is hard to maintain or doesn’t promote safety
- Lack of safety policies formed and followed
- Lack of proper training for workers whose jobs bring them near belt conveyors
Best Practices:
- Conveyor guarding should weigh 50 pounds or less
- Guarding should have no sharp edges and should stand out in color from equipment it is guarding
- To increase safety, guarding should require a tool to remove
- Emergency stop switches need to be tested every 30 days and not span more than 70 feet between switches
- Emergency stop switches must be tight between emergency switches
- Every plant should have understood/taught/enforced lockout/tagout rules
- Conveyors should be blocked out against potential energy
/topic-image-gallery_safety_0202.png "Fugitive Material - Material buildup on catwalks")
/topic-image-gallery_safety_0203.png "Man shoveling fugitive material beside a belt conveyor.")
