3 Fundamentals of press design

Press safety and certification
3.6.6 Safety requirements in the USA
The following brief analysis of safety requirements in the USA provides
a representative comparison with safety regulations applicable outside
Europe. Alongside the ANSI (American National Standards Institute)
Standard B11.1-1971, the regulations of the OSHA (Occupational Safety
and Health Administration) apply.
ANSI national standards cover a number of areas including safety
equipment, although application of these standards is voluntary. In
contrast, compliance with the OSHA regulations is a statutory requirement.
This stipulates that a Lock-Out Procedure to §1910.147 be used on all
machines. This requirement specifies a description of how each type of
energy and each energy source can be rendered harmless. This must be
performed in four stages: shut-down of the energy source, dissolution of
residual energy, a check of energy-free status and safeguarding the energyfree
status against unintentional restart. This step-by-step approach for
the isolation of energy sources has been adopted by the EN1037 to apply
to European standards. As a minimum requirement, main switches must
be capable of locking in the energy-free status. The OSHA represents the
philosophy that every staff member should carry padlocks usable only
by himself or herself which safely eliminate any possibility of restart by
third parties. Only he or she can cancel the disabled status.
Like the ANSI standard, the OSHA requires from the manufacturer
the compilation of instructions ensuring safe machine operation and
maintenance. According to OSHA, equipment must be delivered with
a lock-out plate in accordance with Fig.3.6.4 indicating the devices
required to render the equipment harmless using the four steps listed
above for each of the energy sources used. The warning pictograms are
also attached at the relevant points of the machine. As mentioned earlier,
the OSHA places particular emphasis on the training of operators,
set-up personnel and maintenance staff in particular. The objective of
the training is to indicate possible sources of accidents, promote safetyconscious
work and point out the purpose and function of the safety
gear. Employers should provide training on initial transfer and commissioning
of the equipment and thereafter once a year, and have this
confirmed by means of a signature. Application of the OSHA regulations
varies from region to region, as the OSHA orients its interpreta-
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