Conveyor Safety

Near Christmas 1986, two employees at Annaco Inc. (Akron, Ohio) approached Ken Williams, then plant manager, and handed him an arm.
   It wasn’t a fake, nor was it some practical joke. It was the arm of another Annaco worker, with the work glove still on. While others tended to the injured worker, the two employees asked Williams what they should do with the arm. Thinking fast, Williams sent them to the employee locker room to immerse the arm in cold water until they could get some ice.
   What caused this terrible injury?
   Contrary to what you might think, it was a conveyor.
   How did the accident happen?
   Apparently, at the start of the second shift, an object got jammed in one of Annaco’s conveyors at the tail pulley, located 12 feet in the air. The worker left his job station and crawled onto the catwalk and support beams. Holding a claw hammer, he reached in between the belt and tail pulley. His hand got pinned between the belt and hammer, and the tail pulley grabbed the sleeve of his overalls. The conveyor sucked in the man’s clothes and his right arm, tearing off the arm at the shoulder, piercing his lung, and breaking his ribs. Even if they’d gotten the worker and his arm to the hospital in time, a reattachment would have been difficult; the accident took shoulder and bone tissue as well. 
   While conveyors can claim limbs, as Annaco’s story shows, they can also claim lives.
   In one such case, a 22-year-old worker at a recycling plant in Edmonton, Alberta, walked under a conveyor that was feeding processed scrap into railcars. The conveyor grabbed the hood of the worker’s sweatshirt jacket and strangled him to death. The coroner noted that the toes of the employee’s work boots were severely torn, suggesting an intense struggle to free himself. If that’s true, it means he was alive for as long as 90 seconds, unable to breathe or call for help.

Assessing the Hazards
While these stories are undeniably tragic, severe injury and death due to conveyors are—sadly—all too common.
   The Association of Worker’s Compensation Boards of Canada reported six deaths attributed to conveyor belts from 1997 to 1998. In the United States, the Bureau of Labor Statistics attributed 169 deaths to conveyors from 1993 to 1998. Also, according to the bureau, from 1992 to 1997 more than 700 workers suffered amputations due to belt conveyors, along with 1,700 fractures and 8,600 other recordable injuries. At U.S. recycling facilities alone, there were seven deaths from conveyors from 1990 to 1998, according to OSHA statistics.
   The fact is that the most dangerous piece of equipment in your plant may be the one you overlook or take for granted—the conveyor. Conveyors are methodical, repetitive, ubiquitous pieces of equipment. Employees who work around them can become complacent, which can lead to carelessness.
   “You tend to take conveyors for granted,” affirms Bob Toth, manager of human resources and head of the safety committee for Annaco, who started working at the firm 20 months after its conveyor accident. “Employees may not notice that a guard is off of a tail pulley or head pulley. They may get brave and walk across a conveyor because it looks like a tame piece of machinery. People may get lulled into forgetting what a powerful piece of equipment it is.”
   To be sure, a conveyor is powerful, but its power can be easy to underestimate. You might think, for instance, that 5 hp 
isn’t much power—until it becomes part of a conveyor’s power equation. You can calculate a conveyor’s power by using the following formula: tension (or pulling power) = horsepower x 33,000 ÷ feet per minute (a measurement of the conveyor belt’s speed). Using this formula, a typical 5-hp conveyor traveling 165 feet per minute could lift 1,000 pounds (5 hp x 33,000 ÷ 165). If it can lift 1,000 pounds, imagine how easily it could lift, pull, or otherwise do damage to an employee who weighs a fifth of that total.
   This power becomes even more of a threat when it’s combined with a conveyor’s so-called nip points, or areas that can pinch or grab. Major nip points in a conveyor system include the: 
   • head pulley at the discharge end of a belt conveyor;
   • tail pulley at the loading end of the conveyor;
   • return idler, usually mounted under the conveyor with the return belt traveling over it; and
   • load idlers, usually mounted beneath the load-carrying surface of the belt.
   Such nip points can quickly and powerfully injure employees, especially those who get an appendage or piece of clothing caught in one.

The Three Players in Conveyor Safety
Achieving conveyor safety depends on the conscientious participation of conveyor manufacturers, scrap companies, and employees. All must do their part if conveyor-related accidents are to be minimized.
   First, manufacturers must build safe conveyor systems according to the ANSI B20.1 safety standard covering conveyors and related equipment. While that standard requires nip points to be protected, it does not require manufacturers to cover all potentially dangerous areas, such as the bottom of a conveyor.
“There are barriers manufacturers need to build into the system—nip guards, overhead enclosures, and others,” says Mike McLemore of Central Manufacturing Co. Inc. (Groveland, Ill.), a conveyor maker. “However, scrap processors have obligations that don’t fall into our jurisdiction. It doesn’t all fall on the manufacturer. They have to make sure that they do the right thing as well.”
   OSHA standards on machinery guarding, in fact, require a protective guard wherever an employee is vulnerable to injury, though—as McLemore indicates—it’s up to the conveyor’s owner, not the manufacturer, to install some of these guards.
   Scrap companies, then, are the second key to the conveyor-safety goal. It’s their responsibility to provide the proper training and work environment to maximize the safety of employees around conveyors.
   Third—and perhaps most importantly—are the employees themselves, who must make it a personal goal to always put safety first when working around conveyors.

Conveying Safely
What steps can you take to maximize the safety of your conveyor operations? Here are a few suggestions:
   Training Is Key. You hear it time and time again—the two fundamental reasons behind conveyor accidents are inadequate safety training and management’s failure to enforce safety rules. To McLemore, training is the most important factor in a conveyor safety program. “We shield our conveyors the best that we technically and physically can, with emergency pull cords, safety labels, warning labels, signs everywhere,” he says. “All that’s well and good, but once the conveyor is in the field, anybody can bypass that. To me, training is the most important factor, and a lot of it has to do with common sense.”
   At Annaco, employee safety training and awareness have been top priorities for years, but especially in the wake of its conveyor accident, Toth says. Annaco employees are expected to follow strict rules and procedures, including minding cutoff switches, guarding pulleys, and forbidding anyone from walking across a conveyor. When a conveyor needs servicing, it must be properly locked and tagged out. 
   Frequent, repetitive training sessions are part of any safety program, but they’re especially important regarding conveyors because employees may forget or be unfamiliar with the dangers.
   Know Your Equipment. Make sure that employees working around your conveyors—and especially those who maintain or operate the systems—have a copy of the operating instructions for the equipment. In particular, it’s important to know if your conveyor system has any unique features, such as a particular way to completely shut it down, says Randy Smith, director of operations for General Kinematics Corp. (Barrington, Ill.), which makes vibratory conveyors and other equipment. Through labels and instructions in its service manuals, says Smith, the company makes its customers aware of anything that might be a danger.
   Ensure Proper Guarding. It’s essential for danger spots to be guarded to keep body parts away from moving parts. Often, such protective guards are made of metal, but other materials can be used depending on the situation. Plastic curtains hung with Velcro, for instance, can remind employees not to enter a potentially dangerous area—such as under a conveyor—or not to casually approach the equipment when it’s moving. Other materials, ranging from light-gauge metal to Plexiglas and wood, can also be used in certain circumstances. 
   Establish Rules of Conduct. Your training program must include a list of “don’ts” regarding conveyors, including but not limited to:
   • don’t operate a conveyor unless all safety guards, covers, and maintenance panels are in place;
   • don’t place any body parts near a conveyor’s moving parts;
   • don’t enter restricted areas around a conveyor. Victims of conveyor accidents are often not in their assigned work areas, and they’re often alone. In general, employees working around conveyors should make sure they can always see other members of their work team; and
   • don’t ride, sit, or climb on a conveyor. Ray Kuni, safety director of State Metal Industries Inc. (Camden, N.J.), can offer a personal cautionary tale on this point. Kuni noticed that one of the firm’s conveyor belts had jammed. Normally, such a jam would kick out the heaters in the electrical box and cut off the conveyor. Kuni, who was alone, wanted to keep production going. He climbed on top of the conveyor to kick the material free. His foot went through the belt, and the conveyor started again. Kuni’s leg went under a dust-collection hood and was sheared off.
   Develop a Dress Code. Loose clothing, an unbuttoned sleeve, hooded garments, dangling jewelry, long hair that’s not secured, neckties, even work gloves with drawstrings—all can get caught in a conveyor and lead to serious injury or death. Employees working around conveyors should wear snug-fitting clothes and protective equipment that minimizes such potential hazards.
   Lock It Out. As with any potentially dangerous piece of equipment—and as required by OSHA—employees must follow proper lockout/tagout procedures before conducting any maintenance, repair, or troubleshooting work on a conveyor. According to McLemore, the most common injury related to conveyors is when an employee tries to dislodge an object without first properly locking and tagging out the system. 
Build In Safety Options. To increase the safety features of your conveying operations, you could, for instance, install an emergency cord that would stop the conveyor instantly when pulled. Audible alarms and safety lights can warn when equipment starts or stops, and cameras in the operator’s booth can allow that employee to monitor activities and respond if there’s a safety problem.
   Label the Danger Zones. There’s a good reason why conveyor experts assert that “safety labels save lives.” After all, such signs and/or labels notify employees about potential dangers on and around conveyors and remind them to be careful. Phil Hannigan, executive secretary of the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association (CEMA) (Naples, Fla.), says that labels can’t replace a good safety training program, but they help. “We have anecdotal evidence that it’s helped when you have these,” he states. Keep in mind that such warnings might need to be in languages other than English. CEMA offers standardized labels in English, Spanish, and French, as well as a brochure on effective labeling of conveyor systems (see “Conveyor Resources” on page 147 for contact information).
Promote Good Housekeeping and Operating Practices. Accidents can happen around conveyors due to factors other than the conveyor itself. A slippery ramp, for instance, could cause an employee to fall near a conveyor and be injured by the machine. To avoid such problems, make sure work areas around your conveyors are clean and uncluttered, with adequate clearance between conveyors and aisles. Also, don’t overload your conveyors as that could cause a piece of scrap to be ejected from the belt.
   Enforce the Rules. While the above points provide a solid foundation for safe conveyor operations, such rules are useless if they aren’t enforced. It’s up to management, therefore, to ensure that all safety rules are followed and to impose significant disciplinary actions against employees who disregard them. 
   Call on employees to help enforce the rules as well, empowering them to report unsafe activities and even to stop operations if they perceive a danger.
   Armed with this information, your company can minimize the dangers of its conveyor systems. Still, employees must be reminded that they can never take conveyors for granted.
   “Know this,” McLemore asserts, “there is a lot of power working there, and the machine will win every time. Respect that fact and stay safe.” 

Conveyor Resources
• For a copy of the ANSI B20.1 standard on conveyors and related equipment, contact Global Engineering Documents at 800/854-7179. (At presstime, this standard was not available in electronic format through ANSI’s Web site at www.ansi.org. That standard will be offered online eventually, however, so ANSI encourages users to check its site from time to time.) 
n For OSHA’s regulations on lockout/tagout (29 CFR, Part 1910.147) and machinery guarding (29 CFR, Part 1910, Subpart O), call 202/693-1888 or visit www.osha.gov.
• To purchase warning labels from the Conveyor Equipment Manufacturers Association, call 941/514-3441, or visit www.
cemanet.org. The group offers labels in three categories: danger, indicating an imminently hazardous situation that, if not avoided, will result in death or serious injury; warning, covering a potentially hazardous situation that, if not avoided, could result in death or serious injury; and caution, indicating a potentially hazardous situation that, if not avoided, could result in minor or moderate injury.
• To order ISRI’s video Working Safe and Smart Around Conveyors, which focuses on the dangers of conveyors in scrap recycling operations, call 202/737-1770 to request an order form, or order through ISRI’s online bookstore at www.isri.org. The video, available in English (refer to #WSSAC) and Spanish (refer to #WSSAC-SP), costs $75 for ReMA members, $150 for nonmembers.•