Miller Engineering Services
Guarding & Entanglement Accidents
- Background: Early Mechanical Safety
- The origins of early safety concerns were in the steam boiler
era, the first type of portable power generation. This was power
which would explode if not controlled; a small boiler had the
capability of destroying an entire structure the size of a city
block. This steam power was converted into rotating shaft power,
which then found its way into everything from rail locomotives
to drill presses, lathes, power presses, and milling machines,
etc. The first of the mechanical machine safety standards were
for boilers (ASME Standards), then power transmission (steam
belt power), then, probably, machine guarding (power presses).
Boiler safety was brought under control through these standards, as the newly required designs and controls were
successful in controlling boiler explosion accidents.
However, power transmission and machine guarding were more
difficult since they involve diverse mechanical safety
hazards, a multitude of employees using such machines, and thousands
of types of machinery, each having its safety guarding challenges.
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- Miller Engineering Expertise
- Miller Engineering's expertise in machine guarding and entanglement began with Dr. Miller's education and background in mechanical
engineering and has been strengthened through the addition of our other
highly qualified mechanical engineers on the staff. Naturally, this area of mechanical
engineering safety has remained one of our specialty areas. From
a standards viewpoint, Dr. Miller was a director of safety standards
for Federal OSHA and had responsibility for revising all OSHA
safety standards relative to all machinery and processing
equipment used in manufacturing or construction. This included
power transmission, mechanical power presses, general machine
guarding, elevated work platforms and power tools. Consequently,
we are extremely familiar with the safe guarding of nearly any
type of mechanical device through initial design, redesign or
after-market applications. We fully subscribe to the "Principles
of Guarding." These principles include:
- Designing out any
hazard in the machine or process, if possible and feasible;
- Guarding
those hazards which cannot be designed out, provided the function
of the machine is not destroyed;
- Instructing persons operating
on or around such machinery of the hazards involved; and/or
- Warning
of hazards which cannot be passively protected by design or guarding.
Through our publications and projects, we have preached and practiced
these Principles of Guarding.
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- Example Projects include:
- Guard designs for wire terminating machines
- Total Machine enclosures to guard and provide noise protection
- Power Take-off (PTO) shaft guarding
- Power transmission shaft entanglement accidents
- Interpretation/Application of OSHA Table O-10 guarding criteria
- Mechanical Safety of off-shore oil rig operations
- Nail guns, mitre saws, radial saws guarding/accidents
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- Example Publications include:
Miller, J.M. (1982). The Management of Occupational Engineering.
In the Handbook of Industrial Engineering. John Wiley.
Miller, J.M. and Barrett, T. (1980). "Memorandum of
Understanding [U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Department of Labor
(OSHA)] : Occupational Safety and Health on Artificial Island,
Installations and other Devices on the outer Continental Shelf
of the United States." Federal Register, 45(29).
Miller, J.M. and Bingham, E. (1979). "Response to Advanced
Notice of Proposed Rule Making on Unregulated Hazards on the
Outer Continental Shelf." Federal Register, September 20,
Docket CG79-073.
Miller, J.M. (1979, February). "Verticalization Package
of OSHA 1910/1926 Safety and Health Standards." Federal
Register.
Miller, J.M. and Bingham, E. (1978, February). "What's
Ahead for OSHA Standards," Invited paper for the Greater
New York Safety Council and the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce,
New York.
Miller, J.M. and Bingham, E. (1977, October). "Priorities
for Future OSHA Standards Activities." Invited paper by
the National Safety Council for the National Safety Congress,
Chicago.
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- Robots and Highly Automated Machinery Section(under construction)
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