Six steps to designing safe conveyors — Part I
Does your belt conveyor operator ever hitch a ride on the moving belt? Has your bucket elevator spilled a pile of material on the floor where a maintenance worker can slip on it and fall into the elevator? Is there a dangerous gap — large enough to catch a worker's fingers — between two powered rollers on your package-handling roller conveyor? Unsafe conveyors and conveying practices make for risky business. This two-part article describes six steps for designing conveyors that will keep your workers safe, your equipment running, and your production rate up to speed.
Part I explains how conveyor accidents happen and covers the plant design team's conveyor safety responsibilities. Part II, which will appear in the May 1998 issue, details the steps in developing a safety strategy.