PowerSafe partners with insulation building product factories nationwide, understanding the unique challenge of safeguarding machines while maintaining production efficiency. Custom-made machine safety equipment ensures operators can work efficiently with safety features, rather than finding ways to work around them.
Common Hazards in the Insulation Building Products Industry
Many hazards exist throughout a machine or production line, whether clearly visible or hidden from view. Workers may need to reach blindly around equipment for maintenance or troubleshooting, increasing the risk of injury. Whether rollers and saw blades are powered by a motor or moved passively by material or an active conveyor belt, they can pose serious risks to operators. Hazards in the Insulation Building Products industry that require mitigation can include:
- Stored energy areas
- Hot surface hazards
- Shear points
- In-running nips
- Crush or shear points
- Chain-drive entanglement
Common Machinery in the Insulation Building Products Industry
Old or legacy machines used in insulation manufacturing often lack basic OSHA safety features, have obsolete parts, or no longer meet industry standards. Critical machines that require attention but cannot afford downtime for LOTO measures include:
- Furnaces
- Spinner decks
- Forming equipment
- Saws and slitters
- Choppers
- Facing pits
- Conveyors for material handling
Guarding Solutions for Insulation Building Machines
The wide range of guarding solutions that can be created through operators, maintenance, and safety cooperation in the collaboration with machine safety experts include:
Machine Guarding Solutions
- Power Transmission Guards and Covers - Protects operators from rotating parts while ensuring safety and accessibility
- Point of Operation Guards - Polycarbonate plastic panels for visibility and protection.
- Perimeter Safety Guarding - Black wire mesh with opening sizes determined by safety distance.
- Safety Switch Integration - Evaluating non-locking RFID vs. locking solenoid types based on each machine's stop behavior.
Presence Sensing Safety Devices
- Safety laser scanners
- Safety light curtains
- Safety mats or bump strips
- 3D safety radar sensors
Integrated Safety Controls for Legacy Machines
- Two-hand controls with anti-tie-down protection
- Pneumatic safety valves and controls
- Emergency stop buttons or emergency rope pulls
Machine Upgrades
- Location sensors and/or limit switches
- Encoders and drive upgrades to control offline
- Non-safety-rated cameras for internal monitoring of hazardous area
Our machine guarding designs are built to custom fit your specific machine, application, and operational needs while remaining user-friendly to create a safer work environment. Any impact on production will depend on necessary machine upgrades or process changes, which should be evaluated internally. Machine guards and perimeter fencing are essential for employee protection, and should be a top priority at your facility.
