{"id":215,"date":"2023-05-01T18:11:18","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T18:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/safetyengineeringresources.com\/?page_id=215"},"modified":"2023-07-24T17:09:31","modified_gmt":"2023-07-24T17:09:31","slug":"forensic-clues-issue-59-machine-guarding-employer-or-manufacturer-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/safetyengineeringresources.com\/index.php\/forensic-clues-issue-59-machine-guarding-employer-or-manufacturer-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"Forensic Clues Issue 59: Machine Guarding\u2014Employer or Manufacturer Responsibility?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n

<\/h3>

Machine\nGuarding\u2014Employer or Manufacturer Responsibility?<\/o:p><\/span><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

OSHA was created through the\nOccupational Safety and Health Act of 1970.<\/span> \n<\/span>OSHA\u2019s mission is to ensure worker safety by creating and enforcing\nsafety and health standards.<\/span>  <\/span>OSHA does\nmany good things to help maintain a safe workplace, but manufacturers often try\nto hide behind the shield of OSHA, putting blame on an employer for unsafe\nmachinery or working conditions, when often the machinery was never safe to\nbegin with.<\/span>  <\/span>Some standards promote safety\nand some standards protect the manufacturer from product liability law\nsuits.<\/span>   <\/span>Most industrial standards are\nvoluntary, unless they are specifically referenced in a Code of Federal\nRegulations \/ OSHA standard.<\/span>  <\/span>OSHA\nstandards are Federally mandated and are enforced by the Federal\ngovernment.<\/span>  <\/span>The general machine guarding\nstandard, 29 CFR 1910.212 states \u201cOne or more methods of machine guarding shall\nbe provided to protect the operator and other employees in the machine area\nfrom hazards such as those created by point of operation, ingoing nip points,\nrotating parts, flying chips and sparks.\u201d<\/span> \n<\/span>This and other OSHA standards apply to any machine that is operated by\nan employee.<\/span>  <\/span>So if a manufacturer fails\nto provide adequate safeguards on a machine, and a worker gets injured or\nkilled, the employer will be subject to penalties, while the manufacturer will\ntypically not be held accountable, unless a product liability suit is pursued\nagainst the manufacturer.<\/span>
<\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

The first fundamental principle to\nremember is that people who buy machines and products may or may not have the\nexpertise to properly guard the machine or product. OSHA regulates the employer\nmainly because of the ease of making someone responsible. This control of the\nemployer has nothing to do with who is initially responsible for guarding.\nMachine and product manufacturers are the primary parties in selling safe\nmachines and products. It is unrealistic to require employers to design and\ninstall effective safeguarding, particularly smaller operations.  Many hazards are not obvious, so employers\nmay have no idea of a particular hazard. \nSafeguarding often requires specific knowledge, and the employer may\nhave no one with appropriate education, training, or experience to design and\nimplement effective safeguarding strategies.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Most industry standards are currently\nvoluntary.  Many manufacturers understand\nthe need for safe products and machinery, and take the necessary steps to\nensure their products are safe.  There\nare manufacturers however who are producing unsafe products.  This is a fact, evidenced by the multitude of\naccidents caused by defectively designed machinery and products.  This failure to produce safe products is typically\ndue to ignorance, to save on production costs, engineering design errors, or\nsimply due to the fact that OSHA will put the responsibility on the\nemployer.  At times custom machinery may\nbe put into production before all of the safeguarding is installed on the\nmachine.  Ignorance of necessary\nsafeguarding is not an excuse or a defense for producing unsafe products or\nmachinery.  Many manufacturers start out\nas small operations, where a product or machine is designed by someone with\ntrade knowledge, or knowledge of a specific process.  This is one of the factors that makes our\ncountry amazing\u2014the fact that anyone can take an idea, implement that idea, and\nmake a living off of shear creativity and the willingness to take a risk and\nwork hard.  This process can lead to\nunsafe products, though, if competent engineers are not brought into the design\nprocess early so that the product or machine can be made safe.  An engineer can perform a hazard analysis to\ndetermine what potential hazards exist. \nOnce identified these hazards can be dealt with to ensure that product\nor machine users are kept safe.  <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

Industry standards can be useful in\nthat many will specify needed safeguards and machine criteria.  The quality of standards varies widely,\nthough, and simply designing a product or machine to comply with a standard does\nnot always result in a safe product. \nMost standards are developed by committees. These committees often have\nmany corporate representatives from manufacturers of machines or products that\nthe standard will cover.  This conflict\nof interest can lead to standards that do not protect the consumer, but rather\nallow the manufacturer to make a cheaper product or machine.  This deplorable practice does happen. Some\nstandards covering highly hazardous types of machinery have inadequate safety\nrequirements.  At times, safety will be\ncompletely ignored in a standard.  It can\nbe difficult for a design engineer to determine if a standard represents safe\npractices that are intended to protect consumers, or if a standard is a\n\u201ccover-your-ass\u201d type of document.  The\nend result of this can be a well-intentioned engineer who designs a product or\nmachine to an inadequate standard, resulting in a hazardous product or machine\nthat will cause injury.  <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

The modern era has brought about a very\ncompetitive market in many industries, with foreign competitors making things\neven more difficult .  Third world\nmanufacturers use their low-cost labor force to make products and machinery at\nlow prices, that manufacturers in the U.S.<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place> have a hard time\nmatching.  This leads to cost-savings at\nany possible place in the design and manufacturing process.  While this can result in highly efficient\ndesigns that take all waste out of a product or machine, if taken too far it\nleads to unsafe products and machinery that have not had hazard analyses, or\nhad hazards eliminated or safeguarded. \nQuality control is another area where cost-savings can doom    even properly designed products or\nmachinery.  In large scale productions,\ninspections, nondestructive testing, and  \ndestructive testing of randomly chosen samples can ensure <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

accurate implementation of a\ndesign.  <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s the Solution?<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Using OSHA or inadequate <\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

biased standards as an excuse for\nunsafe products and machines is unacceptable. \nManufacturers have a responsibility to protect the users of their\nproducts or machines, and are in the best position to do so.  Applying a thorough hazard analysis and\nengineering design principles will ensure a safe end product.  If this was always done, employers would\nsimply have to maintain machinery to ensure that safeguards are kept in proper\nworking condition.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n

How We Can Help<\/o:p><\/span><\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

At MASE, we can determine the cause of\nan accident, whether it is due to a design defect, manufacturing error,\nmaterial defect, or human error.  If a\nstandard fails to address relevant safety factors, we apply engineering\ncalculations, testing and design principles to show the inadequacy of the\nstandard.  Call us at  (855) 627-6273 or email us at info@mase.pro\n<\/u>to discuss your accident case.<\/o:p><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n

Contact MASE today at (855) 627-6273 <\/h2>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":61,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-215","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nForensic Clues Issue 59: Machine Guarding\u2014Employer or Manufacturer Responsibility? - Mechanical and Safety Engineering Expert Witnesses<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Industrial machine accidents are best prevented by the manufacturer, but OSHA holds employers accountable for defective machinery\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/safetyengineeringresources.com\/index.php\/forensic-clues-issue-59-machine-guarding-employer-or-manufacturer-responsibility\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Forensic Clues Issue 59: Machine Guarding\u2014Employer or Manufacturer Responsibility? 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