SAFETY GUIDELINES FOR IRON & STEEL SECTOR

MINISTRY OF STEEL, EQUIPMENT AND Doc. No: SG/09

GOVT. OF INDIA MACHINERY Rev no. : 00
GUARDING Effective Date : 14.10.2019

1. Objective

This Safety guideline elaborates the requirement of equipment and machinery guarding
to prevent injury due to rotating equipments, components flying out due to centrifugal
force, body parts like hand/ finger or clothing getting caught in the rotating component
etc.
.
2. Scope

This guideline is applicable to all the shops/ departments in Steel Industry.

3. Procedure
3.1 Types of equipments requiring safe guarding
i) Guarding of mechanical power transmission equipments
a) Belt and pulley
b) Chain and sprocket
c) Couplings- Input/ output shafts
d) Flywheels/ Bull gears/ Open gears
e) Drive & Tail end of belt conveyor
f) Brakes and clutches.
g) Other projected parts
ii) Guarding of equipments while at working site.
a) During lubrication
b) While online cleaning.
c) While condition monitoring and sampling.
d) Guarding of accessory equipments such as Exhaust fan, man cooler fan, pedestal
fan, grinders etc.
3.2 Guards can be classified according to the nature of the job
i) Temporary Guards

a) Where regular jobs are carried out near the rotating or projected part of equipment
(as described in section 3.1).

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b) The guards must be designed such that it can easily be refitted/ Reposition. The
large guards must be made from a number of sections and provide handles and
locating points.
c) The safety guard shall be in segment of convenient size, bolted/ hooked to fix the
structure for easy removal during maintenance/ condition monitoring.
ii) Permanent Guards

a) Where jobs are carried out one time near the rotating or projected part of an
equipment (described in section 3.1).

b) Materials generally used for construction of Guards:

Wire mesh, Metal sheet, transparent plastic sheet etc.

3.3 Construction of Guards

i) The choice of material of construction is largely a matter of local preference based

upon operating conditions, types of guards already installed.

ii) Frame work / Railing of the safeguard :- Angles/ Flat, hollow structure, Pipe, rod etc
can be used
iii) Filler Material: - Wire mesh, perforated or solid sheet metal, high strength plastic.
iv) If guards are located out door, painted or galvanized steel sheets to be used.

v) Guards furnished with purchased equipments are desirable if they meet the general
requirements of this standard.

vi) Filler Dimensions- Wire mesh (Refer Fig 1)

‘a ‘ is the sides of square in wire mesh - 12 to 20 mm (½ in and ¾ in).

‘b’ is the minimum clearance between guard and machinery - 120mm

(4 ¾ in) . The wire diameter should be between 1.5mm to 3mm

Figure – 1

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Metal, transparent plastic sheet (Refer Fig 2)

Sheet thickness - 2 mm to 5 mm
Minimum clearance between safe guard and rotating machine- 120 mm

Figure 2

vii) Transparent sheet shall be used on rotating equipment from where there is a chance
of oil/ coolant splashing.

viii) Framework dimension for

Square Hollow Section (SHS) – 25 X 25 X 2.5mm.

For Flat – 25 X 25 X 3.0 mm
For Angle – 25 X 25 X 3.15 to 45 X 45 X 3.15 mm.

Framework dimensions of higher sizes shall be considered as per requirement.

3.4 Equipments
i) Belt and Pulley

a) All power transmission belts & pulleys shall be guarded fully.

b) All belts (Horizontal, vertical, inclined and overhead) above the floor or platform, shall
be guarded for their entire length.
c) Metallic belt lacing or fasteners shall not be used in areas containing explosives or
inflammable vapors.

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Frame

Filler (wire mesh)

Figure :3

d) Unless the distance to the nearest fixed pulley, clutch, or hanger exceeds the width of
the belt used, a guide shall be provided to prevent slip of the belt from the pulley on
the side where insufficient clearance exists.
e) Where there are overhanging pulleys on line, jack, or countershafts, with no bearing
between the pulley and the outer end of the shaft, a guide to prevent the belt from
running off the pulley should be provided.
f) Where separate pulley guards are used and the belt does not require guarding, the
guard should enclose the pulley so as to protect the run– in point of the belt. The
guard should extend slightly above the top of the pulley.
ii) Chain and sprocket: The safeguarding is similar as explained in section 3.4 i) (a) to (c).
iii) Couplings– Input/output shafts- Couplings mounted at input or output shaft of the
machine must be guarded by a stationery guard as explained in section 3.3.

Figure 4

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iv) Flywheels/Bull gears/ open Gears

a) Guards shall be provided on flywheel/ bull gear/ open gear as explained in section
3.3.
b) When the upper rim of flywheel / bull gear/ open gear protrudes through a working
floor it shall be enclosed entirely or surrounded by a guardrail and toe board.
c) When flywheel/ bull gear/ open gear extends into pit or within 12 inches of floor
standard toe board shall be provided.

v) Drive & Tail end of belt conveyor

a) The tail end of a belt conveyor having rotating pulley must be guarded as explained in
given diagram Fig. 5.

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Figure5: Guarding of tail end pulley

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vi) Brakes and clutches

Brakes and clutches mounted at input or output shaft of the machine must be
guarded by a stationery guard as explained in section 3.3.

Figure -6
Figure- 7

Brake

vii) Other projected parts

This includes (Refer Figure- 7):

a) Protruded parts of stationery structures in the walkway/ nearby the

working area,
b) Uncoupled shaft of gearbox / pulleys/ rolls.
c) The guard shall be provided as explained in section 3.3.
3.5 At working site
i) Lubrication

If the lubrication point is near to the rotating equipment the guard and the lubrication
facility shall be given as follows:

a) The guards must be designed to reduce the need to remove them. For
example provide access to tracking mechanisms in figure 8: (A) and
greasing points (B).

Figure- 8: Lubrication points

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ii) Online cleaning / Condition Monitoring/ Sampling

a) During online cleaning/ condition monitoring / sampling the rotating or

projected part of an equipment must be guarded.

b) The difficulties associated with frequent removal of guards and the

continual stopping for cleaning purposes may be overcome by using
hinged/ detachable guards which allow access.

Figure-9: Guarding at position of condition monitoring & sampling

3.6 Accessory equipments

i) Grinders

The associated risk of bench grinders, pedestal grinders, and portable grinder is
fragmentation of an abrasive wheel.

The maximum wheel exposures for guards on two types of abrasive equipment: bench
and pedestal grinders (90° exposure) and hand-held angle grinders (180° exposure) is
illustrated in the figure10. The protective hood of a portable grinder must cover at least
120° of the wheel periphery.

Figure -10

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ii) Man cooler Fan/ Exhaust Fan/ Pedestal Fan

The Fan Must be guarded by a galvanized wire mesh. The dimension of wire mesh
shall be between 4 to 8 mm and minimum clearance between fan and guard shall be
at least 15 mm.
3.7 Training

i) All personnel whose job requires working in the vicinity of rotating/ moving part of
equipment must be trained by an expert prior to starting of the job.

ii) Safety precautions specific to the associated hazards of the equipment on/ near which
the person is deployed, should be explained to him by an expert prior to starting of the
job and to be displayed beside the equipment.

References:

i) IPSS-1-11-025-16
ii) www.osha.gov

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Note – ‘Trade’ word can be removed from above format if required.

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Machine guarding Checklist

The checklist attached below is a guideline for machine guarding

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Annexure -1

Item Specification

Square Hollow Section 38X38X3.2 mm

“ 25X25X3.2 mm

“ 49.5X49.5X3.6 mm

Acralic Transparent Plastic 130 mmX5mmX10m

sheet

Flat MS Flat 25X3mm

Angle MS25X25X3mm

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