Lockout Archives | Machinery Safety 101

15 May, 2018

Five reasons you should attend our Free Safety Talks

in Events, Free Talks, Functional Safety, Hazardous Energy Control Procedures, Interlocks, Interlocks, ISO 13849, Lockout, News, Ontario, Pre-Start Health and Safety Reviews, Standards

Reason #1 – Free Safety Talks You can’t argue with Free Stuff! Last week we partnered with Schmersal Canada and Franklin Empire to put on three days of Free Safety Talks. We had full houses in all three locations, Windsor, London and Cambridge, with nearly 60 people participating. We had two great presenters who helped…

15 May, 2018

Q & A: Can Safety PLCs be used for Lockout?

by Doug Nix

in Functional Safety, Hazardous Energy Control Procedures, ISO 13849, Lockout, Ontario, Q & A /

3 Comments

Questions about equipment lockout using safety PLCs are more frequent these days. Can Safety PLCs be used for lockout? Safety professionals don’t always agree on this controversial topic!

28 February, 2011

Understanding the Hierarchy of Controls

by Kimberly Nix

in Canada, CE Mark, Complementary Protective Measures, Control Functions, Control Reliability, Emergency Stop, EU European Union, Functional Safety, General, Guards and Guarding, Hazardous Energy Control Procedures, Hierarchy of Controls, Interlocks, Interlocks, Lockout, Ontario, Risk Assessment, Robotics, USA /

5 Comments

The Hierarchy of Controls illustrated as an inverted triangle with each level of the hierarchy written one above the other, starting with Inherently Sfe design, then Engineering Controls, then Information for Use, then Administrative Controls and finally descending to PPE at the bottom. An arrow with the text "Effectiveness" on it runs parallel to the triangle and points downward from Inherently safe design to PPE.

(Eds. note: This article was originally written in 2011 and was updated in Nov. 2018.) The “Hierarchy of Controls” is one approach to risk reduction that has become entrenched in the Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) sector. There are other approaches to risk reduction which are equally effective but are less rigidly structured. If you…

29 November, 2010

Using E-Stops in Lockout Procedures

by Kimberly Nix

in Canada, Control Functions, Emergency Stop, EU European Union, Hazardous Energy Control Procedures, Lockout, USA /

6 Comments

Emergency stop devices are sometimes, incorrectly, used as part of a lockout procedure for machinery. Learn more about how to correctly used these devices as part of Hazardous Energy Control Procedures for industrial machinery.

3 September, 2010

Busting Emergency Stop Myths

by Kimberly Nix

in Canada, Control Functions, Emergency Stop, EU European Union, Guards and Guarding, Hazardous Energy Control Procedures, International, Lockout, Robotics, USA /

10 Comments

There are a number of myths that have grown up around emergency stops over the years. These myths can lead to injury or death, so it’s time for a little Myth Busting here on the MS101 blog!