While safe practice is essential across all aspects of a mine site, conveyors can be particularly dangerous, especially when unguarded.
Unguarded moving parts and pinch points pose a severe danger to personnel, and incidents such as slips, trips and falls can become fatal.
Further, personnel can become caught in moving machinery while attempting to remove blockages while the belt is operational.
Guarding is an essential element in protecting personnel around moving machinery and conveyors.
However, while most machinery guarding eliminates incidents around moving parts, it is often heavy and cumbersome. Heavy guards quickly become a manual handling hazard when the guards need to be removed for conveyor or machine maintenance.
Conveyor safety levels have improved over the last decade, but injuries and fatalities have still occurred. Between 2013 and 2017, Safe Work Australia recorded 40 work-related deaths and 8285 compensation claims related to conveyors and lifting plants.
There are still issues within the industry, where there is resistance to installing guarding when it is less practicable. Even when the hazards are known, and safety protocols are in place, accidents happen, often due to human error. Guarding, even if costly, isolates working from the moving parts in a conveyor in action.
The ESS EZI-GUARD Modular Guarding System is a patented conveyor belt and machinery guarding system, comprising lightweight aluminium (powder coated), mild steel (galvanised) or stainless-steel panels that fit a system of brackets and supports.
The patented support system utilises easy to install cast stainless steel brackets combined with a standard 40 millimetre square structural tube to form the guard support framework that can be adapted to almost any application.
For more information about EZI-GUARD visit us at www.esseng.com.au