Safeguarding Choices for Milling Machines (With or Without Automatic Control)

OSHA’s Code of Federal Regulations 1910.212 General Requirements For All Machines specifies that one or more methods of machine guarding shall be provided to protect the operator and other employees in the machine area from hazards such as those created by point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts, flying chips, and sparks.

Choices for these safeguarding methods may include one or more of the following:

• chip and coolant shields
• guards (fixed, movable, and/or interlocked)
• presence-sensing devices
• two-hand control
• awareness barriers and devices

Correctly applied chip/coolant shields meet OSHA’s minimum requirements for point-of-operation protection for operators of manually operated milling machines.

Automated (CNC) mills—machining centers— require interlocked guards at the point of operation.

Rockford Systems encourages all employers to exceed minimum requirements and abide by the best safety practices found in ANSI B11.8-2011 (R2008) for drilling, milling, and boring machines, and ANSI B11.23-2002 (R2007) for machining centers. The key to employee safety is to observe best safety practices at all times.