A Basic Rundown on Power Transmission Guarding
June 19, 2024
A Basic Rundown on Power Transmission Guarding
Employee and machine safety is the most important factor in the continued success of your company, bar none. Without proper protocols, effective communication, and safety equipment, you’re putting your employees at greater risk of injury. Providing safety tools and resources for employees will reduce risk and improve productivity immensely—especially when it comes to operating machines.
Physical safeguarding isn’t just a suggestion for creating safer workplaces; it’s required by law through OSHA rules and regulations. Under OSHA requirements, you must use the correct guarding on any component of a machine that poses a risk to employees. For example, the power transmission apparatus of a machine includes many moving parts, presenting a serious hazard to the operator. Through the use of power transmission guarding products, you can help protect operators and other employees in the facility from pinch points and entanglement hazards created by uncovered belts, pulleys, shafts, and blades.
Stronghold Safety Engineering Power Transmission Apparatus Solutions
At Stronghold, we understand the importance of machine safety and always protecting your number one asset: your employees. That’s why we offer a wide range of power transmission guarding to help make any machine safer. From milling machines and lathes to belt sanders and drill presses, we have the right guarding to ensure OSHA compliance and optimal safety for operators. Here’s a glimpse at a few of our safety solutions:
Stronghold Draw Bar Guard
The Stronghold Draw Bar Guard is a simple, innovative guard. It works by securing itself to the top of your vertical mill with a powerful circular magnet, covering the draw bar. The guard is secured to the mill with a short length of chain to prevent it from getting lost during tool or draw bar changes. This guard fits draw bars that have up to 7” extension.
Stronghold Upper Disc Sander Shield & Upper Belt Sander Shield
The Stronghold Upper Disc Sander Shield is an adjustable guard used to help protect the operator from the unused, upper portion of disc sanders. This guard has a self-adjusting panel that covers the side of the disk that is rotating from the tabletop upward, working on both clockwise and counterclockwise rotating discs. As a user-adjustable guard, it’s able to maintain a ¼” distance from the disk. With all mounting hardware included with the guard, the brackets allow for mounting on or off the table.
Working alongside the upper disc sander shield is the Stronghold Upper Belt Sander Shield. This guard helps protect the operator from the unused portion of the sanding belt above the table. This fully adjustable guard is easy to install on a wide range of common belt sanders, making it simple to integrate across your machine operations.
Stronghold Upper Spindle Sander Guard
The Stronghold Upper Spindle Sander Guard helps protect operators from the unused portion of a sander spindle above the table. This guard is fully adjustable, horizontally and vertically, and installs easily by anchoring the stand to the machine table with bolts that are included.
This guard is available in three different mounting options:
Floor mount: anchors directly to the floor with included anchors
Bench mount: secures directly to a workbench next to the machine
Machine mount: mounts directly to the edge of the machine table top
Stronghold Metal Lathe Collet Cover Guard
The Stronghold Metal Lathe Collet Cover Guard is specifically made for Hardinge Super Precision ToolRoom lathes. This guard has a metal shield that flips down to protect the machine operator from inadvertent contact with the moving collet and closer. This solution is powder-coated safety yellow for easy identification—and the guard is fabricated out of 14-gauge steel.
Stronghold: Your Safety Solutions Partner
The safety of your operators and machines should always be your top priority. By incorporating products from Stronghold into your machine operations, you’ll be advancing your workplace efficiency and safety. With our fully customizable safety solutions, we can help you achieve more productive machine operations—all while minimizing risks and increasing ROI.
Whether you need high-quality power transmission guarding, machine guarding assessments, or risk reduction consulting, you can always count on Stronghold. Contact us today to learn more about our safety solutions and how they can support your team.