Maintenance of work equipment

If the use or maintenance of work equipment entails specific hazards it may only be used by personnel specifically trained for its use. 

Maintenance of work equipment in good repair - from simple checks on hand tools such as loose hammer heads to specific checks on lifts and hoists. When maintenance work is carried out it should be done in safety and without risk to health. 

In many cases this will require routine and planned preventive maintenance of work equipment. When checks are made priority must be given to ... 

Is there a record of inspections and maintenance of work equipment, inciuding guards and safety devices ... 

One final and very important consideration in relation to personal hygiene concerns the employee s duty to look after himself/herself and others. The mere provision of protective equipment will serve no beneficial purpose if the employee does not make proper use of, and help to ensure proper maintenance of, that equipment. A respirator which is not worn provides no protection rules which are not obeyed are useless. In consequence, legislation in some countries includes not only a duty on the employer to provide a safe working environment and protective equipment, but also a duty on the employee to make full and proper use of all measures provided and to advise his/her employer of any defects he or she discovers. Active participation by the employee in ensuring his or her own welfare is every bit as inqxntant as the protective measiues afforded by the company. 

Proper use of laboratory equipment is required to work safely with hazardous chemicals. Maintenance and regular inspection of laboratory equipment are an essential part of this activity. Many of the accidents that occur in the laboratory can be attributed to improper use or maintenance of laboratory equipment. This chapter discusses prudent practices for handling the apparatus often used in laboratories. 

Working space about electric equipment. Sufficient access and working space shall be provided and maintained about all electric equipment to permit ready and safe operation and maintenance of such equipment. 

Outline eight factors that may be important in determining the maintenance requirements for an item of work equipment. 

Proper maintenance of spray equipment is important to ensure continuous problem-free operation. Gun tips should be checked periodically for adhesive build up. If any is found, it should be removed to keep the spray pattern consistent. Fluid lines should be flushed periodically. Fluid pressure regulators should be cleaned periodically to keep them working properly. Spray guns should be flushed and rebuilt periodically to replace worn parts and to remove any adhesive build up. 

Maintenance of facilities, equipment and devices The premises and any facilities, equipment and devices provided to minimise the fire risk must be subject to a suitable system of maintenance and necessary testing to ensure that they are maintained in an efficient state, an efficient working order and in good repair. 

Where work equipment involves a specific risk (e.g. risk of fire) the employer should restrict the use and maintenance of the equipment to those given the task to use it. An example of which would be an electrician using electrical testing equipment. 

In all cases the inspection and testing must be carried out by suitably qualified and competent staff. It is therefore important that prior to providing any piece of work equipment an employer or responsible person must consider, plan and take account of the detailed arrangements for the safety inspection and planned preventive maintenance of any such equipment. 

These are arrangements that ensure that risk controls (workplace precautions) are implemented and maintained. For example the provision for ensuring that an adequate level of supervision is maintained during work processes a system for planned preventive maintenance for work equipment and specific safety systems and establishing a programme of inspections and audits for buildings, sites and workplaces. 

A wide range of plant and machinery and other forms of work equipment, their power sources, location and use are relevant in this case. The safety aspects of individual processes, procedures for vetting and testing new machinery and plant, and systems for maintenance and cleaning must be considered. 

For the construction industry, maintenance of working plant and equipment is a priority. The need for maintenance of any piece of equipment should have been anticipated in its design. Lubrication and cleaning will still be required for machinery, but the tasks can be made safer by consideration of maintenance requirements at an early stage of design, with feedback from users. 

Much of what has been written about maintainability has been based directly upon the US Military Handbook 472 [IJ however, since this work refers only to the maintenance of electronic equipment under militaiy conditions it must be used with great care since the maintenance model assumed may not be applicable to the system being studied. This paper presents a more general maintenance model and analyses the factors which contribute to a high degree of maintainability and hence to system integrity. 

I C systems important to safety should be designed with human capabilities for and hmitations in performing the required maintenance activities taken into account. Where practicable, I C systems should be located so as to minimize risks to maintenance personnel and to facihtate maintenance of the equipment. Enough room should be left around the equipment to ensure that the maintenance staff can perform their tasks under normal working conditions. Where practicable, equipment should not be placed in locations for which there is a risk of high radiation levels (see Ref. [12]) or where conditions of extreme temperature or humidity are normal. 

Operation and maintenance of ESCA equipment and interpretation of its data are quite complex. Samples intended for ESCA and other surface analysis must be handled carefully because minute contamination can mask the surface structure of the samples. To alleviate this type of complication, the sample surface can be washed with volatile solvents such as methanol, acetone, hydrocarbons, and fluorocarbons using an ultrasound bath. Typically, analysis is conducted before and after the surface wash while studying a sample that has been handled and/or contaminated. Another application of surface wash is removal of loose material that may be weakly bound to the surface. The working details and data interpretation for ESCA are outside the scope of the present book. The interested reader is encouraged to refer to other sources to gain an in-depth understanding of ESCA. " ... 

It was clear that the obligation of maintenance was an absolute one and applied at all times. It did not matter that the cause of some maintenance failure caused the accident. If it can be proved that some piece of working equipment has in fact failed, that was sufficient. 

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