Readers agree to evaluate the significance and limitations of the information provided, and accept full responsibility for the application of this information. The following is a summary of a presentation given by Ryszard Szymani, Director of the Wood Machining Institute , at the Forest Products Research Society Pacific Southwest Section Meeting in Stockton, California, April 11-12, 1984. The list of possible woodworking machinery related injuries is as long as it is horrifying. The majority of these accidents occur on circular sawing machines. Other machines such as vertical spindle moulding and routing machines and hand-fed planning machines, account for most of the remainder.
Safeguards are essential for protecting workers from needless and preventable injuries.
Unless a danger point or area is safe by virtue of its position, any machine part, function or process which may cause injury must be safeguarded. A proper safeguard eliminates or reduces danger before access to the danger point or area can be achieved. An overview of various approaches to machine safeguarding is given elsewhere. Analysis of field survey data conducted by Boot, regarding actual machine guarding practices, showed that approximately one out of four companies were not using the standards that are available to them. If these companies are not aware of the specifications required for machine guarding, then it is unlikely that proper guarding techniques will be used.