TITLE:
Design of an Intelligent Tool for the Observation and Follow-Up of Lockout Procedures during Maintenance Activities on Industrial Machines
AUTHORS:
Damien Burlet-Vienney, Yuvin Chinniah, Ary Pizarro-Chong
KEYWORDS:
Machine, Lockout, Intelligent Tool, Audit, Injection Moulding
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Safety Science and Technology,
Vol.4 No.2,
June
25,
2014
ABSTRACT:
Workers performing maintenance, repair and un-jamming operations on
industrial machines and processes are required to follow lockout procedures in
accordance with occupational health and safety regulations. However, industries
seem to have difficulties in the appropriation and implementation of lockout.
Reports of severe accidents, often fatal, involving industrial machinery show
the extent of the problem concerning the application of lockout procedures. In
this context, an intelligent tool incorporated at the design stage of a
machine, which helps to apply and record lockout procedures, could be useful.
Thereby, the design of a laboratory prototype has been explored for a
particular maintenance task on an automated plastic injection moulding machine.
Its architecture has been based on three electronic cards, sensors and wireless
communications. Despite the limitations of the current version of the tool, the
feasibility of designing an intelligent tool capable of following and recording
lockout procedures is demonstrated.