Lockout Tagout

I promise you; these are written in the blood of many who have perished – THEY ARE LOTO FACTS, and they are not wrong.  If employers could grasp these simple facts, many limbs and lives could be saved yearly. The standard is called “The Control of Hazardous Energy”.  It is NOT Lockout AND Tagout; it…...

On January 20, 2017, Employee #1, 45, was tasked with removing a “Victaulic Blind Flange” on the inlet section of a 400-ton chiller held in place with a split collar. The machine had been idle for over four (4) months as it was winterized, with all electrical connections removed and locked out. The employee began…...

At 1:30 p.m. on July 24, 2020, two employees were reconnecting two (2) 2″ flanged pipes after cleaning the 4″ header. The employees were beginning to unbolt the blind on the last pipe to reconnect it to the header when…… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member?...

At 1:15 p.m. on November 3, 2020, Employee #1, employed by an HVAC company, was working at a customer’s commercial facility. He was in the process of removing a coupler and blind from the intake header of an air dryer. The employee did not first relieve the air pressure from the header…. Membership Required You...

OSHA answers the following questions regarding maintenance and servicing tasks where Cathodic Protection (CP) rectifiers protect pipes against corrosion. Question 1: Is LOTO of a CP rectifier required when working on a pipeline? Question 2: Is the use of a metallic bonding cable an acceptable practice in lieu of CP rectifier lockout/tagout? Background: Cathodic Protection…...

As we have discussed, the “note and exception” that goes with 1910.147(c)(4)(i) is what I call “simple lockout”; however, I have always stated it was intended for simple electrical lockouts, seeing how one of the hurdles to using the exception was that there could be no “stored energy.”  So, when we look at the eight…...

Once we get to the place where we can agree that fluids and gases are “stored energy” and that those “stored energies” have to be bled/drained to achieve a Zero Energy State (ZES), we can then discuss the potential hazards these necessary actions can create.   I have written a lot about using 1/4 turn ball…...

Last month, I wrote Before we can achieve a ZES, we must first define and quantify what precisely a form of “hazardous energy” is, and this week, I posted the MSHA accident investigation report where water in an abandoned chilled water system 1600′ underground was opened and the water, pressurized by the head pressure alone,…...

We are seeing more and more of this type of set-up, where an auxiliary piece of equipment on an assembly/production line has two (2) electrical supplies.  One is from the main SWITCH on the line, and one is from a separate source.  This is usually done when the auxiliary equipment may need to stay energized…...