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...
Pulling blinds/blanks is a “line opening” task (compressed air dryer) Read More »
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…...
Nowadays, most machines/equipment come equipped with a digital HMI screen(s) rather than the old-fashioned “Start/Stop” buttons. Most see this as an improvement in using technology. However, for those with “machine specific” LOTO procedures, these HMI screens pose a challenge regarding “verifying ZES” for the electrical energy sources. In the old days, we returned to the…...
HMI screens and “means to verify ZES” for electrical source(s) Read More »
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…...
Can 1910.147(c)(4)(i) be applied to compressed air? Read More »
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…...
Bleeding stored energy can create hazards Read More »
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,…...
When does a fluid become a hazard? Read More »
I can remember our first attempt at writing SOPs for our PSM covered process(s): Deviation is “High Pressure” in V-1 Steps to Correct “High Pressure”: 1) Lower Pressure Sound familiar? We chuckle now, but in the early 1990’s we thought this was the intent. We still find this kind of PSM/RMP SOP in 2023; however,…...
Verifying ZES requires SPECIFIC procedure(s) Read More »
From MSHA accident file… The two (10) ten-inch metal pipes being removed were part of a closed-loop chiller system that had been abandoned. One pipe supplied chilled water underground (supply and shown as blue in the drawing), and the other returned water to the surface…...
When gravity and water work together to become a “hazardous form of energy” Read More »
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…...
LOTO, “Energy From More Than One Source”, and critical labeling Read More »
Most facilities will have a few pieces of equipment that require using a dozen or more energy isolation devices to achieve a full LO’ed situation. Most businesses, at least early on in their implementation of LOTO for these pieces of equipment, will state ALL energy isolation devices will be utilized regardless of the scope of…...
In a mature LOTO program, “SCOPE of WORK” matters Read More »
Have you ever seen a setup on a machine, typically those manufactured outside of the USA, with two (2) electrical disconnects? Most of the time, these disconnects are COLOR-CODED to clearly identify their different uses, although we have seen some that were NOT color-coded, nor were they properly labeled! Here is an example of what…...
Motor disconnect vs. Main disconnect Read More »
Whenever we talk about OSHA’s Lockout/Tagout (LOTO) standard, we almost always have to talk about its machine guarding and electrical standards. One crucial requirement in OSHA’s electrical standards, as it relates directly back to LOTO, is … (emphasis by me)… Membership Required You must be a member to access this content.View Membership LevelsAlready a member?...
How electrical standards play a role in LOTO practices Read More »
