The image below is just one I found on the internet, but it is a good representation of the ones I have seen and worked with.
Today, during an audit, I was asked by the EHS pro, if I thought there large CNC machines were Confined Spaces/Permit-Required Confined Spaces. At first, I said I did not think so, but was we stood there and began assessing the space, we came to the conclusion that it meets all three (3) of the characteristics of a CS:
(1) Is large enough and so configured that an employee can bodily enter and perform assigned work; and
(2) Has limited or restricted means for entry or exit (for example, tanks, vessels, silos, storage bins, hoppers, vaults, and pits are spaces that may have limited means of entry.); and
(3) Is not designed for continuous employee occupancy.
And the space contained a recognized mechanical/physical hazard making it a PRCS:
(1) Contains or has a potential to contain a hazardous atmosphere;
(2) Contains a material that has the potential for engulfing an entrant;
(3) Has an internal configuration such that an entrant could be trapped or asphyxiated by inwardly converging walls or by a floor which slopes downward and tapers to a smaller cross-section; or
(4) Contains any other recognized serious safety or health hazard.
What say you… is a large CNC machine a PRCS?
