Work Safely With Agricultural Machinery

How to work safely with mobile and fixed agricultural machinery - specially when maintaining care and transaction with congestion.

Machinery accidents are caused by a ambit of factors including:

▪ Using a machine that is not applicable for the job;

▪ Miscarrying to follow a secure system of work;

▪ Hazardous ways for clearing congestion or making tuning;

▪ Miscarrying to follow safe operating or ‘secure Stop’ procedures;

▪ Guards and other safety devices lost or defective;

▪ Deficiency of operator education;

▪ Insufficient care.

Hazardous areas on farming machinery

Many farming machines have possibly hazardous moving parts, which can cause important or deadly wounds. For example: ▪

▪ Balers - pick-ups, twine mechanisms and moving rear doors;

▪ Bait harvesters - cutting cylinders;

▪ Combine harvesters - augers in the cereal tank and the header unit;

▪ Potato harvesters - rotating rollers and conveyors;

▪ Slurry tankers - power take-off (PTO) shafts;

▪ Bale and hay choppers - chopping mechanisms;

▪ Tractor - hitch mechanisms, PTOs and PTO shafts;

▪ Power harrows - rotating tines;

▪ Feeder wagons - turning out ingredients in the mixing chamber.

These machines and others like them are highly powerful. Workers using them may become contented and may not be conscious of the powers involved. For example:

▪ With tractors, a 10 cm diameter fencepost is smashed into matchwood nearly Right away when trapped in a rising pick-up hitch;

▪ Leaking hydraulic oil from a explosion hose can be projected at 3000 psi and will indwell the skin as easily as it would if delivered through a hypodermic syringe;

▪ A PTO shaft will wrap clothes, hair or arms at a rate of about 1.5 metres per second.

Check Measures

Secure Stop

It is highly dangerous to carry out any work on a machine while it is below power. The most significant safety measure is to follow the safe stop process before carrying out any care or adjustments, admitting dealing with a congestion or other problem:

▪ Set up the handbrake on.

▪ Be sure the checks are in inactivel (equipment made safe).

▪ Stop the engine (or turn off the power).

▪ Remove the key (or lock-off the power supply).

Many dangerous and deadly accidents have happened where operators have tested to clear blockages, tested to correct errors or worked on machines with the engine running or power engaged. So all of the time be sure you follow the safe stop process.

Remember that agricultural machines may have several power sources - mechanical, hydraulic and electrical . All power sources must be isolated during safe stop. Usually, stopping the tractor and removing the key does this - but this may not be the event with stable machinery where it may be essential to insulate the power supply.

Follow Secure Stop:

▪ Before leaving the driver’s seat/operating position;

▪ When anyone else approaches;

▪ Before anyone carries out care, adjustments or deals with a congestion

All of the time make sure the machine has come to rest - remember to let for any ‘run-down’ time before making any adjustments. Run-down time can change from a few seconds to several minutes, depending on the machine.

http://machinery.furkey.com/en-US/farm-machinery/1647-work-safely-with-farming-machinery.html