ANSI revises standard on safeguarding
Apr 1, 2004 12:00 PM
After nearly eight years of development, the revision of the 1990 version of the B11.19 standard Performance Criteria for Safeguarding has been approved by the American National Standards Institute.
This standard is intended to complement the specific ANSI B11 machine tool safety standards and covers the detailed requirements of all manner of protective measures. These include fixed, adjustable and interlocked guards, various safeguarding devices, awareness devices, safeguarding methods and safe work procedures, complementary equipment, inspection and maintenance of safeguarding, and training.
Annexes are provided on performance of safety-related functions (control reliability), safety distances, and applications and attributes of protective measures.
This standard uses the updated (mid-1990s) Liberty Mutual anthropometric data to calculate and base safety distances. The 1990 version of this standard (and the Occupational Safety & Health Administration Subpart O Tables of safety distances) was based on data now more than 50 years old. Many companies are already producing new OSHA “gotcha sticks” based on the new Liberty Mutual data and included in B11.19-2003. In addition, a Japanese language version of ANSI B11.19 is expected soon.
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