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01.11.09
Brady Lockout/Tagout-systems increase safety during repair and maintenance of industrial machines
Lockout/Tagout-systems from Brady serve the security-related blocking and locking of electrical, hydraulic and pneumatic energy supply of industrial machinery and installations, as well as the labelling of closed systems for the duration of repairing and maintenance.
These safety measures protect employees of dangers that originate from running machines or electrical power. Brady therefore offers a complete Lockout/Tagout program for switches, connectors and fuses, ball valve blocking for straight way valves and other fittings.
As world market leader in the field of Lockout/Tagout products and -services Brady offers a wide range of durable, easy-to-apply Lockout-equipment, that covers most of mechanical and electrical applications. Brady high-developed and durable tags can prevent personal or property damage. Lockout/Tagout-systems from Brady are an additional protection against operating errors, because they give clear information about the reason and duration of the locking and blocking.
Every year thousands of employees are killed or are very seriously hurt by carrying out repairing and maintenance of industrial plants and machines. Many of these accidents are caused by the uncontrolloed release of the electrical, hydraulic or pneumatic energy supply.
Therefore the European Union specifies in the directive 89/655 "Minimum requirements for safety and health protection by usage of work equipment by employees". Every machine has to be signed by clear and visible devices, with which it can be disconnected from every power supply. In the United States of America the systematic switch-off and blocking (the accidental re-starting or repair) is prescribed from OSHA as a "Regulation for the Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout) 1910.147".
The operational installation of an effecitve Brady Lockout/Tagout-program consists of three steps:
• The development of a program with preparation for switch-off and separation of work equipment from power supply, the attachment of labels with according signs, the drain of saved energy and the testing, whether every part of the equipment is separated from the power supply.
• The second step is the training of employees for operation test procedure.
• The third step is the application-specific implementation of a Lockout/Tagout-program. Therefore Brady offers a wide range of locking systems, locks, seal-locks, marking and signs for electrical, hydraulic, gaseous and other forms of energy.
Brady services support customers with limited operational resources by the creation of their programs and ensures, that Lockout/Tagout activities are implementated in a way that offers optimal safety and at the same time maximises efficiency and reduces standstill-times.
The identification (Tagout) happens with specific tags or labels, which inform, that the blocked machine may not be used, as long as the label is attached. Therefore Brady offers (also self-adhesive) tags for information about maintenance and inspection-data, as well as machine-labelling. The tags are flexible polyester and are resistant against water, oil and extreme temperatures. They have matt surface, whereby they can be marked with ballpoint pens or markers.
Lockout/Tagout should base on an operational safety-management system, that does define at which times a machine or installation may be used and who is responsible for the service and maintenance. That also includes the next service- and maintenance date. Safety-management always informs about functionality, inspection results and -times, especially electrical machines and equipment.