Posted By Barry Cooper I have undertaken a risk assessment of a wood press. The press consists of four hydraulic rams and plattens that press and hold wood sheet material after applying adhesive and laminate. The front and rear of the machine is open with no guards. Operation of the rams is by 4 levers that applies pressures of up to 250bar.on each ram. I have advised the company to fit inlerlocking guards to front and rear, but the company say that all these types of presses do not have guards fitted. Although the risk of an accident is unlikely I have still advised the fitting of guards. has anyone had experience of these types of machines. If this was in the engineering industry, guards would be fitted, so I do not see the difference. Barry

Posted By RP you should contact the manufacturers of the equipment who can offer the best advice. They also have to comply with the Regs

Posted By Roger the Dodger From the information given, I would have said the machine needs light curtain as described in the last posting. It should be remembered under PUWER (Regulation 11) you have to follow the 4 step heirarchy of machine guarding - just trusting to employees training/skills is the last level of control. It should also be remembered that there is a higher standards applied to machine guarding i.e. 'so far as practicable' NOT 'so far as reasonably practicable'. 'Practicable' has been defined by h&s case law as 'to the extent of technical knowledge' - I forget the exact wording, but basically it means if safeguarding a machine danger zone is technically possible, then you would probably loose a claim/prosecution in the event of an accident at the machine, if it could be shown that guarding was technically possible.

Posted By Gerry Knowles I am currently doing some work for a company which manufactures composite doors as part of the process they apply UPVC skins to a wood frame they then use adhesive as the bonding agent. The doors are then placed in stacks of 10 and pressed using a presses similar to the ones that you describe. I to had told the company that guarding is required and have advised light curtains at the front of the press. The rear is not accessable so it is not a problem. Again I am using PUWER to get my case home. Keep on at the company management it sometimes takes a while to get through but you will get there.

Posted By Barry Cooper Thank you all for your advice. Nice to know that we all have the same view on guarding the press. I will continue to push the management of the company to fit guards. One interesting thing is I would not have considered light guards. I was more for sliding up/down interlocked guards. But the choice is theirs, but I will stress the advantages of light guards, less maintenance, no hassle closing etc. Thank you all and all the very best for Christmas and New Year Barry