As far as I am aware this was a previous requirement of the abrasive wheels regs and potentially the factories act. You are correct that these requirements have been superceded by PUWER and there is no longer a requirement to display a specific poster. That said, there is a requirement in Reg8 of PUWER to supply suitable and relevant INFORMATION to employees. Because of this most employers (and safety advisors) see it as good practice (although not law) to display a safety poster next to an abrasive wheel, and build this into their standards / procedures / risk assessments. Usually this consists of guidance for dressing, mounting etc. and can be quite helpful as a reminder on what can be a complicated work practice (depnding on the complexity of the equipment) with a lot of figures to remember (max speed, dressing standards etc.) Posters are varied, but most are direct excerpts from the guidance to abrasive wheels from PUWER (http://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/priced/hsg17.pdf). Hope this helps, Regards, Ian

There' not much evidence that putting posters up has any effect on safe working. It used to be a requirement in lots of legislation, but is now pretty limited. It's much more important that your risk assessment identifies the need for training of personnel before they use the wheel - in at least all the areas the poster covers. Just posting it gives no guarantee that the good practices it shows will be followed!

For the reasons stated by imwaldra it's not worth buying and displaying the poster. During my time with HSE I got the impression that no inspectors ever got excited about non-compliance with legal requirements to display specific posters. There was a widely held view that very few people ever read or heeded them. This almost certainly explains why such requirements were generally discontinued in the 1990s! If inspectors wrote to factory occupiers after visits to confirm matters noted, they tended to mention posters which weren't and ought to be displayed. However, I don't think any inspector ever took enforcement action about posters. On one occasion when I returned to a small factory to carry out a check visit about various deficiencies noted during a routine inspection some months before, I found that all the significant ones had been resolved though apparently with some reticence by the factory owner. However, as I couldn't see either of the two posters mentioned in my letter, I briefly commented on this to him. He smiled and showed me where he had displayed the posters (Factories Act 1961 & Electricity Regulations) to his employees - on the insides of the two WC cubicle doors for his all-male workforce! My response was that they were somewhat unconventional locations but had the great merit that there was some likelihood that his employees might read them unlike on a workshop wall!