All is fine. No need to change anything if it is exactly as you describe as long as the SOP's are OK.

DTJ - I agree with Paul. The physical arrangements you describe should be adequate provided that the maintenance engineers understand and follow the power isolation procedure. If necessary, for your peace of mind, have a word with the engineers and/or their line manager/s about such procedures. Also, it would be appropriate to ask how often the engineers need to remove the guard and for what reason/s. In addition, if feasible, it might be worth asking whoever suggested interlocking for the guard if they have any special reason for making the suggestion. It's possible that they've seen or heard of an engineer or other person/s remove such guarding without following any isolation procedure. If this is the case, you would have grounds for investigating why risks are being taken, e.g. sheer laziness, inadequate training/supervision or perhaps even pressure from production managers not to interrupt the operation of the belt conveyor. As with other scenarios in OS&H, there could be a significant gap between written procedures/what people think is happening and what actually happens!

I have my cynical head on today. Who said that there should be such a guard on there? Someone with a financial interest in fitting the guard? At my last place we had a huge conveyor with plenty of guards covering moving parts- no interlocks were fitted, we had a robust SSW and this was checked when work was in progress. In the 20 years we had this system we never had an issue. Regards Andy

Darryl If spraying the chain drive with lubricant is usually the only reason for removing the guard (presumably made of sheet metal rather mesh) it might be aprpopriate to suggest making small holes in the guard at appropriate places so that the spray can be applied through the holes. As this would avoid the need for removing the guard for this purpose, the maintenance engineers ought to be happy with being able to carry out the lubrication without the time and physical faff involved in removing the guard. Also, if the lubricant can be applied with the drive actually running, the chain and sprockets might get a more comprehensive coating than if the lubrication is carried out on a stationary drive. The same aspects may well apply to other guarded drives at the premises. If the above suggestions are feasible and carried out, please could you share the outcome with the rest of us on this forum. The information could well be useful to others dealing with similar situations.