To: Directors of Environmental Health/ Chief Environmental Health Officers of London, Metropolitan, District and Unitary Authorities and Chief Executives of County Councils.

For the attention of: Environmental Services / Trading Standards / Fire Authorities / Other

This circular gives advice to local authority enforcement officers

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SAFETY AT AUTOMATIC GLASS CUTTING MACHINES

INTRODUCTION

1 This circular alerts LA enforcement officers to the risks of handling glass in automatic cutting machines and advises on precautions.

BACKGROUND

2 Automatic Glass Cutting machines are often known as Bystronic machines, after the major Swiss supplier, but there are several other suppliers, Lisec being the most common. Each machine typically comprises a table and automatic cutting head on a horizontal beam, and at the feed end a mobile carriage and destacking frame which can move to and from an inclined pack of glass. At the feed end, the carriage moves forward horizontally to the base of the glass pack and the destacking frame pivots upwards from the front so that the suckers engage the front sheet of glass which is then pulled free of the pack, the frame descending to the horizontal and the carriage reversing. The plate of glass is then transferred to the cutting table usually by a series of parallel belt drives.

HAZARDS

3 There are two main hazards:

a) Mechanical, such as traps between the descending frame and fixed parts or between fixed and moving parts of the transfer mechanism or from unguarded drives; and

b) Cuts either from falling glass after venting in the pack at the feed end or from the glass being handled on the table. (Venting is a term describing the unexpected release of stress in a sheet of glass, resulting in breakage and perhaps the release of a fragment or slither of glass).

GUARDING STANDARDS

4 The following standards are advised:

a) Fixed mesh side fencing or other forms of protection should be provided at the sides of inclined glass packs at the feed end where glass can vent into areas likely to be glass which has vented within the pack, then fallen sideways during destacking. Access into the area between the side fencing and glass should be prevented;

b) Where the plant is used frequently and persons are likely to be in its vicinity, 1.8 metre high fencing with interlocked access gates around the destacking area should be provided. This standard may be extended to the whole cutting table, but risks of injury are lower here and accidents much less severe.

c) An additional risk at the destacking area is posed by the possibility of the frame picking up two pieces of glass instead of one, then dropping the second. To inhibit this, manufacturers often dust each sheet of glass before despatch to prevent sticking, but the risk remains if this is not done. Recent machines have a capacitive sensor fitted to the side of the rack with a device for blowing compressed air which senses when two sheets stick together and separates them. These should be required at older machines when reasonably practicable.

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