Blog

Technology advances can keep the operator safe and the press brake running. Even though the U.S. has some very strict machine guarding regulations, the U.S. Department of Labor reports that press brake operators in this country suffer more than 350 amputations per year—and these are only the reported injuries. The question is why? For one,…

Last year in America 2.9 million employees (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics) suffered a workplace injury from which they never recover, at a cost to business of nearly $60 billion (Liberty Mutual Insurance). These statistics are staggering. To help gain a better perspective on the realities of workplace danger, we have compiled a list of…

Pinching your finger in a door can be painful but certainly not life threatening. Pinch-point injuries involving industrial machinery are another story, one that rarely has a happy ending. What is a pinch point? A pinch point is “any point at which it is possible for a person or part of a person’s body to…

Did you know that June is National Safety Month? Rockford Systems has partnered with the National Safety Council to promote safety to our valued customers! Nearly 13,000 American workers are injured each day, and each injury is preventable. Here are some of the safety topics NSC is focusing on: Fatigue Adults need seven to nine…

Stop-Time Measurements Keep Safeguarding Equipment in Peak Performance We’ve all heard the phrase “what a difference a day makes,” yet when it comes to industrial safeguarding, the concern isn’t days, hours or even minutes. It is the milliseconds it takes for a machine operation to stop. That fraction of a second can make the difference…

I, COBOT: The Rise of Industrial Robotics and the Need for Employee Safeguarding In general, OSHA’s view on robot safety is that if the employer is meeting the requirements of ANSI/RIA R15.06, the manufacturer has no issues. Tech executive and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk recently took to Twitter calling for the regulation of robots and…

Including In-Depth Analysis of Light Curtains vs. Laser AOPD Press brakes are unforgiving machines and a common source of workplace amputations of hands, fingers and arms. United States Department of Labor statistics indicate an average of 368 instances of amputations annually from press brake accidents. And these are only the reported accidents. WHY ARE PRESS…

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, more than 5,000 American manufacturing workers suffer injuries involving amputation or limb loss every single year. In all, amputations rank in OSHA’s top three serious workplace injuries. The Detect-A-Finger® drop-probe device is designed to prevent a riveter, welder or other small machine from cycling if it encounters fingers…

On the surface, at least, machine lockout/tagout (LOTO) appears simple: Identify and isolate energy sources, lock and tag, and perform the procedure that needs to get done. Simple, right? Wrong. When energy is required to complete machine diagnostics or set-up work, or when a minor maintenance job is going to throw production hours behind schedule,…