Machinery Safety Information

Overview

Elecrical Safety is a complex topic, and difficult to cover in a short web-page. As a general comment, the OSHA regulations (listed below) were written 40 years ago, and as such are very much out of date. Instead, an electrical engineer should design his or her equipment per the ANSI/NFPA 79 (2015) Electrical Standards for Industrial Machinery.

ANSI/NFPA 79 (2015) Electrical Standards for Industrial Machinery is an excellent resourse, which covered all aspects of electrical design for machinery and equipment.

For machines and equipment being sold internationallly, the single best electrical standard is:

OSHA Regulations for Machine Safety

OSHA Regulations form the framework for Electrical Safety within the United States:

Subpart S - Electrical equipment and electrical hazards.

Section 147 -Control of Hazardous Energy (Lockout/Tagout)

Section 145 - Specification for Accident Prevention Sign & Tags

Further Resources and Links

The National Electric Code (NEC) contains some information important to machines and equipment. However, in most cases, the NEC defers most of the specific rule-making to ANSI/NFPA 79 -- Electrical Standards for Industrial Machinery.

The ANSI standard that cover electrical ppersonal protective equipment (PPE) is ANSI/NFPA 70E -- Personal Protective Equipment.


For training on ANSI Standards and OSHA regulations, see: Electrical Safety Training