Did you know that incidents involving machinery or tools rank in the three most frequent craft brewery workers’ compensation losses?
All machinery in the brewery—including the mill, conveyors, and bottling, capping, canning, and labeling machines—poses a hazard to staff. These days, when packaging craft beer is more important than ever, ensuring your workers’ safety takes on an even greater emphasis.
Most machines have “pinch points,” a point at which parts of the machine can catch a person. They are points at which a person can be trapped without being able to extricate himself. They can cause grievous injury or even death.
For instance, while operating a grain mill without a belt guard, the pulley system caught one brewer’s hair. The rollers smashed his head. In another instance, a bottling machine crushed a brewery employee’s fingers.
Brewing is a serious business–and so is employee safety. Manage brewery machinery hazards with these tips:
Brewery Machinery Safety Tips
- Ensure that machinery has appropriate guards to protect the operator’s body from making contact with moving parts such as conveyors, shafts, pulleys, and chains, bottlers, cappers, and labelers, and so on.
- During cleaning, repair, servicing, or other work on bottling and labeling machines, protect workers from the machine unexpectedly starting up. If the machine must be adjusted while in operation, make sure that you have developed a specific procedure for that case.
- Evaluate your machines and operations to identify pinch points and other brewery machinery hazards. Then eliminate or guard the pinch points to prevent employee contact with them.
- Train your employees so they understand the reasons for the guards, the brewery machinery hazards that exist, and what injuries might result.
Beall Brewery Insurance offers a nationwide insurance program tailored specifically for today’s breweries. Our customized solutions will meet your budget and protect your business, leaving you able to focus to do what you do best: brewing great craft beer.
