Safety interlocks soothe saw point

BSW Timber, the UK's largest sawmilling business, has chosen interlocking systems from Castell to protect workers at its Newbridge-on-Wye site.

BSW Timber, the UK's largest sawmilling business, has chosen interlocking systems from Castell to protect workers at its Newbridge-on-Wye site.

Alistair Sommerville, Reengineering and Primary Process Manager at Newbridge, was responsible for designing machine guarding for the site's main mill.

He explains why, when it came to selecting a safety specialist that could secure the mill's ten machines, he decided to approach Castell.

"Castell has proven itself within industry".

"The products of the other supplier that we considered looked and felt less robust, and reliability was a big issue here".

Staff at Newbridge were initially very sceptical about the new system, believing that it would have a negative impact on productivity.

However, within a short space of time, they came to appreciate the benefits and were won over.

"People love it now", enthuses Sommerville, "because they can see that the company has invested in their well-being and so they feel valued".

"Just as important, of course, is the fact that we've lost no production time as a result of the system being installed".

Single operatives wishing to gain access to a machine must first isolate its power supply by turning and removing the key trapped in the relevant switch.

This key is then inserted either directly into an access lock or, in the case of multiple entry points, placed in an exchange box; a number of keys held in the box then become free, each one relating to a specific access lock located around the machine.

Two or more workers needing to enter a dangerous area simultaneously are required to secure the access lock with a multi-clasp from Castell's sister company, Iso-Lok.

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