From a worker's standpoint, a guard refers to any shield, cover, casing, or physical barrier strategically positioned to prevent contact between a machine part and an individual or their clothing.

The purpose of guarding is to enhance the personal safety of operators and others involved in the routine operation, servicing, and maintenance of machines. As operators engage with these machines, there's a likelihood of reaching over, under, around, or through the machinery. In such instances, it is imperative that potential hazards are equipped with suitable guarding.

Guidance on the guarding of agricultural tractors and machinery can be found in AS/NZS 2153.1:1997 Tractors and machinery for agriculture and forestry, as well as in the Rural Plant Code of Practice 2004 (PDF, 0.63 MB). These resources provide valuable advice for maintaining the appropriate guarding measures in the agricultural sector.

Hazardous parts likely to cause injury

• Any rotating shafting (including joints, coupling, shaft ends and crank shafts), gearing (including friction roller mechanism), cable, sprocket, chain, clutch, coupling, cam or fan blade.
• The run-on point of any belt, chain or cable. Belts themselves are not considered hazardous, provided that their joints are smooth and without hazardous projections or jointing.
• Keyways, keys, grease nipples, set-screws, bolts or any other projections on rotating parts. Any pulley or flywheel that incorporates any openings, spokes or protrusions that render it anything other than totally smooth.
• Any crushing or shearing points e.g. augers and slide blocks, roller feeds, conveyor feeds.
• Ground wheels and track gear that incorporates any openings, spokes or protrusions which are adjacent to an operator's position (standing platform, seat, footrest) or passenger's seat.
• Rotating knives, blades, tines or similar parts of power-driven machines which operate in or near the ground or engage crops.
• Any machine component which cuts, grinds, pulps, crushes, breaks or pulverises farm produce.
• Hot parts of any machine where the surface temperature exceeds 120°C in normal operation.

Reducing the risks

As a general rule, guards should:

• be designed in a practical way to protect the user, but allowing easy access
• be in place on dangerous parts of machinery unless they are, by any reasonable definition, located out of reach of users, operators or bystanders
• be conveniently placed so that users, operators and service and maintenance people are less likely to remove them permanently
• be strong and durable enough to suit the machine and its intended use
• protect users, operators and bystanders against dangers caused by ejected material and burns caused by hot parts
• be ventilated where applicable to avoid the machine overheating
• not be removed before the machine is stopped, isolated and all sources neutralised, e.g. pressure in the hydraulic, LP gas lines.

Children and machinery

• Make sure guards are on machines, especially when children are in the vicinity.
• Accidents on farms are preventable - little fingers can reach into places you may not realise possible.
• Guarding increases personal safety. Reduce or eliminate risk by:
  • redesigning work processes
  • using correctly designed and properly fitted equipment
  • replacing machinery, material or processes with less hazardous ones.