Looking for backup on a recommendation for a commercial inspection completed last week. The faulty machine was a vertical load bailer, common in many commercial environments to compress paper products for recycling.
A typical device as I am describing is shown here, along with the ANSI and OSHA safety recommendations:
While the safety interlock at this hotel property worked properly on the compression stroke, opening the interlock while the ram was in the upstroke phase did not stop the cycling of the machine. This is a serious entrapment hazard as a person could be pinned between the ram and the top of the machine. Unfortunately the ANSI (Z245.5-1990) and OSHA standards do not specifically state this obvious hazard. I read a white paper about it some time ago but cannot locate the source now.