Abstract

Although the Regulation respecting occupational health and safety requires that a machine be locked out before any maintenance, repair or unjamming work is done, a recent study by the IRSST showed that this raises major difficulties for companies. To ensure the application of the lockout procedures, companies should have means of verifying this. The researchers evaluated the feasibility of designing an observation and follow-up tool for lockout procedures and defined the requirements for its development. By using a plastic injection press located in the IRSST’s laboratory, they developed the preliminary version of an intelligent tool consisting of three electronic wireless communication cards. They then determined the limitations and difficulties involved in the development and application of this tool in an industrial environment.