Large Lathe Case Study

For this particular project, we sent a team of safety experts out of state to meet our customer in one of their various locations they have across the United States. Once there, our team worked on assessing their entire facility. Working closely with their management team and operators, Protech Systems helped design safety functions that created the best balance of safety and productivity.

(Below is a sample lathe without the guarding in place)

The only safety measures in place before the completion of this project were, chuck guards and a portable polycarbonate stand that the operator would stand behind when the lathe was in operation. The customer requested for perimeter guarding with interlocks, as well as an overhanging chip shield with interlocks. The customer also requested lead screw covers and task lights for all their lathes.

Once our safety experts returned, our knowledgeable engineering department began the design of a gantry system using the suggestions from the customer and the information that was brought back. This gantry system was to support the sliding doors/chip shields that would span the entire length of the lathe. Once the final drawings were approved, our experienced fabrication and welding department set out to work on building these systems with instruction and drawings from our engineering department. Since the system is completely interlocked, our UL certified shop technicians built controls that would be integrated with the interlocks on each machine. Once all the fabrication was completed we sent back a team of skilled field technicians to install all the gantry systems, perimeter fencing, screw covers and task lights on each of the customer’s lathes.