Maintenance
Work Health & Safety Regulation 2017, Clause 210 - Operational controls:
(1) The person with management or control of plant at a workplace must ensure that any operator’s controls are:
(d) able to be locked into the “off” position to enable the disconnection of all motive power. 1
Clause 213 Maintenance and inspection of plant 30
All wood-chippers require access to the cutting disc or drum for maintenance, operation, and cleaning purposes.
Opening the access hatch or cover can allow the operator to come in contact with the moving disc or drum and expose them to the risk of entanglement, cutting and being hit by ejected fragments of vegetation or cutting blades.
Before accessing the inside of a wood-chipper, the controls for the chipper should be isolated and tagged out and/or the key removed to prevent unintentional operation of the unit.
The removal of the key while maintenance is being done ensures the machine cannot be started while work is be carried out and can only be re-instated when the work is completed.
The cutting disc or drum should be maintained to the manufacturer’s specifications or the recommendations of a competent person. A mechanical means of preventing the disc or drum from rotating should be used while performing maintenance operations.31
The maintenance or repairs should be recorded for each wood-chipper machine in the business (or other PCBU)’s control.