Food safety is of the utmost importance in the food industry. Contaminated food products can endanger the lives of customers and quickly destroy the reputation of processing plants and product brands. To avoid this, equipment in food industries needs to be maintained regularly.

Well-maintained equipment is one of the important parameters to ensure food safety. Dull blades can slip, worn out belts can snap, contaminate any food on the processing line and leave behind foreign particles that threaten the safety of large production volumes.

The scope of preventive maintenance includes equipment used for food handling, storage, processing, packaging, as well as any equipment not directly in the processing or packaging areas, such as air-handling units, HVAC, compressors, boilers, storage silos, temperature and humidity controls, and water backflow preventers.

The variety of equipment in need of regular maintenance requires food companies to have several trained and even specialised teams of employees that need to be equipped with the proper tools to safely service machinery.

Challenge

A large food processor needs to de-energise and secure all machine energy sources in order to service machinery safely. They require clear visual indicators to quickly identify which specialised team neutralised specific energy sources.

Solution

Brady proposes a complete Lockout/Tagout solution leading with unique and innovative SafeKey padlocks.

SafeKey padlocks are available in 9 colours with matching colour-coded keys. All employees involved in maintenance are given a colour coded lock or set of locks with a matching key, depending on their specialty or profession. With 100 000+ key and lock combinations, thanks to an innovative locking mechanism, Brady can make sure each SafeKey padlock and key are unique to increase Lockout/Tagout safety. All locks and key codes supplied are charted over time for no additional charge. Large master and grand master keyed sets are available so that team leaders can open any lock in their team, and a safety manager can open any lock in the plant or company.

We can also deliver specific lockout devices that can block every identified energy source in the off-position. These include highly practical Collapsible Gate Valve lockout covers, versatile Circuit Breaker lockouts, Group Lockout solutions and much more. Employees can easily secure these devices with one or more SafeKey padlocks to keep machines neutralised until maintenance is done.

Relevant employees can easily access approved Lockout/Tagout procedures on the Smart Lockout App from Brady. The app guides them through a series of steps for safe and efficient maintenance and step completion can be confirmed for reporting purposes. Brady’s Lockout/Tagout Engineers can write efficient, best-in-class procedures in the LINK360 Software so they can easily be approved, edited, scaled and communicated on the workfloor.

Brady’s Lockout/Tagout Engineers can also help the plant’s safety manager and operations manager to identify relevant energy sources. Energy sources can be identified with Brady’s specialised metal-detectable anti-contamination ToughWash labels.

Result

Relevant employees can now safely service machinery by securing a lockout device on a well identified energy source with their personal SafeKey padlock. Steps to complete machine lockout are easily accessible via tablets and smartphones. All teams use a specific SafeKey lock and key colour code so they can easily retrieve their locks and coworkers quickly recognise which teams are safely servicing machinery.