item North America Promotes National Safety Month

    AKRON, OH, June 18, 2015 /24-7PressRelease/ -- With June being National Safety Month, item North America is reminding manufacturers of the importance of proper machine guarding and enclosures to protect employees from injury.

In a blog noting the top OSHA workplace violations, the Akron, Ohio, company highlighted the continued prominence of a lack of machine guarding as among the top workplace safety violations in 2014.

Machine guarding ranked #6 in OSHA's Top 10 Serious Violations with 2,204 violations, and #4 in the federal safety agency's Top 10 Willful Violations list with 34 violations.

First-time violators typically can be fined as much as $7,000 for each serious violation, and repeat violators can be fined as much as $70,000. Companies cited for willful violations can be fined up to $70,000 for each violation, and as much as $500,000 for violations that result in death.

OSHA defines a "Serious Violation" as one that results in death or serious bodily harm; employer knew/should have reasonably known about the hazard.

A "Willful Violation" is defined as one where an employer knows what he or she is doing is in violation with OSHA standards; he or she is aware of a hazardous condition and makes no reasonable effort to remedy the conditions.

"We feel it's important that companies understand how vital it is to install appropriate machine guarding in their facilities," said Richard A. Sabo, item Vice President of Sales & Marketing. "A relatively small investment can help prevent OSHA penalties as well as serious injuries and deaths."

item North America specializes in designing and assembling custom-engineered machine guarding, including custom machine enclosures, industrial safety guards and partitions, that meets safety regulations for manufacturing automation equipment and production facilities.

In addition to industrial machine guarding, item North America designs and builds other mechanical safety solutions, including walking/working surfaces; another Top 10 cited willful violation. One of item's newest product lines, the TPS Stairway and Platform System, enables the design of customized, elevated industrial stairs and work platforms. TPS can be utilized in several ways, including industrial and warehouse mezzanines, inspection areas around large and non-standard applications in factories, manufacturing facilities, automation cells or assembly operations. The Stairway and Platform System is modular and allows for sub-assemblies to be easily installed on location, with no downtime to workflows.

item's TPS system makes it easy to comply with safety standards, for maximum employee protection. Industrial stairs can be designed to OSHA-approved pitch inclines of 30, 38 and 45 degrees.

item North America's engineering team can provide design recommendations for the most efficient, cost-effective solution for any machine guarding, custom machine enclosure or industrial stairway and platform need.

Contact us to learn more about the company's safety guarding and work stairs and platform solutions or call toll-free (888) 729-4500 or (330) 945-4500.

ABOUT ITEM NORTH AMERICA: Founded in 1996 in Akron, Ohio, item North America was the first North American distributor of the German-made extruded aluminum profiles and components of item's Machine Building Kit System. item North America engineers specialize in creating dynamic applications, designing belt-driven linear actuators with travel from a few inches to over 100 feet. In addition to linear motion systems, item North America offers expertise in robust structures, sub-structures, machine bases, frames, material handling applications, workbenches, special application enclosures and machine safety hard guarding.

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