Lock out, tag out (LOTO) is a safety procedure used to ensure that dangerous equipment is properly shut off and not able to be started up again prior to the completion of maintenance or repair work. It requires that hazardous energy sources be “isolated and rendered inoperative” before work is started on the equipment in question. The isolated power sources are then locked and a tag is placed on the lock identifying the worker and reason the LOTO is placed on it. The worker then holds the key for the lock, ensuring that only they can remove the lock and start the equipment. This prevents accidental startup of equipment while it is in a hazardous state or while a worker is in direct contact with it.
Lockout–tagout is used across industries as a safe method of working on hazardous equipment and is mandated by law in some countries.
Procedure
Disconnecting or making safe the equipment involves the removal of all energy sources and is known as isolation. The steps necessary to isolate equipment are often documented in an isolation procedure or a lockout tagout procedure. The isolation procedure generally includes the following tasks:
- Announce shut off
- Identify the energy sources
- Isolate the energy sources
- Lock and tag the energy sources
- Prove that the equipment isolation is effective
The locking and tagging of the isolation point lets others know not to de-isolate the device. To emphasize the last step above in addition to the others, the entire process can be referred to as lock, tag, and try (that is, trying to turn on the isolated equipment to confirm it has been de-energized and cannot operate).
In the USA, the National Electric Code states that a safety/service disconnect must be installed within sight of serviceable equipment. The safety disconnect ensures the equipment can be isolated and there is less chance of someone turning the power back on if they can see the work going on. These safety disconnects usually have multiple places for locks so more than one person can work on equipment safely.
In industrial processes it can be difficult to establish where the appropriate danger sources might be. For example, a food processing plant may have input and output tanks and high-temperature cleaning systems connected, but not in the same room or area of the factory. It would not be unusual to have to visit several areas of the factory in order to effectively isolate a device for service (the device itself for power, upstream material feeders, downstream feeders and control room).
Safety equipment manufacturers provide a range of isolation devices specifically designed to fit various switches, valves and effectors. For example, most circuit breakers have a provision to have a small padlock attached to prevent their activation. For other devices such as ball or gate valves, plastic pieces which either fit against the pipe and prevent movement, or clamshell-style objects which completely surround the valve and prevent its manipulation are used.
A common feature of these devices is their bright color, usually red, to increase visibility and allow workers to readily see if a device is isolated. Also, the devices are usually of such a design and construction to prevent it being removed with any moderate force – for example, an isolation device does not have to resist a chainsaw, but if an operator forcibly removes it, it will be immediately visible that it has been tampered with.
To protect one or more circuit breakers in an electrical panel, a lockout–tagout device called the Panel Lockout can be used. It keeps the panel door locked and prevents the panel cover from being removed. The circuit breakers remain in the off position while electrical work is done.
Aria Sun
Marst Safety Equipment (Tianjin) Co., Ltd
ADD: No. 36, Fagang South Road, Shuanggang Town, Jinnan District, Tianjin,China(In the Tianjin Cao’s Bend Pipe Co.,Ltd Yard)
TEL：+86 189 207 35386 Email: aria@chinamarst.com
Post time: Jun-25-2023
