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ProcediaProcedia
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Engineering 26 000–000
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First International Sympos ium on Mine Safety Science and Engineering

Application of Lockout & Tagout System in the Coalmine

Industry
ZHANG Hong-jiea,b, LIU Zhen-tangc a*
a
College of Resources and Environmental Engineering, Wuhan University of Science and Technology,Wuhan 430081,China
b
Hubei Key Laboratory for Efficient Utilization and Agglomeration of Metallurgic Mineral Resources Wuhan 430081,China
c
School of Safety Engineering, China University of Mining & Technology, Xuzhou 221008, China

Abstract

In order to change the present of safety management, the safety issues are analysed in this article ,which are caused
by the unexpected release of energy when producing and maintaining in coal mine industry. The importance of
Lockout & Tagout (LOTO) system for safety management of coal mine industry was also expatiated. And then the
process of LOTO System is introduced, the requirements and methods of LOTO System operated in coal mine are
raised. It has important significance in reinforcing the safety management, enhancing safety production persistent
effect mechanism construction and realizing safety production in coal mine.

© 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.

Select ion and/or peer-review under responsibility of China Academy of Safety Science and Technology,
China Un iversity of M ining and Technology(Beijing), McGill University and University of Wollongong.

Keywords: Lockout & Tagout (LOTO); safety production in coal mine industry; zero-injury

1. Introduction

Lockout & Tagout (LOTO) [1-4] is a method of keep ing equipment fro m being set in motion and
endangering workers. On September 1st, 1989, OSHA issued a final ru le on the Control of Hazardous
Energy (Lockout & Tagout) in Vo lu me 29 of the Code of Federal Regulat ions (29 CFR), Sect ion
1910.147. This standard, which went into effect on January 2, 1990, helps safeguard employees fro m
hazardous energy while they are performing servicing or maintenancing on machines and equipments by

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +86-158-027-98067; fax: +86-027-688-62876.

E-mail address: zhanghongjie304@126.com.

1877-7058 © 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2011.11.2406
22066 ZHANG Hong-jie
ZHANG andetLIU
Hong-jie al./ Zhen-tang / Procedia Engineering
Procedia Engineering 26 (2011) 2065 – 2069
00 (2011) 000–000

identifying the practices and procedures necessary to shutdown and lockout or tagout machines and
equipments.
Coal mine production belongs to high dangerous industry, and has power, ventilation, drainage,
pressure gas, lift ing and transport systems which have great energy and are driven by air pressure,
hydraumatic and electricity. And the injury, death and loss may happen when the energy is released
unexpectedly because of wrong operation.
So, in coal mine industry, it is necessary to have LOTO system to reinforce the control of maintain
process, prevent the energy from unexpected release . The aim of LOTO system is to instruct the coal
mine co mpany to establish management model for maintain ing or servicing, prevent accident , keep the
safety situation stable, and get zero-injury goal finally.

2. LOTO system

2.1. Definition and scope of LOTO

LOTO refers to specific pract ices and procedures to safeguard employees fro m unexpected startup of
mach inery and equip ment, or the release of hazardous energy during setup, service or maintenance
activities. To lock out equip ment, a lock is placed on the energy source, control, or isolating device.
The LOTO system applies to the maintenance and commissioning in industry, such as the maintenance
for power distribution system, maintenance for equip ment. It can be used in d ifferent kinds of industry,
such as manufacture, chemical and coal mine.

2.2. LOTO equipment

Types of isolation devices include Personal locks (red), Equip ment locks, Group locks (Green),
Identificat ion Tags, Multi-lock Devices, Isolators, Group Isolation Board and Locking devices.
Personal locks protect people when they are working on isolated equipment.
Equip ment locks are used to secure isolators in the safe (isolation) position, to prevent the accidental or
inadvertent movement of the isolator.
Group locks are used by Isolation Coordinators and attached to Group Isolation Boards to lock the
board in the active position and to secure all Equip ment Lock keys used in a Group Isolation into the
lockable compart ment of the board.
Identificat ion tags are purple and white in co lour and are used to identify unlabelled locks.
Multi-locks is a device that is used to attach more than one lock to an isolator, when a mu lti-lock is
used an equipment lock attached.
Isolator is a device which positively separates or blocks the energy sources to equipment, the device is
not capable of remote operation whist in the isolation position.
Group Isolation Board is used exclusively for Group Isolation and considered identical to an isolator
when used with these regulations.
Locking device is a pro minent warning device, such as a tag and a means of attachment, wh ich can be
securely fastened to an energy isolating device in accordance with an established procedure, to indicate
that the energy isolating device and the equipment controlled may not be operated until the tagout device
is removed.

2.3. Control process

2.3.1 Define when a lockout needs to occur

 ZHANG ZHANG
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It’s important that there is a clear distinction between normal production operations and instances when
a lockout is needed.
2.3.2 Identify all potential energy sources
A simp le d isconnect of the main power switche is not sufficient, as other types of energy may exist,
such as hydraulic, electric, thermal, rad ioactive, pneumatic, gravity, and chemical energy. It’s also
important to drain, release, or b lock any stored energy.
2.3.3 Procedure preparation
The procedure documents the individual items of equipment to be isolated. The isolation planner
should inspect the work site to determine which plant and equipment requires isolation and the boundary
of isolation and hazards.
2.3.4 Train emp loyees
To provide technical train ing to employees who are authorized to apply locks and tags to equipment
and awareness training to those who are affected by the equip ment such as machine operators, workers in
close proximity, and management contacts.
2.3.5 Isolation steps
Inform all mach ine operators of the lockout.
Locate energy isolating devices correctly.
Attach locks along with a warning tag indicating the date, purpose, length of the lockout and who
installed the lock.
Use uniquely key locks that come with only one key to ensure that employees cannot remove each
others’ locks.
After the lockout procedures having been performed, test the operation of the machinery to ensure that
all energy sources have been secured.
Fin ish the work.
Remove the indiv idual lock.
Remove all other lock-out equipments.
Inform all operators that the LOTO has been finished. Figure 1 shows the control processes of LOTO.

Define when a lockout Identify all potential energy Procedure preparation

needs to occur sources

Finish Isolation Implementation Train employ ees

Fig. 1. Control process of LOTO

42068 ZHANG Hong-jie
ZHANG andetLIU
Hong-jie al./ Zhen-tang / Procedia Engineering
Procedia Engineering 26 (2011) 2065 – 2069
00 (2011) 000–000

3. The safety issues caused by equi pment mai ntaining in coal mine industry

Equip ment safety is very important for the production in coal mine industry. Meanwhile, the
maintaining management is difficult because of the complex production environment in coal mine.So, it is
a hard task to reinforce the management of equip ment maintaining and prevent accidents.
The reasons of accident:

3.1. Safety budget is not enough, the technology of equipment is bad

The technology of equipment in whole coal mine industry is bad because of the defect of technology
level, technics design, raw material, the manufacture and test method, and the defect of capability of
related industry, such as material, electron, hydraulic pressure and mechanism fittings [5]. Now, most of
coal mines are transforming fro m mechanism to robotizat ion, but many equipments were damaged
because of wrong operation.

3.2. Professional is lacking, the employee is not competent

People plays an important ro le in production, and unsafe behavior of people is one of the main reasons
of accidents. According to the accident statistics, 80% of accidents are caused by the unsafe behavior of
people. 60%-70% of whole emp loyees are temporary in coal mine industry [6-7]. And the mechanism and
electricity professional are lack in 96% of coal mine companies. So, many maintain emp loyees are not
competent. Meanwhile, the work environ ment is bad and the geology is complex in coal mine, so, the
accident is easy to happen when the workers are maintain ing equipment in such situation.

3.3. Defect o f management procedure for equipments

There are not practical operation safety standards, the management procedures are defect ive, and the
critical is not clear, these factors make the equip ments management harder [8]. Meanwh ile, some
monitors are not responsible, the coordination is not enough, and the co mmunication among managers,
operators, isolators and electricity engineer is not enough, so, it makes the maintain accidents are easy to
happen.

4. Application of LOTO system in the coal mine industry

Shock Accident in coal mine(Accident description):

June 15, 1981, in a coal mine, a electrician was going to replace the transformer for the transferring
pipe , He opened the switch and tested, and he confirmed that the transformer was not electriferous. So, he
began to work on it, one coal mine worker found that the power wasn’t supplied on site, so he went to the
power distribution station and turn on the power switch, the electrician was shocked and dead.
It is a typical accident caused by the unexpected release of power, so, we can use the LOTO system to
control the maintain process, following are the steps:
Prepare a LOTO procedure, the procedure includes:
• The switch in power distribution station must be isolated.
• Isolation equipment is provided.
• The electrician is responsible to isolate the switch in power d istribution station.
Train ing: the electrician should be trained according to the procedure.
LOTO steps:
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Hong-jieHong-jie
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Zhen-tang / Procedia
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Engineering 26 (2011)
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• Inform the related person that a LOTO will be going

• Turn off the switch in the power distribution station
• Isolate the switch with a isolation equipment
• Lock the isolator with equip ment lock and individual lock
• Attach a tag along with lock
• Test the transformer wh ich needs to be replace to check that the transformer is not electriferous
• Replace the transformer
• Remove the indiv idual lock
• Remove the equipment lock and tag
• Turn on the switch
• Inform all the related people that the LOTO is fin ished
As the below process shows, no one can turn on the switch in the power distribution station because the
switch is locked, it can ensure that the worker is safe when he is working on the transformer.

5. Conclusion

In this paper, a feasible approach is provided to how a zero-in jury culture in the coal mine industry can
be cultivated by adopting LOTO system. Firstly, the definition, scope and control process of LOTO
system were expat iated, the main problems existing in the process of mechanical and electrical equip ment
repairing in coal mine were analyzed. Secondly, an examp le was provided to indicate that how to apply
LOTO system in the coalmine industry. It is clearly that standardized and effective operation of LOTO
system will reinforce occupational safety management, enhance the establishment of persistent effect
safety management mechanism.

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