Machine Guarding Compliance Guide
OSHA's #10 most-cited standard.
Machine Guarding, General Requirements (29 CFR 1910.212) drew 1,239 citations in FY 2025. It is the smallest count on the Top 10 and among the most consequential, because the injury it prevents is amputation.
Shop machine guarding signage
What gets cited
- No guarding on machines with hazards from point of operation, ingoing nip points, rotating parts, flying chips, or sparks
- Guards that do not prevent the operator from having any part of the body in the danger zone during the operating cycle
- Guards removed for changeover or maintenance and not reinstalled
- Interlocks bypassed, defeated, or taped over
- Machines designed for a fixed location not securely anchored
- Point of operation guarding missing on the specific machines listed at 1910.212(a)(5)
Two reasons this escalates
Machine guarding is on OSHA's instance-by-instance citation list for high-gravity serious violations, so one inspection can produce a citation per machine rather than one for the condition.
It also sits inside OSHA's National Emphasis Program on Amputations, which directs programmed inspections at facilities with machinery likely to cause amputations. If you run presses, saws, shears, conveyors, or food processing equipment, you are inside a targeted enforcement program, not waiting for a random visit.
On inspection and training frequency
The standard does not prescribe a weekly guard inspection or annual training interval. Both are sensible practice and neither is what 1910.212 requires. What it requires is that guards be present, effective, and secured. Build a cadence that fits your equipment and document it, but do not assume a specific frequency is the legal test.
What a citation actually costs
| Violation type |
Minimum |
Maximum |
| Serious |
$1,085 |
$16,550 per violation |
| Repeat |
$4,256 |
$165,514 per violation |
| Willful |
$11,823 |
$165,514 per violation |
| Failure to abate |
n/a |
$16,550 per day beyond the abatement date |
Source: OSHA 2026 Annual Adjustments to Civil Penalties and 29 CFR 1910.212.
Free compliance checklist
Download the Machine Guarding Checklist (PDF)
Where signage fits
The failure mode here is a guard that comes off for a changeover and does not go back on. Signage on the guard itself, at the pinch point, and on the panel is what makes its absence obvious to the next person, rather than something only noticed after an injury.
Browse machine guarding signs or see all ten OSHA Top 10 guides.
