Rockford Systems donates equipment, training to Slippery Rock University’s safety management program

Rockford Systems LLC, Rockford, Ill., has announced a pledge to provide the safety management program at Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pa., with classroom training in machine safeguarding, course content development, and safeguarded metalworking equipment as an in-kind gift over the next five years.

Since its inception in 1982, the safety management program at Slippery Rock University has graduated more than 2,200 students. Currently, about 410 students are enrolled in the program.

As part of its pledge, Rockford Systems has donated a mechanical press fully safeguarded with an SSC-1500 press control, custom-engineered guards, and a presence-sensing light curtain system that reduces or eliminates exposure to hazards at the press's point of operation. The company also contributed a vertical mill with interlocked safety shields, motor controls, and enhanced emergency stops.

Along with providing complete installation, the company will conduct annual safety compliance validation and stop-time measurement services on the two machines for five years, keeping with OSHA requirements.

The company also will be conducting safeguarding seminars each semester at the university, instructing students on interpreting OSHA, ANSI, and NFPA requirements related to machinery and production requirements.