Crusher Operation SWMS (Jaw / Cone / Impact)

Crusher operation across jaw, cone, and impact units in quarries, mines, and aggregate processing yards is one of the highest-risk powered mobile plant activities on any Australian extractive site. Operators routinely manage feed chutes capable of ingesting a person, discharge conveyors with multiple nip points, stored hydraulic and gravitational energy in oversize rocks, and persistent respirable crystalline silica exposure. WHS Regulation 2025 and the WHS (Mines and Petroleum Sites) Regulation NSW 2022 r.78 classify crushing plant as powered mobile plant requiring a documented Safe Work Method Statement before operation, blockage clearance, or maintenance. The work is also High Risk Construction Work under section 291 wherever entrapment, engulfment, or fall-from-height above two metres is foreseeable at the feed opening platform. A SWMS is mandatory because the combination of stored energy, dust, noise, and isolation complexity cannot be controlled by verbal instruction alone and must be consulted on, signed, and held at the workface.

Hazards identified

7 hazards covered, sorted by priority.

Control measures

Hierarchy-of-controls order: elimination → substitution → isolation → engineering → administrative → PPE.

1. 1Elimination — Remove oversize at the source via grizzly bars, scalping screens, or rock-breaker at the ROM stockpile so feed never exceeds the crusher's design gape.
2. 2Elimination — Prohibit all hand entry into the feed chamber under any condition; clearance is performed only via dump-valve discharge and extended prod-pole from outside the no-go zone.
3. 3Substitution — Replace dry crushing with wet suppression or foam injection at feed and transfer points to reduce respirable crystalline silica below the 0.05 mg/m³ workplace exposure standard.
4. 4Engineering — Install interlocked fixed guards on all conveyor nip points and crusher access doors compliant with AS 4024.1601, with positive-break interlocks that isolate drive on guard removal.
5. 5Engineering — Fit hydraulic dump-valve systems on cone crushers and remote-release wedges on jaws so bridged rock is released without personnel entering the exclusion zone.
6. 6Engineering — Provide local exhaust ventilation and water sprays at feed, discharge, and all transfer points, maintained on a documented schedule per the dust management plan.
7. 7Administrative — Implement a verified lockout-tagout procedure isolating electrical, hydraulic, and pneumatic energy with personal danger tags, try-test before entry, and supervisor permit-to-work for any chamber access.
8. 8Administrative — Establish and barricade a 5 m exclusion zone around the feed opening during operation; entry only after isolation, dissipation of stored energy, and confined space assessment if applicable.
9. 9Administrative — Conduct documented pre-start inspections covering guarding, e-stops, dust suppression, fire suppression, and tramp metal detection, signed by the operator each shift.
10. 10PPE — Issue P2 half-face respirators (or PAPR where silica exceeds half the exposure standard), Class 5 hearing protection, impact-rated eye protection, hi-vis, steel-cap boots, and cut-resistant gloves as the final barrier.

Applicable Codes of Practice

High-Risk Construction Work triggered

Worked example

At a regional hard-rock quarry, the day-shift crusher operator arrives for the 6 am pre-start brief with the supervisor and two maintenance fitters at the primary jaw crusher feed platform. The SWMS is opened on the toughbook mounted in the control room and walked through line by line. The crew identifies that overnight rain has caked fines around the discharge chute and a 600 mm boulder is visibly bridged above the jaws — both hazards mapped on the SWMS hazard register. The supervisor selects the engineering and administrative controls: full LOTO of the main isolator and hydraulic accumulator, dissipation of stored pressure, deployment of the prod-pole from outside the 5 m exclusion zone to break the bridge, and activation of the water spray ring before re-energising. All four workers sign the SWMS sign-on sheet, confirming P2 respirators, Class 5 earmuffs, and impact eyewear are fitted. Mid-shift, the operator notices the dust suppression pressure dropping below the gauge threshold listed in the SWMS pre-start checklist. Following the document's during-task review trigger, he stops the feed, raises a stop-work, and the SWMS is amended to require a plumbing repair before restart. The amendment is initialled, re-briefed, and re-signed before production resumes — exactly the iterative consultation cycle required under WHS Regulation 2025.

Related legislation

• WHS Act 2011 (model)
• WHS Regulation 2025
• AS 2550 — Cranes, hoists and winches; AS 1418 series

Frequently asked questions