PHW
PHW · Workshop

Abrasive wheels

Garages, fabrication shops, stone fabricators and any workshop cutting or grinding with an abrasive wheel.

Scope

Use and mounting

This page covers the assessed practical: training and assessment to mount and use an abrasive wheel. For the written H&S document pack that supports abrasive wheel work, see the document pack.

What is assessed

Theory and practical assessment, carried out on the employer's own machine, on their site.

  1. Health, Safety and Security at Work
  2. Abrasive Wheel Types, Marking and Selection
  3. Storage, Handling and Inspection of Abrasive Wheels
  4. Mounting Wheels: Flanges, Blotters, Ring Test and Speed Checks
  5. Guarding, Work Rest and Tongue Guard Adjustment
  6. Safe Use, Body Position and Control of the Machine
  7. Dust, Noise, Vibration and Personal Protective Equipment

What the operator and the employer receive

  1. Award certificate
  2. Unit credit certificate, covering the units listed above
  3. Theory test record
  4. Practical assessment record
  5. Site evidence statement for site management
  6. Live verification page
  7. QR code on the certificate, resolving straight to that page

See the sample operator pack →

The legal position

Training to mount an abrasive wheel is a specific legal requirement, not something a site chooses to add.

The Abrasive Wheels Regulations 1970 were revoked, and their requirements were absorbed into PUWER 1998; regulation 9, read with its Approved Code of Practice and HSE guidance HSG17, means a wheel may only be mounted by a person trained and competent to do so.

Cutting and grinding also engage COSHH 2002 for respirable crystalline silica, the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005, and the Control of Vibration at Work Regulations 2005 for hand-arm vibration from the tool.

Employer duty

The employer still authorises each operator in writing under PUWER 1998 regulation 9; the certificate, unit credit, records and site evidence statement are the evidence the employer relies on for that decision, not a substitute for it.

Read the full legal position →