RISK MANAGEMENT FOR MACHINERY - INTRODUCTION

Accidents involving machinery are still common and involve people using hand held tools to operators of large industrial processes. The new Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC (which replaced Directive 98/37/EC from 29 Dec 2009) refers to the need for a risk assessment in Annex I – the Essential Health & Safety Requirements as follows: “The manufacturer or his authorized representative must ensure that a risk assessment is carried out in order to determine the health and safety requirements which apply to the machinery. The machinery must then be designed and constructed taking into account the results of the risk assessment.”

The manufacturer is required to:

• Eliminate or reduce risks as far as possible – inherently safe design
• Take adequate protection measures
• Inform users of residual risks

In that order! A warning in a manual is seldom sufficient.

Note that the Directive calls for consideration not only of intended use but also of any reasonably foreseeable misuse. If such use causes risk then the design of the machine should prevent it.

Application and Changes to the New Machinery Directive

The new Machinery Directive must be applied to all machinery supplied after 29 December 2009. Changes have been made to the scope, e.g. it specifies precisely what electrical machinery can be assessed purely under the Low Voltage Directive. There a numerous detailed changes to the Essential Requirements in Annex I including:

• Fixed guards must retain their fixings when the guards are removed
• Control systems specifically refer to software and control system logic, and operation with guards removed.
• Translation of Instructions to be marked in the Instructions as “translations”.
• Reduction in levels of sound in criteria for measuring at workstations.

Relaxations have been made in the way that some Annex IV machinery can be self-assessed.

Revised harmonized standards have been issued to meet these essential requirements either wholly or in part. It is essential that the new Machinery Directive and the relevant harmonized standards are quoted in your Declarations of Conformity or Declarations of Incorporation.

Risk Assessment - principles of risk assessment are defined in the harmonized standard EN ISO 14121-1.

EN ISO 14971-1 PROCESS

Risk Assessment	Hazard Identification
	Risk Estimation
	Risk Evaluation
	Risk Control

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