Risk Management for Machinery

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 Machinery Directive 98/37/EC refers to the need for a risk assessment in Annex I – the Essential Health & Safety Requirements as follows
“The manufacturer is under an obligation to assess the hazards in order to identify all of those which apply to his machine; he must then design and construct it taking account of his 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.

EN 1050 :1996 - principles of risk assessment is currently the Harmonised European Standard which specifies the risk assessment procedure to be taken. Annex A to EN 1050 provides useful examples of hazards to be taken into account.

Definitions used in Risk Assessment
Refer to EN 1050 for full and complete definitions

Harm	Physical injury and/or damage to the health or property
Hazard	Source of possible injury or damage to health
Hazardous Event	Event that can cause harm
Risk	Combination of the probability and the degree of harm P*S
Risk Assessment	A comprehensive estimation of the risk in order to select appropriate safety measures
Risk Evaluation	Judgement, on the basis of the risk analysis, of whether a risk is acceptable.
Risk Control	Process for implementing measures to reduce and maintain risks within specified levels.
Safety Measure	Means that eliminates a hazard or reduces a risk

THE EN 1050 PROCESS

Risk
Assessment

Limits of Machine

Hazard Identification

Risk Estimation

Risk Evaluation

Note that Risk Reduction is NOT part of the EN 1050 Risk Assessment Process but is required to achieve safety.

For further information and free advice please complete our form

tel: +44 (0) 1380 848170 fax: +44 (0) 1380 840152 david.baker@riskman.info