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1.9 Safety of machinery, risk analysis and risk assessment
The declared objective is to construct and operate machinery is such a way that injuries and damage to health will not occur with proper use of the machinery. Accident statistics show that a hazard at a machine will cause harm or injury sooner or later if no protective measures are taken. Protective measures are a combination of the measures performed by the designer and the user. Measures that can already be implemented in the construction phase take priority over the measures performed by the user and are generally more effective than these.
The international standard, EN ISO 12100-1 "Safety of machinery – Basic concepts, general principles for design" provides detailed help with the identification of hazards, describes the risks that designers must take into consideration, contains principles for design and a method for safe construction and risk minimization. ISO 14121/EN 1050 "Safety of machinery – Principles of risk assessment" describes an iterative method for risk analysis, risk assessment and risk minimization to achieve the required machine safety. Existing machine-specific standards, such as type-C EN-standards, for example, must be considered with priority.
AIterative process for risk reduction in accordance with EN ISO 12100-1:
(Source: EN ISO 12100-1)
EN ISO 12100-1 recommends that the machine designer use the following step-by-step procedure for risk reduction:
Specification of the limits and proper use of the machine.
Identification of possible hazards and hazardous situations.
Estimation of the risk of each identified hazard and each hazardous situation and parallel consideration of the foreseeable malpractice or faulty operation by operating personnel.
Evaluation of each individual risk and decision on whether a risk reduction is required or not.
Attempts to remove or reduce the risk with constructive measures. If this does not work then:
Reduction of the risk with the use of protective devices (separating protective devices, such as hard guards or covers, or electro-sensitive protective equipment, such as Safety Light Curtains, for example).
Informing and warning machine operators about the remaining risks of the machine by using warning notes and plates on the machine and in the operating instructions.
The first four steps describe the risk analysis and risk assessment. ISO 14121 / EN 1050 contains detailed requirements for this. It is important that the risk analysis and risk assessment be carried out methodically and that it is comprehensibly documented. In addition to these protective measures selected by the machine designer/constructor, further protective measures may also be required by the machine operator or machine user to reduce the remaining risk.
This may be, for example:
Organizational measures (e.g. safe work processes, regular inspections, etc.)
