The Machinery Directive (MD) 2006/42/EC: The Crucial Role of Safety Considerations in Industrial Design and Machinery Compliance

Why safety first? Because safety consideration at the beginning of a project sets the direction for a future success in safety design.

Most industrial equipment used in manufacturing covers at least one machine or equipment powered by an energy source and having resulting hazards. All equipment under power has inherent risks associated with its operation. The machinery directive ISO EN 2006/42/EC an upper level directive outlines the basic requirements for meeting safety of machines.

Risks are inherent in all equipment and must be addressed at the design phase by some sort of mitigation for safety. Typical risks are isolation from energy sources, dangerous motion, radiation, hazardous materials etc. . Each hazard is mitigated by either a standard and/or risk analysis.

Safety is therefore most important in the design phase of machinery where concepts can be rejected, accepted or mitigated. Safety must take into consideration the life cycle of the equipment and all possible failures documented. When a critical component fails, how will your equipment react? Is safety maintained?

Many supporting standards are supplements to the EN 2006/42/EC. Typical general standards such as EN ISO 60204-1 General Electrical Machine Safety, EN ISO 12100-1 Risk Assessment Methods for Machinery, and ISO EN 13849-1 Functional Safety are always applicable to machinery and should be included in a technical dossier.

Localized North American standards also apply to all machinery and is localized and defined depending on the Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ). In Canada this includes the Canadian Electrical code CSA 22.1 and NFPA 70 in the US. SPE-1000 certifications may apply to your electrical equipment to ensure electrical compliance. Ontario Canada further requires all manufacturing facilities using machinery to have a Prestart Health and Safety Review (PHSR) before new equipment or modified equipment is turned over for production.

Ensure you equipment meets basic safety requirements and is engineered to properly mitigate risks with solid documentation and component selection. Design safety in all of your control systems ensure a qualified specialist with experience reviews your design. Choose Megalab for your product safety reviews.