Feature Packaging Ensuring safety of packaging machinery
Paul Laidler, business director for Machinery Safety at TÜV SÜD Product Service, offers some advice to packaging machine builders and suppliers to ensure compliance with machine safety regulations
Left: when looking at packaging machines, an important addition is being made to the EN 415 series of standards, which covers the ‘Safety of Packaging
Machines’, and this is intended to simplify the process of CE
Marking in line with the Machinery Directive for many types of machine
confirm equipment carries this marking before purchasing.
M
any end users of machinery believe that their supplier is responsible for ensuring safety. However, the guide to buying new machinery (INDG271), published by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE), states CE marking alone is not a guaran- tee of safety, and that even if, ‘the manu- facturer is claiming that the machinery complies with the law, you [the end user] still need to check the machine is safe before it is used’.
Of course, end users should be able to rely on their supplier complying with all the relevant safety legislation. While the manufacturer is responsible for veri- fying whether a particular product falls within the scope of the Machinery Directive, and other applicable direc- tives, a plea of ignorance from the end user is unacceptable. Failing to comply with both the Machinery Directive and Provision & Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER), whether know- ingly or unknowingly, could have seri- ous and far reaching consequences for both employers and their employees. HSE figures show that, in the UK in 2010/11, while manufacturing jobs rep- resented about ten percent of the British workforce, the industry accounted for 21% of fatalities and 15% of reported injuries. During this period there were 27 fatal injuries to workers in manufacturing, with 17,599
20
reported non-fatal injuries and an esti- mated 27,000 self reported injuries. The figures also show that 11% of these reported injuries involved contact with moving machinery.
Industry statistics also reveal how important it is not to rely on suppliers, and to ensure yourself that machinery is safe. The HSE Register of Convictions shows 62% of breaches under PUWER have been committed under Regulation 11 - Dangerous Parts of Machinery.
Increasing safe
The Machinery Directive has been a legal requirement since January 1995. In order to reduce the number of injuries, any machinery supplied in the EU must comply with the Machinery Directive. This provides harmonisation of the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) in all EU coun- tries and applies to products that are intended to be placed on the market or put into service for the first time. The letters ‘CE’ on a machine is the manufacturer’s claim that the machine meets the EHSRs of the Machinery Directive. Any machinery offered for sale in the EU is required to carry the CE marking to demonstrate compliance with the Machinery Directive and all other applicable directives. So, it is important that end users of machinery
Specifically when looking at pack- aging machines, an important addition is being made to the EN 415 series of standards, which covers the ‘Safety of Packaging Machines’, and this is intended to simplify the process of CE Marking in line with the Machinery Directive for many types of machine. The European standards bodies devised a system of ordering which can be applied in every situation. The most basic standards, known as ‘Type A’, set out requirements for the safety of machines only in the most general terms, while ‘Type B’ deals with more specific issues, such as the prevention of unexpected start-up. Type ‘C' standards deal with specific types of machine, and for packing machines the EN 415 series of standards already includes C-type standards for some common types of machine, such as wrapping, strapping or form, fill and seal machines, but there are many other types that are not specifically covered. These include, among others, coding machines and inspection machines. However, unless a machine specific C-type standard exists for the machine under consideration, reference has to be made to all of the relevant individ- ual standards, which could be a com- plicated, expensive and time consuming process.
Solution To help remedy this situation, EN 415- 10 General Requirements has been developed to complement the existing nine parts of EN 415 and publication is imminent. This has the effect of a C- type standard that applies to ‘packag- ing machines for use in work places which are listed in EN 415-1 but are not the subject of one of the specific C- type standards of EN 415’.
Therefore, packaging machine builders and suppliers will, in most cases, no longer have to work with a long list of individual standards for their products to meet the requirements for CE marking, but will instead be able to refer to this new part of EN 415. By simplifying the process, end users of machinery should feel more confi- dent that their supplier’s self declara- tion of compliance with the required standards is accurate and that their employees will remain safe while using such machinery in the workplace.
TÜV SÜD Product Service
www.tuv-sud.co.uk T: 01489 558 100
Enter 207 MAY 2013 Automation
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52