Safety of machinery

Contact: Rita Schlüter (schlueter@kan.de)

European standardization in the field of machine safety serves primarily to supplement the safety and health protection requirements of the EC Machinery Di-rective. KAN has carried out several analyses on this subject and has put forward recommendations concerning fundamental or specific safety aspects of European machine safety standardization.

In the field of machine safety, KAN's current activities include the following:

Instruction handbooks

Contact: Corado Mattiuzzo (mattiuzzo@kan.de)

Instruction handbooks are documents supplied with products; they have a sig-nificant function in a number of New Approach directives. Annex I of the Machin-ery Directive, for example, contains requirements for the information which must be included within instruction handbooks. A short guide, which was not restricted to the area of machinery, was drawn up by KAN in conjunction with DIN. The purpose of this guide is to show the committees how a standard should deal properly with residual risks which cannot be avoided by technical means.

For further information on the subject, see:

Emissions

Contact: Bettina Palka (palka@kan.de)

With regard to their treatment of hazards arising from emissions from machinery - noise, vibration, hazardous substances and radiation - the existing dedicated product standards do not satisfactorily meet the essential requirements govern-ing safety and health stipulated in the Machinery Directive.

In the light of these results, KAN and the French OH&S community have devel-oped a position concerning the need for quantification of emissions from machin-ery. Based upon this position, the task is now one of promoting further progress in the standardization of measurement methods and states of operation, the quantification of emissions as a measure of the state of the art, and the collec-tion of emissions data.

For further information on the subject, see:

Hazards caused by machinery vibrations

Contact: Bettina Palka (palka@kan.de)

The Machinery Directive requires machine manufacturers to reduce vibrations to the lowest possible level and to include information in the instruction handbook for the user of the machine concerning the residual risk caused by vibration. Standardization can support this directive requirement by standardizing technical measures for vibration reduction and test methods for vibration measurement. However, there are shortcomings, e.g. in the essential vibration standards and in the use of "guide values" in specific machinery safety standards to describe the state of the art with regard to vibration reduction.

For further information on the subject, see:

Hazards caused by machinery noise

Contact: Bettina Palka (palka@kan.de)

The Machinery Directive requires machine manufacturers to reduce noise to the lowest possible level and to include information in the instruction handbook for the user of the machine concerning the residual risk caused by noise. Standardi-zation can support this directive requirement by standardizing technical meas-ures for noise reduction and test methods for noise measurement. There are shortcomings, e.g. in the use of, for example, "guide values" in specific machin-ery safety standards to describe the state of the art with regard to noise reduc-tion.

For further information on the subject, see:

Agricultural machinery

Contact: Rita Schlüter (schlueter@kan.de)

In the past, opinions have frequently differed concerning the safety requirements applicable to agricultural machinery. On the one hand, calls have been made for the essential requirements contained in Annex I of the Machinery Directive to be applied directly. On the other, it has been pointed out that these provisions should be applied only on the basis of a risk assessment in consideration of the particular conditions prevailing in the agricultural sector, and with reference to the state of the art. KAN has commissioned a study into the safety of agricultural machinery, with the aim of describing the state of standardization in this area. European and international standards were analysed with regard to the extent to which they adequately support the requirements of the Machinery Directive.

Further information:

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