To page content

Chapter 2.1

Risk Asessment

Risk assessments and its documentation is often missing when companies are asked to present their conformity documents to a customer – or worse – the authorities. Many consider it a type of “secret art” or even a waste of time.

Why should you do a risk assessment?

There are at least three good reasons:

  1. In most industrialised countries it is required by law. In the EU, the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC and its successor the Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 require it.
  2. It is almost impossible to design machinery with a sufficient degree of safety without following a systematic approach.
  3. We all want to avoid learning the hard way through accidents which may cause injury to people and incur liability for the manufacturer

The key faults in risk assessment are the following:

  • It is done with a needlessly cumbersome approach.
  • It is done too late, when product design is more or less completed or the machine/ system already built.
Axelent Safety Book Why Risk Asessment

Step 1/2

Follow a targeted, uncomplicated approach

  1. Identify the relevant phases of life
    Identify the relevant stages of the task or product’s life (so called phases of life). From transport, installation, operation, maintenance and troubleshooting.
  2. Define operations and tasks
    An "operation" is an automatic process inside the
    machine. A "task" is an action taken by an operator.
    Typical operations and tasks in the operation phase
    for instance are: insert work piece (manually), start
    process, punch/mill/grind/weld automatically, remove finished part from machine.
  3. Identify hazards
    In each operation and task, outline the hazards. Punching automatically in a press for instance causes crushing/shearing and noise.
  4. Estimate risk
    Crushing in a press can cost a hand or arm. Large presses can kill a person. Since parts may need to be inserted often, the hazard occurs frequently. Since presses move fast, people can hardly escape the hazard. (To standardise risk estimation you should use a method from one of the international standards).
  5. Select a safety measure
  6. Check directives/standards
    Check how the measure is to be designed (measures must be state of the art according to laws and standards). This last step is the most difficult, as it involves researching standards (more about this see under “Researching standards”).
Task based risk assessment
Task-based risk assesment

Step 2/2

Do it with time to spare

Conduct the risk assessment in good time
Performing the risk assessment while the product is still “on paper" can help you detect hazards at an early stage. Although the very early design stages might be too soon, once you have a clear idea of how the machine will function and what moving parts are required, it's time to begin. The later you assess the risk, the more challenging, time-consuming and less effective it will be.

Starting early will also help you avoid two common consequences of faulty risk assessment:

  1. Costly, late design changes
  2. Unsafe machinery that leads to accidents, complaints by authorities or even legal prosecution.
Axelent Safety Book Hazard Out
To the top