Machines and systems are more and more often subject to modification, revamping and rebuilding work that involves several actors in various roles: the employer, manufacturers of machines and partly completed machinery, end users, automation suppliers, installers and company maintenance technicians. The complexity of the work requires high-level professional expertise and know-how on the part of all the persons involved, such as to guarantee the achievement of three main objectives: machine safety, quality and efficiency. The respective responsibilities of the manufacturer and the employer for the design and manufacturing of the safety devices must be clear and distinct right from the beginning of the project. Safety must be obtained by correctly managing the responsibilities of the various subjects involved.
Personalized audits, safety certifications and technical assistance for paper companies
This must be done clearly and in advance, by defining the supply contracts with extreme care. An appropriate risk assessment must be carried out during the initial design stage and consequently the implementation of all the required safety measures must be defined. Then, all the documentation needed to demonstrate machine and/or system conformity with current workplace health and safety regulations must be prepared.
But what are the references to be adopted for safety purposes? The machines to be altered may be “old”, with or without the EC marking, conforming or not conforming to current safety standards. A complex machine composed of several machines and/or partly completed machinery can create quite a few difficulties during the upgrading process. Application of European Directives entails that the employer improve the safety measures of the machine in use. It is possible that a machine, by virtue of its “years of use”, has a safety level equal to that originally provided for by the original manufacturer or it may have been adapted as much as possible based on the technical evolution of safety standards.
When assessing plant machinery, an employer will never question machine design, but will assess the “evident” risks, which is to say the risks that a good technician who is not particularly specialized in technical standards and regulations for machines – but nonetheless absolutely competent as for machine operation and use – can detect by inspecting the equipment, the place of installation, and the use that is made of the machine itself. On the contrary, whoever designs and creates an alteration must have the competence required to evaluate not only evident risks, but also occult risks, because the alteration must necessarily be executed in greater compliance with the state of the art. Whoever designs and creates the alteration on an existing machine must also be capable of evaluating the suitability of the project, guaranteeing the correct supply of all required documents to attest the work carried out: “One cannot ever expect that an existing machine reach the safety levels of new machines; nonetheless, that is the objective to be aimed at, as it is unacceptable that an alteration reduce the safety level of any machine, introducing new risks that have not been evaluated or have been underestimated”.
Therefore altering, revamping and rebuilding require competencies that allow for an evaluation of the extent to which the work in question impacts the original design parameters of a given machine. The evaluation is carried out by making suggestions and assisting the client in comparing possible alternatives, feasibility, validity, choosing the best solution, organizing and managing the supplies and activities on the field. It is also necessary to know how to assess all the aspects that regard worker safety and environmental safeguarding right from the start, defining structured procedures to file the modification, assess the respective risks and required safety measures, define supply responsibilities and provide all the necessary documents to certify the adopted solutions in observance with current legislation.
Perimeter safety guards for the hydraulic unit.
