1. Risk Assessment and Risk Reduction

Devices that fall under the machinery directive mostly expose the user to hazards that result from mechanical movement of parts. Very prominent examples for such dangers are related to the use of robots in work surrounding. Such robots are programmed to move in certain ways, and they mostly will do so rigorously and fast that a worker standing in the way can get hurt. Due to this, the exposure to this risk is mostly limited by mechanical limitations like fences. Where workers need to interact with these robots, dangers can arise that can be limited by electronic means like safety light curtains that switch off the movement of the robot in case a worker enters the dangerous area in the wrong moment. Devices that Pepperl+Fuchs supplies for such applications mostly have no moving parts themselves but are part of safety loops where such a movement must be limited.

A main difference to the SIL standards world is that the machinery directive standards put more value to the risk assessment which is described more extensively. A machine/plant can pose a hazard to human, machine and the environment throughout its entire life cycle. The difficulty is to identify all hazards and not overlook any of them.

Risk assessment is an iterative process and must be applied to all hazards and risks until no or only minor residual risks (acceptable risk) remain. The risk assessment is created after the risk analysis and is described in more detail on our SIL pages.