Welcome to the Machinery Safety Alliance

News & Updates

Making sense of safety, safeguarding productivity

We are a unique collective in the UK, each member contributing specialised knowledge from its field of technology and expertise, to provide you with an all-encompassing and impartial view of machine safety.

This year our seminars will contain presentations from the Machinery Safety Alliance members, and Steve Shaw (Principal Specialist Inspector) of the UK Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

2013 dates & venues for "Making Sense of Safety" seminars:

YORK - National Railway Museum - 19/03/13 - done

SWINDON - Museum of Great Western Railway - 11/06/13 - done

MANCHESTER - Museum of Science & Industry - 11/09/13 - taking bookings

LEICESTER - National Space Centre - 15/10/13 - taking bookings

Click on the links above to check seminar content & availability, and to book.

Fee includes delegate pack, free venue parking, food & drink, and free access to the venue exhibition.

CLICK HERE TO SEE FEEDBACK FROM SWINDON 11/06/2013 SEMINAR

...USEFUL LINKS...

> HSE guidance on work equipment and machinery

Directive / Regulation for supply of safe machines:

> Machinery Directive, 2006/42/EC: sets out essential health and safety requirements (EHSRs), routes to CE-marking, machine categories etc affecting persons placing machines on the European market on their own behalf

> Guide to the application of the Machinery Directive

> The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regs affecting those building and placing machines on the market in the UK (UK National Law implementing the essential health and safety requirements of the of the Machinery Directive)

Directive / Regulation for safe use of machines:

> Use of Work Equipment Directive, 2009/104/EEC: employers shall take the necessary measures to ensure that work equipment made available to workers is suitable for the work, without impairment to their safety or health

> PUWER 98 (Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regs) affecting end users (UK National Law implementation of the Amended Use of Work Equipment Directive)

Standards:

Standards, unlike Directives, are not mandatory - however - use of standards which are harmonised to the Directives provides "presumption of conformity".

Complete list of Harmonised Standards is found on the Official Journal

European Standards harmonised to the Machinery Directive such as

> EN ISO 12100:2010 for risk assessment / reduction

> EN ISO 13849-1 / EN 62061 for safety related controls
> EN ISO 13855 & EN ISO 13857 safe distances

>Various C-standards for specific machines e.g. EN 415 packaging machines

17.06.2013
Swindon STEAM event - safely on track!
Our Swindon "Making sense of safety" seminar was fully attended by 50 people from a mix of machine builders and machine users, from a cross section of industries - paper making, water purification, heat treatment, can making, cardboard manufacturing, metal recycling, cider production, packaging machines, metal surface treatment and nuclear research!

15.01.2013
Machinery Safety Training is a wise investment
Employees with responsibility for machinery safety - often multi-tasking - are increasingly expected not only to have, but also to prove, competence.

11.09.2012
A unified, sub-systematic approach to safe machine control
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so the saying goes. It is true in safety related machine controls, where the weakest link is the "subsystem", below which sit various types of device. A structure for such device types may help the planned merger of the current machine safety control standards, EN ISO 13849-1 and EN 62061.

05.07.2012
HSE’s £124 per hour cost recovery scheme to start in October
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has confirmed that its cost recovery scheme, Fee for Intervention (FFI), will start on 1 October 2012 subject to Parliamentary approval. The scheme was due to start in April but it is not clear why the date was moved to October and been delayed.

03.07.2012
Manchester Seminar a Success
On the 27th June the Machinery Safety Alliance ran its second seminar to an audience of over 30 delegates at Manchester Concorde Conference Centre - the seminar included a 40 minute tour underneath and inside the second Concorde produced. Read below for some of the feedback from the delegates.