The European Work Equipment Directive places stringent responsibilities on the users of work equipment to ensure that it is suitable for the intended work and is in fact safe. One of the responsibilities is to ensure that equipment conforms to all relevant legislation and puts the onus on the end user to check that the equipment does in fact comply.
An example of this can be seen in a guidance booklet entitled “Buying New Machinery”, produced by the UK’s Health and Safety Executive. It states:
“Is CE marking a guarantee of safety?”. The answer is unequivocal. “No, the manufacturer is claiming that the machinery complies with the law. You still need to check that the machine is safe before it is used.” “Never assume that machinery is safe just because it has the CE marking.”
To ensure compliance with European Work Equipment Directive, the end user and machine buyer will often require an audit to be carried out as part of the buying process to ensure that the machine they are buying has been correctly CE Marked. This audit can add significantly to the buying process timescale, particularly if the audit highlights any potential non-compliance.
Laicon Inc can now offer a proactive CE Audit for the machine builder, giving an independent assessment of their CE Marking. Any potential problems will be highlighted before the customer gets involved, speeding up the purchasing process. Laicon will provide a report against the relevant CE Marking requirements which can be emailed or downloaded from a website.
- The assessment will cover all aspects of the machine including:
- Documentation, manuals etc.
- Drawings, electrical pneumatic, hydraulic etc.
- Electrical wiring and termination checks
- Hardware checks
- Utilities
- Environmental checks
- Control Systems
- Software
- Calibration, machine parameters
- Safety CE, PUWER as applicable
- Safety related control systems, interlocks etc.
- Safety, manual handling, COSHH etc.
- Safety, hazards etc.
- Ergonomic Assessments
- Maintenance and cleaning procedures
- Training requirements
This is an indicative list, but shows the depth of the audit to be carried out.