Legislation continually changes and new standards are published with alarming regularity. It is possible that some equipment that complied last year could be described as no longer compliant. We need to determine your company’s viewpoint of ‘compliant’ and ‘safe’ as they are not mutually dependent and there is no infinite pot of capital.

To illustrate the issue, many component suppliers and consultants may have mentioned that the safety-related control circuit standards have changed and so should you, but is this really the case? In 1997 the EN954-1 standard was harmonised. In 1998 the Approved Code of Practice (ACOPS) for PUWER published guidance in Regulation 18 stating specifically EN 954-1:1997 for presumption of compliance. Let’s assume that the machinery on your entire site(s) complies with this standard for your E-stops and interlocks, etc. In January 2012, EN954-1 was repealed and replaced with EN 13849 and EN 62061, the ACOPS was changed to replace EN 954 with EN ISO 13849.

If you are to comply with this new standard, you may have to assess all your machinery against this new requirement. You’ll also need to make any engineering changes required (such as replacing your control circuit), then you must validate the equipment. The value of this endeavour has been called into question by many companies. Machinery Safety Compliance Services can walk you through the differences in these Standards and the implications from physical risk, corporate risk and the costs involved to help you produce company policy.