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Appendix: Safety of machinery
Safety of machinery
Wherever faults occurring on the machine can cause personal injury or major material damage, addi-
tional measures must be taken to ensure a safe operating status of the entire system even in the event
of a fault. According to the Machinery Directive (MD), a machine is defined as "a set of interconnected
parts or devices, at least one of which is movable". The directive also states that "the design of the
machine must ensure that operation, set-up and maintenance take place without endangering people
when used as intended."
Although the handheld terminal itself is not a machine in the strict sense, the handheld terminal fulfils
essential tasks to guarantee the safety functions of a machine or system to which the handheld ter-
minal is connected.
For example, the handheld terminal via the safety functions "stop in an emergency" and a 3-position
enabling switch for operation in special operating modes is thus a "safety component" within the
meaning of the Machinery Directive.
Safety components, i.e. parts whose failure or malfunction endangers the safety of persons in the
danger zone of the machine, fall expressly within the scope of application of the Machinery Directive.
The essential requirements of the Machinery Directive for the manufacturer of a machine or system
are as follows:
–
Conduct a hazard and risk analysis
–
Compliance with safety integration principles
–
Creation and storage of technical documentation
–
State-of-the-art solutions
–
Presumption of conformity by harmonised standards
–
Application of the CE conformity marking
The same requirements apply to safety components. For safety components, it must be demonstrated
that a failure or malfunction is not possible, or that a malfunction does not lead to a dangerous situ-
ation.
14.1
Risk assessment
The manufacturer of a machine is obliged to carry out a risk assessment of the machine. The risk
assessment consists of a hazard analysis and a risk assessment. Analyse the machine in all phases of
its life and operating modes. Document all hazards that occur. This takes place without consideration
of any protective devices.
As a next step, a protection objective is formulated for every identified hazard, and one or more pro-
tective measures are then defined to achieve the protection objective.
Further details on the procedure for carrying out the hazard analysis and risk analysis as well as lists
of frequently encountered hazards can be found in the following standards:
–
EN ISO 12100: 2010 "Safety of basic machinery concepts - General principles for design, risk
assessment and risk reduction"
14.2
Principles for the integration of the handheld terminal CDSA-D3-RV
Appendix I, chapter 1.1.2 of MD 2006/42/EC, MD, describes a clear procedure and sequence for the
selection of protective measures:
Eliminate or minimise the hazards
This is done by the design of the machine.
Festo — CDSA-D3-RV — 2020-08
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