Rank: Forum user 
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Hi Guys
I had an incident recently where an electrical component on a packaging machine (shrink wrapping) failed to the 'on' position resulting in the heating elements being on while equipment was not in use. It eventually reached a tempreature temperature where it started a fire within the equipment. We are reviewing the set up of the controls and in conjunction with the manufacturers looking to installed additional safety controls so that the equipment has additional protections to prevent 1 failed component resulting in a similar condition. I'm a little concerned how this could happen in the first place as equipment is CE marked only 6 years old. There has been no modifications made to original design and reguar preventive maintenance completed.
Is it ok for us to modify the equipment and where would i find EN standards that equipment should be designed to? We have 6 other similar machines to review.
Thanks,
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi mate,
The CE mark can sometimes be of little value, in order to apply the CE mark the equipment needs to be assessed against the EHSR's (essential health & safety requirements), harmonised standards which work towards the EHSR or both. So this is only really the manufacturers claim the equipment is safe to be honest, and sometimes a lesser standard the perhaps PUWER would apply.
There is no reason why the machines can't be modified to improve safety, so long of course the guys doing it know what they are doing. And if you carry out a risk assessment to ensure compliance with PUWER once modifications have been made, this should identify any issues. Compliance with standards is voluntary, and no legal requirement to adopt the standard exists. The only exception to this would be if a UK regulation mentions a standard, it then becomes statutory though that regulation.
They are good to use as guidance however, but can be very proscriptive, for example "E Stops every 10m on conveyor", which of course is no use if your point of danger is 5m away, so risk assessment against PUWER is often the best way to identify risk. Try the BSI website for a BS standard on shrink wrappers (not cheap though!)
Hope this helps
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Rank: Super forum user
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Noted you are working with the manufacturers - are they not taking any responsibility for the failure and more importantly a fix to the other machines. Perhaps I am being niaive. (or however you spell it)
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