Posted By Caithriona Duggan Is there a regulatory requirement for a manufacturer of equipment/machinery to provide a risk assessment in conjunction with CE certificate issue ? Cheers, Caithriona.

Posted By The toecap I also see i sent a wrong answer. No but you do need to do it due to the Puwer regs and MHSW regs etc. Even the HASWA 74

Posted By Peter Still Toecap, You were (nearly) right the first time! The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 1998 apply to manufacturers of machinery. PUWER and the MHSW apply to the use of machinery/equipment. However these relate to a duty to perform a risk assessment, not necessarily to provide one. The SoM regs require you (the manufacturer) to provide adequate information for safe use, not necessarily to provide the results of your RA. However I'm aware of some clients who believe they have a right or even a duty to demand the manufacturer's RA, either so they can better understand the safety measure provided by the manufacturer or in the mistaken belief that it discharges their duty to perform an RA themselves. Hopw this helps.

Posted By Peter Still Mitch and Caithriona, The following is an extract from the HSE guidance "Supplying new machinery": "12 How does the manufacturer make sure that machinery can be used safely? There are several procedures which they must follow, but in particular they should: identify the health and safety hazards (trapping, crushing, electrical shock, dust or fumes, noise, vibration, etc) that are likely to be present when the machinery is used; assess the likely risks; eliminate the risks, or if that is not possible: provide safeguards (eg guarding dangerous parts of the machinery, providing noise enclosures) or, if that is not possible: provide information about any residual risks and place signs on the machinery to warn of risks that cannot be reduced in other ways (eg 'noisy machine' signs). Manufacturers may wish to refer to standards or other specifications when designing machinery" The regulations themselves make several references such as "Guards or protection devices used to protect against the risks related to moving parts must be selected on the basis of the type of risk". How are you going to demonstrate compliance with that, if you haven't performed an RA?

Posted By Mitch Caithriona, Getting back to your original question why are you asking are you being asked for one or are you asking for one?

Posted By Mitch Peter, Unfortunately I am aware of only 1 customer, in the UK, who has carried out a RA when we have supplied a machine, we do not actually install that many, it is usually the customer! Mitch

Posted By Peter Still Mitch, Without knowing your company or the kind of customers you have, I'd say that's fairly typical! Usually when I ask end-users for sight of their RA, I either get a blank look or a stupid response like "it's category 3". However the original question was about the responsibilities of manufacturers, not the ability of users to comply with MHSW and PUWER. Caithriona can I repeat Mitch's question - why are you asking?

Posted By Pete Longworth I never said there was. What I said was that in attempting to meet the essential health and safety requirements machinery designers and manufacturers would take into account any relevant standards. OK the technical file would be supplied IF REQUESTED so maybe you got me on that one or maybe its just semantics. The main thrust of my post was to illustrate that the designer / manufacturer would conduct a risk assessment to establish which essential health and safety requirements would need to be met and which standards , if any, would assist in doing this. The CE mark would be affixed partly to indicate that this had been done. The risk assessment to control the operation of the machinery at the point of use would be the responsibility of the end user. In other words I was trying to answer the original question.

Posted By Marcus74 The original post asks if there is a regulatory requirement for the manufacturer to "provide" a RA in conjunction with the CE certification. Am I correct to conclude that the answer to the specific question is "No" ? The manufacturer has to compile a Technical File that comprises of (but not limited to) 1,Drawings, Calculations, Test Results etc 2,Description of the methods used to eliminate hazards. 3,Standards and other Technical Specifications used. etc etc. In order to compile this information especially the methods used to eliminate hazards one can only assume that some form of RA has to be carried out during design etc, but I thought that the manufacturer was only obliged to make the Technical File available to an enforcing authority upon request ? I have however seen a situation where a new piece of machinery was being installed and an engineer from the customer assumed that the E-Stop system was Cat3 only to find it was Cat2. He contacted the Manufacturer and asked for a copy of their RA justifying the use of Cat2 and was supplied a copy with no problems. Forgive me if im wrong but as I see it, Yes Risk Assessments would have to be carried out, but there is no requirement for any to be provided with the CE Certification. That doesn't mean you cant ask to see one though if your unsure of anything.