Laidler welcomes delay to new safety standard
A
Laidler Associates product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Sep 3, 2009
Laidler Associates, a UK industrial and safety compliance consultant, has welcomed the delay to the replacement of the EN 954-1 safety standard.
Nevertheless, Laidler has emphasised that the move does nothing to change the fact that EN 954-1 is deficient in many areas.
Expert guidance is, therefore, highly desirable when relying on this standard, particularly in relation to new designs.
A new standard, EN (ISO) 13849-1 'Safety of Machinery, Safety-Related Parts of Control Systems', had been expected to replace EN 954-1 within the next few months.
However, machine and control-system builders expressed serious concerns about difficulties in applying the new standard in practice, particularly as it calls for component MTBF (mean time between failure) data, which, in many cases, is not currently available.
In response to these concerns, the Machinery Directive Working Group of the European Environmental and Technical Regulation Directorate recently announced that it was receptive to the idea that EN 954-1 could continue to be accepted for a limited period, while it is still referenced by harmonised standards.
It has been suggested that the extended period of acceptance is likely to be either three or five years.
Paul Laidler, managing director of Laidler Associates, said: 'For most control system and machine builders, this is very good news, since it gives time for the work needed to underpin the new EN 13849-1 standard to be carried out carefully and thoroughly.
'Nevertheless, retaining EN 954-1 does have its downside, as there are many areas that this standard doesn't cover, including, for example, programmable safety equipment, which simply didn't exist when it was formulated.
'For this reason, control system and machine builders must be careful about placing too much reliance on EN 954-1 as a way of demonstrating that they have fully met their obligations in relation to control-system safety.
'This is, in fact, a complex area where most companies will benefit from expert guidance.
'At Laidler, we have used our wide experience in industrial safety and compliance to carefully analyse this complex situation and the issues it creates.
'As a result, we are in a prime position to provide that guidance.' Laidler's focus in providing consultancy services for EN 954-1 and EN 18439-1 is to work with its clients to develop comprehensive and dependable solutions that are practical, convenient and cost effective.
Not what you're looking for? Search the site.
Contact Laidler Associates
Tel +44 1642 345637
Other Laidler Associates stories
-
Laidler to offer advice on Machinery Directive
Laidler Associates will be available to answer questions on the new Machinery Directive at the Process and Packaging Exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham from 29 September to 1 October 2009. -
Laidler offers guidance for Directive compliance
Laidler Associates is offering a package of services for businesses that have concerns about meeting the requirements of the new EMC Directive. -
Audits ensure PUWER compliance
To fully comply with PUWER, any new equipment should be inspected after installation and before it is put into use to make sure it is safe. -
Risk management for mobile work equipment
Laidler Associates has launched a module for its Risk Management software system covering Part III of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations (PUWER): Mobile Work Equipment. -
Interactive workshops tackle machinery safety
Four of the leading suppliers of machine safety equipment have joined together to present a series of interactive machine safety workshops in the UK throughout 2002.
Browse by category
-
Capital Equipment (3,440)
- Capital Equipment (1)
- Compressors and Air Treatment (525)
- Electrical hardware (131)
- Electronics Manufacturing, Tools, Instruments (192)
- Machinery and Production Equipment (1,111)
- Manufacturing Machinery and Plant Equipment (468)
- Production line blowers and fans (66)
- Robotics, Handling and Storage (946)
- Consultancy and Services (911)
-
Control and Instrumentation (5,082)
- Cabling, Conduit, Signal Conditioning (809)
- CNC and Motion Controllers (187)
- Control and Instrumentation (2)
- HMIs/Operator Interfaces (295)
- Logic Controllers, Timers and Relays (96)
- Mid-range and Large PLCs (202)
- Plant- and Machine-Wide Communications (1,188)
- Plantwide control (1,340)
- Power Supplies, Uninterruptible Power (573)
- Smaller-Sized PLCs (390)
-
Drives, Motors and Controls (3,409)
- Drives, Motors and Controls (2)
- Industrial Drives/Controls (1,287)
- Industrial Motors (500)
- Linear Drives and Motors (117)
- Precision Motors and Gears (424)
- Stepper and Servo Drives, Motors, Controls (1,077)
-
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (4,222)
- Batteries, chargers and circuit protection (561)
- Connectors, Terminals, Busbars, Slip Rings (697)
- Electrical and Electronic Components (639)
- Electrical and Electronic Equipment Design (1)
- Electrical and Electronic Subassemblies (371)
- Enclosures and Equipment Cooling Fans (713)
- Knobs, Handles and Enclosure Hardware (426)
- PCs and Embedded Systems (814)
-
Engineering Design Software (6,260)
- 2D CAD software (201)
- 3D CAD software (1,164)
- CAM, CNC, production management software (574)
- Data, document management software (315)
- Electrical design software (165)
- Engineering Design Software (15)
- FEA and structural analysis software (374)
- File conversion software, data capture (356)
- Fluid, thermal, noise, vibration software (335)
- Materials design and moulding design software (152)
- Maths, charting, statistics, QA software (321)
- PLM and collaboration software (653)
- Process, instrumentation, automation software (264)
- Publishing and documentation software (233)
- Rendering, visualisation, styling software (203)
- Simulation, modelling, validation software (935)
-
Engineering Industry News, Resources (6,164)
- Electronic Resources for Engineers (278)
- Engineering Business News, Views (388)
- Engineering Conferences (433)
- Engineering Education, Resources, Standards (848)
- Engineering Exhibitions, Events (570)
- Engineering Guides, Newsletters (359)
- Engineering Industry Developments, Awards (636)
- Engineering Industry News, Resources (4)
- Engineering Industry Reports, Surveys (597)
- Engineering Recruitment, Employment (219)
- Engineering Seminars (406)
- Engineering Training Courses (449)
- Health and Safety Consultancy, Software (178)
- Health and Safety Events, Training, News (281)
- Health and Safety Legislation (403)
- Health and Safety Strategy, Risk Assessment (115)
- Machine Building (4,577)
-
Materials and Processing (3,006)
- Materials and components (2,246)
- Materials and Processing (5)
- Materials processing and testing (290)
- Rapid Prototyping (465)
-
Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (5,560)
- Data Acquisition Hardware and PC I/O Boards (481)
- Data acquisition Software and Communications (500)
- Data loggers (423)
- Electrical and Electronic Testing, PAT Equipment (636)
- Form/co-ordinate, optical, vision instruments (740)
- Gauges, Indicators and Instruments (447)
- Materials testing equipment (420)
- Monitoring, Measurement and Quality (1)
- Telecomms/network test equipment, software etc (157)
- Testing and Calibration Services and Information (512)
- Testing, analysing and monitoring equipment (1,243)
-
Powertrain Design (3,658)
- Bearings (962)
- Chains and belts (331)
- Gears, brakes, couplings and engines (1,457)
- Hydraulic Components (473)
- Lubricants (431)
- Powertrain Design (3)
-
Sensors (7,170)
- Accelerometers and Vibration Sensors (438)
- Barcode Sensors (103)
- Flowmeters and Flow Sensors (625)
- Gas, Chemical, Radiation, Magnetic Sensors (287)
- Humidity and Environmental Sensors (155)
- Level Sensors and Leak Detectors (531)
- Linear Position Sensors (408)
- Loadcells, Force Sensors, Torque Sensors (714)
- Pressure sensors (628)
- Proximity Sensors (708)
- Rotary Position, Tilt and Angular Sensors (554)
- Sensors (8)
- Temperature sensors (615)
- Vision and Colour Sensors (1,396)
- Small Mechanical Components, Joining, Tools (1,994)
- Valves, Pumps, Process Hardware (3,667)
