Seminar: Designing safe machines - risk assessment in practice

Introduction and Overview

• Introductory example: Why seemingly good solutions do not always meet the legal requirements.
• Legally required risk assessment: WHO has to do WHAT and WHEN?
• Cooperation between different departments: mechanical engineering, control engineering, technical documentation, etc.
• Safety arises (mostly) in a team: important interfaces to sub-suppliers and customers.
• What does "integration of safety" mean?
• Which standards support safe design? Do these have to be applied?
• Caution when delegating design work or risk assessments to third parties!
• Attention! The design must be based on the law, not (only) on customer requirements!

Systematic risk assessment according to EN ISO 12100

• Risk assessment according to EN ISO 12100 - How the legal requirements are met as efficiently as possible!
• What has to be considered in "reasonably foreseeable misuse" - and what not.
• Figure 1 from EN ISO 12100 as a perfect guide through risk assessment and risk reduction.
• Relationships between EN ISO 12100 and
  • control systems (EN ISO 13849-1)
  • cyber-security
  • artificial intelligence

Technical and design requirements 

• Which technical requirements are required by law.
• Strategies for the "inherently safe design".
• Why non-separating protective devices (e.g. light curtains) are not always suitable for achieving the required risk reduction.
• Calculation example for electro-sensitive protective devices (ESPEs).
• What you should pay attention to when selecting protective devices (separating or non-separating).
• When protective devices have to be interlocked - when guard lockings are required.

With the help of several exercises and examples, you will learn the practical approach to pragmatically identifying relevant hazards in the design process, assessing the associated risks and selecting and documenting suitable (and economically justifiable) solutions for risk reduction.
You will find out why design engineers tend to exaggerate safety-related solutions and sometimes result in high costs for their company or customers. Less is often more - but only according to the legally permitted concept!