Guarding service to protect firms from prosecution

The firm has set up a bespoke service to design, manufacture and install machinery guarding, ensuring that both manufacturers and users are compliant with the changes, which have now come into force in the UK. The firm's Gary Trewhitt observes that, given their safety role, it is surprising that guards are often treated surprisingly casually and continue to be the cause of so many injuries. He explains that Machinery Safety Directive 2006/42/EC, which came into force at the end of 2009, introduced a range of new requirements for guards, not the least of which is that they must carry CE markings. "Clearly, achieving full standards compliance for a guard, which is necessary if it is to carry the CE marking, is no trivial task. And it's certainly not a task that can be readily tackled with an ad-hoc design and the services of the local engineering company" says Trewhitt. "CE marking, along with the design and manufacture of guards, now requires specialist expertise, which is why we've launched our new guarding service." Trewhitt also points to Section 1.4.1 of the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (ESHRs) in the new Machinery Safety Directive, which now requires that guards protect against the ejection of falling materials and objects. Section 1.4.2.1 has added requirements that, for fixed guards, the fixing systems must remain attached to the guards when removed – and also that, where possible, guards must be incapable of remaining in position without their fixings. "In some cases these new requirements may be easy to satisfy, but in many they will not. And, in every case, a considerable level of expertise will be needed to ensure that guards satisfy all regulatory requirements," comments Trewhitt. "In these cases, specialist guarding design, assessment and manufacturing services, of the type offered by [our] guarding service, offer a convenient, affordable and dependable solution."