EZID: A new approach to hazard identification during the design process by analysing energy transfers

Abstract

Manufacturing machine designers must take into account different aspects of products such as technol-ogy, legislation and occupational safety. European directive 2006/42/CE promulgates machine safetydesign principles to prevent occupational risks. Aimed at machine designers, its objective is to set outthe need to obtain the lowest possible risk level according to the state of the art. Although the designersof catalog machines have access to specific standards to perform a priori risk analyses, this is not the casefor special machine designers. An original approach called EZID is presented in this paper to help allmachine designers in the task of hazard identification. Based on the fact that hazards are linked to thepresence of energies, EZID identifies hazards through the detection of design parameters linked to energysources and flows. It then feeds back organized information to designers on every potential exchange ofenergy between the machine and its operators, bringing to light the need to add risk prevention solutions.The first part provides a detailed classification of energy parameters considered to be the primary indi-cators of hazards. This is followed by an explanation of the logical rules describing how damage is gen-erated by the combination of the other design parameters, increasing the level of detail in hazardidentification. The next part focuses on the characterization of significant hazards. Finally, the resultsobtained from using this approach during the industrial design of a supply line are presented to confirmthat EZID is functional from the earliest stage of design.