Expertise

The primary purpose of the investigations we carry out is to ensure a safe interaction between people and the machines and equipment they use at work. However, we also examine the immediate surroundings, the maintenance situation and combinations of machines, for both major production lines and free-standing equipment.

CE marking Nordic AB’s consultants have a solid technical background, which means we also can perform damage assessment and technical calculations. In these areas too our attention remains focused on safety.

The so-called social EU directives represent an important source of information for our work. In particular for many years the consultants of CE marking Nordic AB have followed closely the changes and additions to the framework directive aimed at improving health and safety at work, and the associated EU directives. However, investigations into safety at work are always based on national legislation, which contains the complete package of requirements laid down for employers and their employees. We therefore keep abreast of the developments in legislation relating to safety requirements for machines and equipment.

Advice

How do we provide advice on safety at work? It cannot be done without extensive knowledge of the specific EU directives and national legislations. It also requires considerable experience of carrying out risk assessments and producing a usable list of the measures required.

In principle CE marking Nordic AB looks at all equipment used by people in the course of their work, but for the assessment of a safe working environment we focus primarily on the man-machine collaboration. This is an area which rarely receives sufficient attention.

CE marking Nordic AB can provide advice on all aspects of safety at work. For example, we can draw up the risk assessment for a machine or a production line, write the plan for implementing improvements and draft written instructions for employees. We can also advise you on the actual modification of an installation, for example on the correct choice of protection systems.

It often happens that a company which has a production line built or modified is not certain whether one is the manufacturer in the eyes of the law or not. Our advice can clarify which of the parties has to ensure the CE marking, if applicable.

In other words, the service CE marking Nordic AB provides can assist you in creating a safe working environment for you and your employees.

Safety at work is of course an issue which concerns everybody, but an employer in particular needs to have this under control. CE marking Nordic AB is pleased to assist in carrying out the technical risk assessments.

Technical Risk Inventory and Evaluation

The risk inventory and risk evaluation as carried out by CE marking Nordic AB is a technical procedure and supplements the systematic assessment of health and safety. Our reports contain a lot of images, whereby attention can be directed more easily to areas that need to be improved. This also enables people within the organisation who are not familiar with the machine or equipment concerned to take part in the discussion and decision-making process for risk reducing.

The first step in any risk assessment of health and safety at work is to determine which legislation is applicable. Depending on the production year CE marking may be involved. In all cases the condition of the production equipment must be compared with the with the legal requirements applicable now. In addition, the specific use of the equipment must be examined, and this means looking not only at how it is used by the operator, but also how it is handled by a maintenance engineer or a cleaner. Many items of equipment are modified during their use. It is important to examine the value of these modifications (can this be considered to be a new machine?). This will determine the correct list of requirements for use with the assessment. Frequently, relatively old work equipment (with no CE) have never been subjected to a risk assessment.

In all cases it will be necessary to make adjustments. The description of the measures to be taken gives a description of all the improvements, listed in order of priority.

Damage evaluation

Despite all safety precautions, periodically examinations, RIEs, observation etc it could happen that the production is halted, either completely or partially. For example, a broken machine, a fire which gets out of control or a fatal accident as a result of someone doing something wrong. This may be the cause for starting a thorough assessment.

Let CE marking Nordic AB assess the accident and the damage. What is the likely cause? How can this be avoided in the future? Was the article well-constructed? Are the solutions proposed by the supplier enough? We can provide clear answers to these questions and can usually back them up with technical calculations and comparison with other information from relevant literature.