Machine safety: method for systematic hazard identification during design

Machine designers must take into account several aspects of products such as the occupational safety of the future users. European directive 2006/42/CE promulgates an approach called “integrated prevention” to obtain the lowest risk level possible according to the state of the art. However, the application of this approach is not perfect, especially for the hazard identification step that does not have structured methods or tools. To solve this problem, an original approach called ezid is presented in this report.
Based on the hypothesis that hazards are linked to the presence of energies, Ezid used the functional-structural model to distinguish every energy source and flow, and three processes on the design parameters to identify every potential hazard characteristic. Through its application on industrial data, ezid showed that it allowed a systematic hazard identification all along the design process. A software prototype was developed and proved that it is possible to automatize the processes of the method. By using ezid, the designer receives information about potential risks from their creation.