Smartscan Maintenance Package for machinery safety

This maintenance package is just one element of the company's comprehensive 'machinery safety solutions' offering that covers the complete machine life cycle, from the initial concept through safety standards, risk assessment, control system design and safety product supply, to installation, commissioning and maintenance.

Routine or preventative maintenance of safety products installed on the customer's machines is an important area within the machine safety life cycle. There are, of course, many benefits to a routine maintenance schedule, including extending the product life, early identification of potential problems, and reduced machine downtime and the associated costs.

In many factory environments machine safety products are exposed to a variety of potentially damaging encounters from fork lift trucks and high-pressure washdown, to oil, grease and general damage from the day-to-day manufacturing processes. For example, with safety light curtains this can result in product being knocked out of alignment, fluid ingress, broken connectors and the degrading of the Perspex window covering the infra-red light beams - with a subsequent reduction in performance.

Knowledge and experience

Smartscan has provided a routine maintenance package for over 10 years now and it is used by a number of large companies within the UK food and drink sector. The wealth of knowledge and practical experience the company has developed in this area gives its customers additional reassurance of the work being carried out and down-to-earth help with application queries.

The Smartscan maintenance package involves a Smartscan-approved engineer going on site to undertake planned maintenance of the Smartscan safety products covered by the maintenance contract. The engineers will be competent and fully trained in Smartscan's product range as well as on-site health and safety.

Maintenance packages include the following:

• A full service report detailing the Smartscan safety product in use, the product status, positioning of the product and any work or repairs carried out. It will also include a check list for all products detailing all the checks undertaken.
• A certificate is provided for assurance of the quality of the maintenance workmanship and compliance with the appropriate machine safety standards and legislation.
• Example maintenance checks for a safety light curtain include: correct operation of the light curtains and accessories (remotes, relay control box, reset stations, cables, etc); mechanical installation; electrical installation; stop-circuit interface; EMC check from the supply voltage; and application-specific checks.
• While under a maintenance contract Smartscan offers a loan unit if a guard has a problem that cannot be resolved on site.
• Technical helpline that is open during office hours for application and technical product support.

Maintenance packages are generally scheduled on a yearly basis and carried out at a time to suit the customer, typically during specific downtime periods. This may well involve the maintenance work being undertaken at the weekend.

Key benefits of the Smartscan maintenance package include:

• Helping to reduce costly unplanned downtime by ensuring that the safety products continue to perform reliably through scheduled maintenance.
• Continued compliance with legislation and the appropriate machine safety standards.
• Provide detailed documented listings of Smartscan safety products for the site/machine plus regular input to the maintenance reporting process.
• Opportunity for a safety product use 'refresher' for machine operators.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 requires employers in the UK to provide a safe working environment. In the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 (PUWER 98) the subject of maintenance is directly referenced within the Act and the employer's responsibility with regard to maintenance and ensuring that machinery is kept in safe working order.

In order to meet with these requirements a new risk assessment should be carried out after any changes to ensure that any new risks are identified and safeguarded against. In the HSE report Out of Control 20 per cent of the incidents investigated were attributed to changes after the machine had been commissioned.

A regular maintenance package provides a useful safeguard in helping to identify possible changes to the machine or safety system. It is not uncommon for modifications to be made to machines during their life, typically to make it more operator-friendly. Over time these modifications can become part of the standard operating procedure. Should these changes lead to a safety incident, the company can find itself exposed to the full weight of the law, as any changes will make the original risk assessment null and void.

Another driver for maintenance within the field of machine safety comes from the various machine safety Standards (eg EN 60204-1, ISO 12100, EN 954-1). One of the more recent of these has been IEC 61508 and the sector-specific standard IEC 62061 for machinery, which encourage a life cycle approach to machine safety, from initial concept through to maintenance and repair, and eventual decommissioning and disposal. The HSE views the use of such standards as good practice by employers in trying to achieve their machine safety objectives.

Contact Smartscan now to discuss the Smartscan Maintenance Package.