Buying New Plant Machinery – HSE Guidelines

When working in the plant or construction industry, the health and safety of your personnel is always a critical consideration when buying new machinery. It is easy to quote a general directive, but implementation can be a task.

To make matters of such significance easier and more efficient the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) provides a set of guidelines.

Below we look at some of the key points from the Directive.

What Does the Law State?

The Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations act 2008 stipulates that machinery:

• Needs to be safe when supplied. The term “safe” refers to being safe from risks to both health and safety.
• Is supplied with a Declaration of Conformity and a user instruction manual written in English
• Bears a CE marking

You can adhere to the Law in practice by taking care of the following when making a machinery purchase:

• Understand if the manufacturer has ensured the safety of the machinery. A manufacturer has to do the following as part of ensuring machinery safety:
  • Eliminate elements of hazards in the machinery
  • Provide safety components such as guards for dangerous machine parts in cases where complete elimination of risky design is not possible
  • Include warning indicators in machine design in cases where complete risk elimination and protection through safeguards is not possible
  • Provide a machinery operation manual, which specifies:
    • Risks that cannot be addressed by machine design or safeguards
    • Areas where users need to install a safety system or carry out maintenance
  • Maintain a technical document detailing all aspects of the machinery, including design, safeguards and warning signs, and explaining why such steps have been taken

• Check if the machine has arrived with components as specified by the Law, which includes:
  • CE marking
  • A Declaration of Conformity
  • Instruction manual in English

• Check the machine for the following:
  • The presence of dangerous parts such as cutters or electric connections without protective guards
  • Absence of safety guards where required
  • Secure placing of protective guards where installed
  • Friendly design that allows easy operation of controls
  • Emanation of particles such as dust and fumes
  • Excessive noisiness, vibration, heat or cold
  • Safe and easy access to components that need regular maintenance

In case the new machinery fails to adhere to any of the safety norms explained above, refrain from using it. Contact your manufacturer or supplier immediately to discuss the next precautionary step.

Adhering to HSE instructions enables you to create a safe environment for your employees. Non-compliance can result in workplace injuries, and even worse, death, which can lead to legal liabilities.

For a more detailed explanation on HSE guidelines, see here.

Buy Plant Machinery from MTS Plant

For the best in plant machinery, contact MTS Plant. We are a dynamic plant machinery sales business with over 30 years of experience in the industry. Based in West Yorkshire, England, we have multiple locations across the UK, including Newcastle, Manchester and Glasgow, which gives our plant machinery sales company an impressive coverage across the nation.

Our strict adherence to machinery laws and quality standards has earned us valuable partnerships – we are an official dealer for Yanmar, a global manufacturer of civil engineering and construction equipment.

As official Yanmar dealers, you can have access to the full range of Yanmar construction machinery through MTS Plant. In addition our rental fleet of plant machinery and attachments is also one of the UK’s most comprehensive and extensive you’ll find.

As a plant machinery hire and sales company with unrivaled industry knowledge and a renowned reputation for customer service , you can trust MTS Plant to deliver. You’ll find excavators, skid steer loaders, tracked loaders, telescopic handlers, Bobcat machinery and attachments all for hire of for sale with us.

For enquiries or to discuss your requirements call us on 08000 156 555.