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Risk assessment

In order to guarantee the safety of your customers and your employees, it is necessary to have insight into the risks that are associated with the machinery and appliances which they deal with. Therefore, various European directives require a risk assessment.

Everyone is occasionally confronted in everyday life with “dangers” and sometimes with the accompanying “injuries”. In this connection, we are more often confronted with small cuts than with irreparable injuries or even with death.

A ‘danger’ is related to the source (Machinery Directive: a possible source of injury or harmful effect on the health). Thus, we distinguish, among other things, mechanical dangers, electrical dangers, thermic dangers and dangers caused by noise. The risk associated with a danger is determined in a risk assessment by the chance of an injury in combination with the seriousness of that injury.

Depending on the magnitude of the danger, appropriate (protective) measures are taken. Small dangers, for example, can be adequately protected against by means of a warning. While for a much greater danger, even double protective measures are applied.

In a risk analysis, the magnitude of a danger is shown on the basis of the chance of, and the seriousness of, an injury.

Risk assessment by HMPA

In the risk assessment conducted by HMPA, the magnitude of a risk is shown on the basis of the chance of, and the seriousness of, an injury.

To determine the risk class, a value has to be assigned to the duration of exposure (E) to the risk, the likelihood of occurrence (L), the probability (P) that a risk is occurring and the severity (S) of the injury. The multiplication of the four factors results in the risk class (R = E x L x P x S). In tabular form, these chosen values provide insight.

In carrying out the risk assessment, HMPA lets itself be guided by the harmonised standard EN-ISO 12100:2010 (Safety of machinery – General design principles – Risk assessment and risk reduction).

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