Plant safety at any cost?
Don't get me wrong: it's hard to argue with current moves to streamline health and safety legislation, in line with Lord Young's 'Common Sense, Common Safety' report – especially given that chief among the aims is to reduce the bureaucratic burden on small companies. If that makes the UK a more attractive place for employers to set up plants, resulting in increased employment, more tax revenue, and a stimulated and revitalised economy, that's good news.
Pumps & Valves - Process Machinery - a troubleshooting guide
Every piece of process machinery is purchased to be installed, operated, and play its part in making a profit for the plant operator. When a problem arises with a piece of equipment that causes concern to the operator and starts to affect safety or profitability, the techniques of effective troubleshooting have to be employed. The results of effective troubleshooting are to understand the problem that has caused concern, make any corrective modifications, and return the equipment to a safe and effective profitable condition.
Novel emergency stop improves efficiency at Airbus Filton
The Airbus plant at Filton, Bristol is reporting improved safety and efficiency since installing Siemens' innovative 'e-stop' emergency stop buttons.
Safe maintenance
Following publication of Lord Young's report into improving health and safety, plant engineers need to get back to basics. Brian Tinham talks to Geoff Cox, HSE's head of manufacturing
Safe operation of escalators and moving walks
SAFed's guidelines for the safe operation of escalators and moving walks was published in May last year. In the first of a two-part feature, Vince Sharpe reviews key elements for owners and operators
Safety first
When it comes to automated plant, ensuring safety is not just about adherence to the IEC 61508 control system standard or its industry-specific derivatives (IEC 61511 for the process industries, IEC 62061 for machinery etc). It's also about instilling a bullet-proof safety culture and sticking to basic rules. Just as important, we need to understand why people do things that put themselves and others at risk.
ISIS or Oracle
What has the opening of the £200 million second target station (TS2) at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory's ISIS pulsed neutron source got to do with plant engineers? More than most mere mortals - apart, that is, from the world's scientific community, currently descending on the place. Because not only will this major achievement enable new engineering understanding, by opening our eyes to atomic interactions like never before, but the entire station is another feat of extreme plant endeavour, not dissimilar to CERN's Large Hadron Collider (Plant Engineer, November/December 2008).
Laying down the law
European directives are continuously forcing changes to UK legislation around health and safety. Brian Wall reports on what plant engineers and managers need to know
Health and Safety North
Health and Safety North, the third in the regional series this year, claims to offers plant engineers a valuable learning and networking experience. Brian Wall reports
Machine safety
Following the ISO 13849-1:2006 debacle, and now its harmonisation to the Machinery Directive, machinery safety standards are under the spotlight again. ISO 13849-1 (Safety of machinery, Safety-related parts of control systems, Part 1: General principles for design) will replace EN 954-1:1997 (Safety of machinery, Safety-related parts of control systems, with Part 1: General principles for design).