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Continuous handling systems go beyond simply moving objects. They include actions such as storage, production or order picking. Their use can lead to serious accidents. Preventing such accidents is a priority for the French Occupational Injuries and Diseases Branch (Branche AT/MP), which is playing an active role in standardisation work through the involvement of several experts.
One of them chairs the CEN/TC 148 European committee on ‘Continuous handling equipment and systems – Safety’. This commitment is all the more important given that ‘the aim is to incorporate into the standard the safety devices developed by a French manufacturer to protect reentrant angles by occupying volume. These devices should replace grid guards, which are considered less effective in preventing accidental access to dangerous areas’.
This TC is actively working on revising a number of standards, including EN 619, which concerns safety requirements for equipment for mechanical handling of insulated loads. The standard should be split into several parts to improve its readability and accessibility.
Another important step forward is the revision of standard EN 618 ‘Equipment for mechanical handling of bulk materials, excluding stationary belt conveyors’. This will be the technical committee’s first standard to be drawn up in OSD (Online Standards Development) format, a new collaborative tool enabling collective and structured online writing.
