Abstract
The Machinery Directive was written to facilitate the establishment of the single European market by harmonising Member States' health and safety requirements for machinery so eliminating barriers to trade. The Machinery Directive specifies a hierarchy for selection of methods to eliminate risk of accident or ill-health throughout the foreseeable lifetime of the machine. Designers of new machinery are obliged to:
eliminate or reduce risks as far as possible (inherently safe machinery design and construction); take the necessary protection measures in relation to risks that cannot be eliminated; and inform users of the residual risks due to any shortcomings of the protection measures adopted, indicate whether any particular training is required and specify any need to provide personal protection equipment.
The Health & Safety Executive (HSE) of the United Kingdom is investigating the hand-arm vibration risks of powered hand-tools and the value of vibration information supplied with the tools. Manufacturers appear to be successfully reducing the vibration emissions of many types of tool. There are many classes of tool that have a wide range in the vibration emissions – frequently up to 4:1 between the highest and lowest emissions in a class. The data provided by manufacturers is likely to provide broad guidance as to which tools are likely to produce the most and least vibration in normal use but often fails to provide an indication of risk.