Every employee must be safe in his work environment, therefore the employer is obliged to check whether the safety of the machines and devices at which people work is provided. The company undertakes actions towards the introduction of a machine and / or machine safety system, the next step is to verify the correctness of its functioning, and the final element – validation.
Validation confirms that machines or devices meet the safety requirements according relevant legal regulations, the Regulation of the Minister of Economy, the directive and harmonized PN-EN standards.
Validation is required by international standards ISO 13849, IEC 62061 and IEC 61508.
Validation applies to electrical, mechanical, pneumatic and hydraulic systems.
VALIDATION – BASIC ELEMENTS
According to the Polish Standard PN-EN ISO 13849-2, the validation of a safety system consists of a series of activities:
- 1. Preparing a validation plan
- 2. Checking the compliance of the level of safety with the applicable Polish and international standards and regulations
- a. Analysis – from the effect to the cause or from the cause to the effect
- b. Complementary study (if necessary)
- Technical inspection of machines and devices according to safety requirements
- Checking in practice the operation by simulating faults in the security system
- Carrying out measurements (eg noise level)
- Tests to protect the machine against external conditions (including humidity, temperature) and immunity to electromagnetic interference
- 3. Preparation of the validation protocol with objective results (detailed information on the results).
Some companies skip validation as a part of safety process. However, it should be remembered that failure to verify the operation of machine and device safety systems can, even unconsciously, lead to accidents at work. For this reason, validation should be an obligatory point on the list of the most important activities.