Risk Assessment Resources

[bagged2drag 1]

It may be a silly question, but where does one begin when looking to do a risk assessment?   I have found some general guidelines to follow when doing one, but I am looking for either a template or cheap (free) software to use to conduct a risk assessment.   I know this is an important aspect when determining machine safety etc, but it seems that, though everybody knows this, there are few resources available.  

[kaiser_will 65]

Not a silly question, in my opinion.  Many of us have been in the same situation before.

Category:  There are 2 categories of Safety Circuits...Stopping Category and Functional Category.  Depending on your industry, when someone is talking about "CAT 3" safety, they are probably referring to Functional Safety. 

CAT or SIL or PL:  Depending on your industry, you may be required to design to CAT (Safety Category) or SIL (Safety Integrity Level).  These categories are being replaced by ISO 13849-1:2006, which will combine them into a new safety rating PL (Performance Level).

My understanding is that the base safety standards drive equipment manufacturers to follow mandatory rules, then disseminate the outcomes into manufacturer safety design guides.  The base safety standards are from standards organizations and typically require paid subscription for copies.  I believe that is why equipment manufacturers have developed safety design guides.   These are the main players that I know of.

TUV Accreditation https://www.tuv-sud.co.uk/uploads/images/1397220093835586640369/plr-determination-matrix.pdf        https://www.tuv-sud-america.com/uploads/images/1437679765593848991447/uk-mkg-practical-guide-lr-en-gb.pdf

Rockwell/Allen-Bradley  http://www.ab.com/en/epub/catalogs/3377539/5866177/3378076/7565826/Performance-Level-PL.html  http://www.rumsey.com/files/upload/ISO13849.pdf

ABB-Jokab  https://library.e.abb.com/public/f282e8fb773fa733c1257996004307a6/EN_ISO_13849-1_2TLC172003B02002.pdf

Keyence  http://www.keyence.com/ss/products/safetyknowledge/performance/level/

Pilz https://www.pilz.com/en-US/knowhow/law-standards-norms/functional-safety/en-iso-13849-1

Schneider/Telemechanique  http://www2.schneider-electric.com/documents/original-equipment-manufacturers/pdf/Machine-safety-guide.pdf

Sick  http://www.toptier.com/download/sick_im0032606.pdf

[Crossbow 295]

Risk assessment is a huge process, as every time you correct one safety issue you have to do the process again to see what else it changed.  Companies charge large amounts of money to come on site and perform a solid risk assessment, it's not something you can get from shareware or a spreadsheet.  There's also the major amount of liability in your final recommendations.

The standard related to risk assessments is ISO 12100, search for that to get some basic ideas.