Standards and Compliance

We are a quality registered company with a quality management system for "the design, manufacture and installation of acoustic and non-acoustic machinery safety guards (including aluminium guards) to BS EN ISO 9001:2015." UKAS NQA certificate No 9968.

All of our engineers are accredited, safety trained and all carry national safety passports.

To find out more about British standards for machinery guards, take a look at our downloads below.

Why is machinery guarding so important?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) estimates that inadequate machine guarding causes over 40,000 injuries every year. Some of those injuries can be fatal. In order to prevent these incidents from happening, the HSE recommends that employers should "take effective measures to prevent access to dangerous parts of machinery."

Regulation 11(1) of The Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 states: Every employer shall ensure that means are taken in accordance with paragraph (2) which are effective.

• A. To prevent access to any dangerous part of machinery or to any rotating stock-bar; or
• B. To stop the movement of any dangerous part of machinery or rotating stock-bar before any part of a person enters a danger zone.

This is why all our standard Lathe, milling, drilling, grinding, and slotting machine guards are fitted with interlocks as standard. You can visit our online shop for standard machine guards here.

If you are unsure whether your machinery meets current machine safety standards, Sponmech can help you. Our comprehensive machine guard service includes machine safety surveys, PUWER assessments, noise surveys, technical safety advice, risk assessments, and much more.

For advice on all guarding or noise problems call 0121 585 8730 and ask for David Sheppard (NEBOSH General certificated).

To book a PUWER 98 Assessment on your machinery, email sales@sponmech.co.uk.