Meeting the obligations of a designer
Part 1 of the Plant Code of Practice 2005 provides practical advice about how to minimise the exposure to health and safety risks when designing plant, machinery and equipment.
Some of the areas covered include:
Risk management
Phases of plant life
Engineering principles and relevant standards
Consultation and verification
How plant is to be used safely, and the characteristics of users
Designing to minimise exposure to hazards
Providing information on safe use
Registrable plant design
Risk management
Under Part 1.1 of the Plant Code of Practice 2005 designers of plant, machinery and equipment should undertake a risk management process for their designs. Appendix 6 of the Plant Code of Practice 2005 identifies standards relating to performing risk management for plant. This is not an exhaustive list. Other standards relating to plant are available from Standards Australia .
More information on risk management
Risk Management Code of Practice 2007
Phases of plant life
Designers should consider all phases of life for the plant they design. Phases are detailed in Part 1.2 of the Plant Code of Practice 2005.
The Plant Code of Practice 2005 specifically addresses:
- erection and installation
- maintenance
Engineering principles and relevant standards
Plant, machinery and equipment should be designed in accordance with acceptable engineering principles (such as procedures outlined in an engineering reference manual) and relevant standards (refer to the list of relevant standards in Appendix 6 of the Plant Code of Practice 2005.
Consultation and verification
Consult with other parties (like manufacturers, erectors, installers, owners and users) at each stage of design to ensure that the design is practical and without risk to health. A designer must verify the safety of the plant resulting from the design, which can include checking by a competent person and consultation with manufacturers, installers and end users.
How plant is to be used safely and the characteristics of users
Designers should consider how the plant is to be used safely and the characteristics of users. For example, apply ergonomic design principles so there is minimum operator discomfort, fatigue and psychological stress when plant, machinery or equipment is used correctly.
The Plant Code of Practice 2005 provides practical advice for designers regarding:
- intended use and reasonably foreseeable misuse
- physical characteristics of users
- designing to facilitate safe use
- minimising human error
- control devices and operating controls
Designing to minimise exposure to hazards
The Plant Code of Practice 2005 provides practical advice for designers regarding:
- environmental conditions
- manual handling
- guarding
- emergency stops
- energy sources
- static electricity
- fire and explosion
- noise
- vibration
- radiation exposure (including lasers, radio frequency radiation and ultraviolet radiation)
- hazardous substances
- stability
- lighting
Providing information on safe use
Designers of plant, machinery and equipment have an obligation under Section 32 of the Workplace Health and Safety Act 1995 (PDF, 766 KB) to provide information to any entity that use their designs. Part 1.15 of the Plant Code of Practice 2005 provides information about how this obligation can be met.
Registrable plant design
Schedule 4 of the Workplace Health and Safety Regulation 2008 requires the following plant design to be registered:
- boom-type elevating work platform
- bridge crane with a safe working load of more than or equal to 10 t
- gantry cranes with a safe working load of more than 5 t
- all other bridge and gantry crane designed to handle molten metal or dangerous goods
- building maintenance unit
- escalator (as defined in Schedule 2 of the Act)
- gantry crane with a safe working load of more than 5 t
- LP gas cylinder (as defined in Schedule 2 of the Act)
- personnel hoist
- lift (as defined in Schedule 2 of the Act)
- mast climbing work platform
- mobile crane with a safe working load of more than 10 t
- prefabricated scaffolding
- pressure equipment with hazard level A, B, C or D, as worked out under the criteria stated in AS 4343 as in force on 1 July 2000, other than pressure piping
- refillable gas cylinder
- specified amusement device (class 2, 3, 4 or 5 under AS3533.1 -1997 excluding coin operated amusement devices and class 1 devices manufactured prior to 30 July 2004)
- tower crane
- vehicle hoist
- work box
Where plant design is required to be registered, a designer must ensure that the design of the plant complies with the standard stated for the plant (examples of standards are provided in Appendix 6 of the Plant Code of Practice 2005).
Where the designer obtains a certificate of registration of registrable plant design, the certificate number must be provided to any entity that manufacturers plant from the design.
More information on the plant design registration process