Safety Design of Machinery : a Priori Prevention: Analysis of Database on Industrial Accidents

A deterministic methodology for the safety of machinery was established in a series of international standards (ISO and IEC). The methodology, being implicitly ensured by the well-tried safety principle, takes effect for the deductive prevention of the accidents originated from the hazards of machinery. In this study, in order to confirm the achievement of high preventability by obeying the conception of the safety of machinery, a data base has been constructed for the 1266 occupational accidents of damage which occurred from 1998 to 2000 in the manufacturing industry in Japan. The ISO 12100 and 14121 are adopted as a standard of the methodology to conduct the technical evalution for foreseeability and avoidability of the accidents in the data base. The preventability has been predicated on a matrix of foreseeability evaluated by the identification of the hazards and avoidability evaluated by the achievement of adequate risk reduction. The analytical result shows that 80% of accidents would have been prevented if the methodology were applied for the general hazards as specified in clause 4, ISO 12100-1. The percentage rises up to 94% when the data are confined to the mechanical hazards. These facts indicate the effectiveness of the deterministic methodology of the safety of machinery as a priori prevention of the machinery accidents.