Door Industry Journal - Winter 2015

Also online at: www.dijonline.co.uk 114 THE door industry journal winter 2015 powered gates Make Your Gate Impact Force Tester Compliant to European Machine Directive 2006/42/EC Compliance when installing powered gates is a legal requirement and to achieve this fully, a Gate Impact Force Tester is an essential part of every installer’s tool kit. Here, Ollie Morcom, Sales Director at Applied Measurements Ltd. looks into maintaining this essential piece of kit to ensure it is EN 12445 compliant. Every new powered gate must by law comply with the European Machine Directive 2006/42/EC, which was introduced to allow common standards of health and safety for new machinery throughout the EU. The health and safety elements have been transposed into UK law - the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008. The principle aim of the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations 2008 is to ensure the health and safety requirements of the European Machine Directive 2006/42/EC are adhered to. The responsibility to ensure the new powered gate complies with the above legislation lies with the manufacturer, installer or supplier. A badly maintained power gate can lead to serious accidents due to inadequate installation and care. A gate impact force tester’s performance and accuracy will deteriorate over time. This is often due to external variations and general use. This deviation (also known as ‘drift’) can lead to inaccurate and unreliable measurements. To conform with European Machine Directive 2006/42/EC, the force testing device used must be EN 12445 compliant. Robert Davies Applied Measurements Ltd Production Director knows “it is crucial to get your gate impact force tester re- calibrated every 12 months to guarantee accurate performance, reliability and traceability.” A calibration is performed to guarantee the gate impact force tester is working within specified parameters ensuring it is EN 12445 compliant. During a calibration the force measurement device being tested (called the ‘test instrument’) is compared to a known reference standard, which assesses the accuracy of the test instrument. Once the two instruments