Risk management across variants requirements and outlook for an efficient risk assessment of machines

The directive 2006/42/EC sets out essential safety requirements that a machine manufacturer has to meet, before its products may be sold on the European market. The core procedure to meet the provisions of the directive is the so called risk assessment. At present, the risk assessment in the industrial environment is often carried out in an unsystematic way and isolated from the entire product development process. The research project VariSafe aims at improving this process in regard to efficiency and quality. This paper presents the industrial requirements regarding the risk assessment process and its software support. Based on these requirements a target process and an accompanying data model are described. They represent the foundation for a future software prototype which allows exchanges with interface processes and a certain degree of automation in carrying out and documenting the risk assessment.