How Schmersal India helps Indian companies to get their plant and equipment certified for CE compliance right here in India
The Service Division of Schmersal India, tec.nicum Academy has started a crash training program for engineers to be qualified as MCE Experts duly certified by TUV. They in turn can practice as machine experts and audit plant and equipment to ensure they are safety compliant. Girish Alawe, General Manager – Training, tec.nicum, Schmersal India tells us all about this 4-day program which is a boon to Indian companies to get their equipment CE certified right here in India. Excerpts:
Q. Your concept of molding and certifying an ‘mce expert’ in 4 days is laudable. What’s the curriculum covered in this crash program?
As we know CE mark is one of the most recognised qualifications for machines and products worldwide, so it is utmost important to understand how to obtain this CE mark for the machines. Keeping this market requirement in mind Schmersal along with TÜV Rheinland® has developed this course of MCE Expert.
The course conveys in a compact form all the knowledge required to implement a CE conformity assessment procedure for machines and plants with all the relevant sub-steps. It mainly focuses on machinery directive and safety standards to meet the compliances as required to get CE marking. It also provides detailed guideline to perform a risk assessment as per ENISO 12100 and Safety related parts of Control system as per EN ISO 13849-1. Upon successful completion, participants can prove their acquired qualification as an expert in machine safety by means of a certificate issued by TÜV Rheinland®. You are entitled to use the title “Machinery CE Expert® with TÜV Rheinland® certified qualification”. This qualification is internationally recognised.
Q. Who should enroll for this program? Are the training programs held in-company? What are the batch size and the level of trainees?
This course is useful for both machine manufacturer and machine importers. A machine manufacturer who wants to supply their machine as per CE compliances can develop their own resources to certify their machines while, on the other side, a machine importer who are importing the machines as per CE compliances can ensure that necessary requirements are being implemented in their machine before they reach their manufacturing facility. We normally keep a batch size of 12 participants. Of course it can be in-house training for a company if they have these many participants.
The minimum required qualification is to have a knowledge of machine safety with a proven experience of minimum 3 years along with an engineering or equivalent technical degree.
Q. Will these be tailor-made programs since the industries and plant & equipment differ?
As mentioned before this program is solely based on the machinery directives which cover all types of industries and equipment so this program will give a complete guidance for all types of industries and equipment.
Q. After the training, followed by certification by TUV, can these experts practice on their own? In that case how will Schmersal benefit from this exercise?
Of course, after the training the participants can do the practice on their own by keeping themselves updated with the latest safety standards, revised machinery directive norms. Schmersal is a pioneer in the field of machinery safety. We consider that, it is our responsibility to bring the market awareness for machinery safety. With this if we can save life of someone by providing safer workplace that is where we find our benefit.
Q. Please give some idea of the fee charged for this training. Do we expect the beneficiary companies to bear the fees?
For this course we normally charge the fees of around 1.5 lakhs which is basically towards the expenses which have been done for the trainers who get engaged for 8 working days, the cost for printing of the training material, arranging the necessary venues for conducting training and the cost towards examination and certification by TÜV Rheinland®.
Q. Ultimately, how is the industry benefited from this short-term educational program? Could you elucidate?
Content covered in this course is based on the ISO standards. In India, Bureau of Indian standard has now adopted ISO standards for machinery. Like CE marking, in future we can expect IS marking for machines. So, after the certification, you can perform the CE conformity assessment and also make yourself future ready as and when IS marking comes in vogue in India.
