Article
Safety Engineers - Critical for all project phases
23/04/2025
Design | Build | Operate | Close |
|---|---|---|---|
What hazards are we introducing? | Is what we’ve installed what we’ve designed? | We need to change the process - how do our risks change? | What happens to our existing process when we remove this bit? |
Where is the safest place for the installation? | Have our risks changed as information has developed? | How does modifying the plant change our safety requirements? | How do we take this out of service and leave it in a safe condition? |
Does this introduce new legal compliance requirements? | What is the potential for harm from each part of our installation? | How does our operating window compare to our design? | What do our deconstruction team need to know? |
Under the Health & Safety at Work Act, employers and employees have a duty of care to keep themselves, their colleagues and the public safe. Making sure this happens requires an understanding of where harm can occur in the workplace, so safeguards can be implemented to ensure this harm does lead to an incident. When safety at work is mentioned most people think of slips and trips, handrails, manual handling and other ‘occupational’ safety hazards. At 6 Engineering we focus on major hazards that could result in severe injury, loss of life or major asset damage.
Safety Engineers understand legal obligations and industry good practice and can help businesses understand how equipment and processes present a threat to operators, site employees and the wider community. We work with you, the experts in your process, to identify and assess hazards that carry significant risk. Through our industry recognised techniques including HAZID, HAZOP, LOPA and FMEA we define the safeguards you have in place, identify where unacceptable risk exists, and develop solutions to help you reduce risk to an acceptable level.
Hazard and risk management studies are ideally undertaken throughout a facility’s lifecycle, including:
Concept Development & Design
Installation & Commissioning
Operation, particularly associated with modifications
Decommissioning
As well as the application of inherent safety and risk minimisation, involvement of a safety engineer throughout the facility lifecycle can mitigate unacceptable risk, avoiding the need for costly remedial action at a later stage. 6 Engineering specialise in delivering hazard and risk management studies with experience of a range of processes and applications including: Machinery or processes that create combustible dusts; processing and production of hazardous substances as well as pressurised systems containing flammable and toxic materials.
Formed in 2011 to serve the traditional major hazard industries of oil and gas, petrochemical, and bulk chemical manufacture, we work with clients across a range of sectors including food and drink, pharmaceuticals, cement and ceramics, steel and metal production, net zero technology development including carbon capture and storage, applications for hydrogen and lithium-ion battery manufacture and recycling.