Compliance and safety
Pressure equipment compliance
An autoclave is a pressure vessel, operating at temperature, with a door a person can walk through. UK law regulates it that way, and we design and support it that way.
PSSR 2000
Ready for examination
The Pressure Systems Safety Regulations 2000 require a written scheme of examination drawn up by a competent person, and examination in accordance with it. Operators often discover this late, when an insurer or a customer audit asks for the paperwork.
We help you get ahead of it, and make sure the equipment and its records support the scheme rather than fight it.
- Scope review: what is pressure equipment and what is not
- Support for the written scheme of examination
- Liaison with your competent person, and access for examination
- Records that satisfy an inspector
Typically in scope
What a UK inspector looks at
| Pressure vessel | Covered by the written scheme |
|---|---|
| Relief devices | Set pressure verified |
| Door interlock | Function proved |
| Pipework | Depends on the scheme |
| Records | Available on request |
| Competent person | Named and independent |
Legislation
What UK operators are held to
A plain-English summary of the rules that most often apply to autoclaves and curing ovens. It will tell you which questions to ask.
PSSR 2000
The Pressure Systems Safety Regulations: a written scheme of examination drawn up by a competent person, and examination in accordance with it.
PUWER 1998
Work equipment must be suitable for its use, maintained in safe condition, and operated by people who have been trained.
PED and UKCA
Conformity assessment for pressure equipment placed on the market in the EU and in Great Britain.
COSHH
Exposure to resin systems, release agents and solvents during lay-up and unloading.
DSEAR
Where solvents or other flammable atmospheres are present around the equipment.
This page is general guidance, not legal advice. Your written scheme of examination must be drawn up by a competent person who is independent of the pressure system’s operation. We can help you prepare for that and make sure the equipment supports the scheme; we do not replace it.
Self-check
Four questions to ask today
Do we have a current written scheme?
PSSR 2000 requires one for every pressure system in scope, drawn up by a competent person.
When was the last examination?
Examinations must follow the intervals and scope the scheme sets out.
Who is our competent person?
They must be named, and independent of the pressure system's day-to-day operation.
Could we produce the records today?
Insurers and customer audits ask for them, often without much notice.
Safety by design
Safety is a design requirement
An autoclave can meet code and still be hard to operate safely. We design against interlocks that can be defeated, alarm lists nobody can triage and emergency stops that depend on software.
Interlocks that prove, not assume
Door locking is verified against measured vessel pressure, not inferred from a valve position. The lock releases because the vessel is safe, not because a sequence finished.
Independent trip paths
Over-temperature protection and the emergency stop do not route through the control loop. If the software is the problem, the safety function still works.
Alarms a person can act on
A short, prioritised alarm list. An operator cannot triage forty simultaneous warnings, so we do not produce forty.
Older vessels
Independent advice on fitness for service
Whether a twenty-year-old vessel should be retested, repaired or retired is a question where the advice should not come from whoever sells the test. We provide non-destructive testing advice independent of any test house.
That includes acoustic emission testing, which listens to a vessel under load and locates active defects as they occur. Unlike a hydrostatic retest, the vessel does not need to be filled, drained and dried, so downtime is measured in hours rather than days.
Upgrade instead of replace
Bring an older machine up to standard
Many older autoclaves run door interlock logic that would not be accepted on a new installation. A control retrofit replaces the controls, instrumentation and interlocks without modifying the pressure envelope, so the vessel needs no requalification, and it is often the cheapest route to a defensible safety case.
Contact
Worried about something on your floor?
If you have a safety concern about an autoclave or oven, ours or anyone else's, call us. We would rather have the conversation early.