{"id":1184,"date":"2026-09-18T12:54:28","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T10:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.safety-services.at\/?page_id=1184"},"modified":"2026-09-22T18:07:45","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T16:07:45","slug":"stahlwasserbau","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.safety-services.at\/en\/stahlwasserbau\/","title":{"rendered":"Machinery Safety in Hydraulic Steel Structures: Hydropower and Flood Protection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Flap gates, sluice gates, stoplogs, bottom outlets and rake cleaning machines are machinery in the legal sense: moving steel components with a hydraulic or spindle drive and a control system that is frequently operated remotely from the control room. In hydropower the occasion is called refurbishment, in flood protection it is called upgrading \u2013 technically and legally it is the same subject. 4S supports power plant operators, industrial companies with their own hydropower and hydraulic steel contractors in achieving CE conformity for their installations, and has made this field one of its focus areas in machinery safety<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Why a weir installation is machinery \u2013 and who becomes its manufacturer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The hydraulic steel contractor usually supplies the gate as partly completed machinery with a declaration of incorporation, the hydraulic power unit comes from the hydraulics manufacturer, the electrical installation from the electrical contractor under the Low Voltage Directive, the structural calculation from the civil engineer. Everyone delivers correctly \u2013 and in the end the conformity assessment for the assembly is missing, because nobody has taken on the role of the manufacturer. This is exactly where we come in: we bring the declarations of incorporation and partial documentation together in a risk assessment of the interfaces, name the open requirements and prepare the documentation for the CE conformity assessment under the Machinery Directive, and from 20\/01\/2027 the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023\/1230<\/a>. A water rights permit does not replace this evidence \u2013 and vice versa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Refurbishment and upgrading: Article 18 of the Machinery Regulation<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A flap gate from the 1970s gets a new hydraulic cylinder, a new control system and will in future be operated remotely from the control room. From 20\/01\/2027 the rule is: whoever substantially modifies machinery becomes its manufacturer \u2013 with risk assessment, technical documentation, conformity assessment and CE marking. The threshold is reached as soon as the change creates a new hazard or increases an existing risk, and a protective measure involving the safety control system therefore becomes necessary. For a gate that will move without line of sight, that is quickly the case. Whoever clarifies this before the modification with a modification assessment<\/a> decides the scope themselves; whoever clarifies it afterwards is discussing it with an authority or an insurer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Typical hazards at weirs and gates<\/h3>\n\n\n\n