Journey
Set up a machinery manufacturing business
Learning path for new machinery and equipment manufacturers — engines, pumps and compressors, machine tools, lifting and handling equipment, agricultural machinery and industrial plant. Work out which rules apply, put a safe factory and your employment duties in place, meet the conformity and type-approval regimes for what you make, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Making machinery and equipment puts you among the engineering trades, with duties that begin before your first product leaves the factory. You have to keep your people safe around machine tools, welding and lifting, and meet your obligations as an employer. And — the thing that most defines this sector — you have to get the product conformity right. Almost everything you make must meet a conformity or type-approval regime before you can sell it. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it, from working out which rules apply through to checking you have everything in place.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions or the figures — those live in the guides it points to. This map shows you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
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Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. This sector is broad — a pump maker, a machine-tool builder, a tractor manufacturer and a boiler maker share a workplace-safety foundation. But they then follow very different product-conformity and type-approval rules, and several regimes can apply to a single machine. Working this out first saves you from discovering a missed conformity duty late, when redesigning is expensive. Use the router guide to find your route before you commit.
Which machinery and equipment manufacturing regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply to what you make. A reference guide that routes you from the shared workplace-safety foundation to the conformity and type-approval regimes for your products.
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Put your safe-factory and employment foundations in place
Whatever you make, this is the universal spine. Risk-assess the work and control exposure to metalworking fluids, welding fume and solvents under COSHH. Keep your machine tools and presses safeguarded under PUWER and manage manual handling of heavy components. Carry out your fire risk assessment, hold employers' liability insurance and meet your equality and data protection duties. Build this in from the start rather than retrofitting it.
Set up and run a safe machinery factory
The duties every manufacturer shares — general health and safety, COSHH on fluids, fume and coatings, work equipment (PUWER), manual handling, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.
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Meet the conformity and type-approval rules for what you make
This is what defines the sector. Depending on what you make, you may need to meet the Supply of Machinery (Safety) Regulations or the electromagnetic compatibility rules. You may also need to meet the pressure-equipment or simple-pressure-vessel regimes, or the Lifts Regulations. For tractors and non-road mobile machinery engines, you may also need vehicle and engine type approval through the Vehicle Certification Agency. Several regimes can apply to one product. These are Great Britain market regimes — with UKCA or CE marking for the conformity regimes, and VCA type approval (a separate regime) for vehicles and engines. If you also supply Northern Ireland, check that position separately. Design conformity in early, because it shapes the product itself.
Place machinery and equipment on the market
The conformity and type-approval regimes — machinery safety, electromagnetic compatibility, pressure equipment and simple pressure vessels, lifts, vehicle and engine type approval, general product safety, and food-contact materials for food-processing machinery.
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Verify you have covered everything
Once things are underway, review everything to confirm it holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation is genuinely met rather than assumed. That covers workplace, employment and the product-conformity regimes for what you make. Use it as your readiness review before you sell, and come back to it as your product range changes. A new product can bring a new regime into play.
Machinery and equipment manufacturer: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything before you sell — the universal workplace and employment duties, and the conformity and type-approval regimes for the machinery and equipment you make.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every manufacturing business carries general obligations that are not unique to machinery but are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including the COSHH assessments that bite around metalworking fluids, welding fume and solvents.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO.
- meet your fire safety duties for the premises you work from, which matter wherever you do hot work and store oils and flammables.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business. The safe-factory spine and the compliance checklist bring the core duties together so you can confirm they are covered.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task. Work out which rules apply and put a safe factory and your employment duties in place. Meet the conformity and type-approval regimes for what you make, and verify the lot. Work the guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position from your first sale onwards.