Be my Guest…Bernie Winter
Bernie Winter is a Technical Support Specialist at LEEA. Here, he tells members what he is looking forward to most at LiftEx 2024 and what to look out for in the new Machinery Directive changes.
“LiftEx is a great way to get everybody together and meet face-to-face to discuss lifting matters, discuss any issues they have, and to see if there are any new products on the market, and hopefully if they have any queries or any issues with anything, we can advise them on that,” said Winter.
“I always find the innovations category at the LEEA Awards (on October 16) an interesting topic because it's nice to see how people are thinking outside the box.
“In terms of standards, there have been a lot of changes recently. Probably the biggest thing that's been happening is a lot of the component standards have lost what's been known as their harmonised status because they're incorporated into a greater assembly, they don't need their own harmonised status. It's the actual finished article that requires that. This is where we should look at CE marking or UK CA marking, where it's required to make sure that it complies with any health and safety requirements and it's safe to go on to the market and be used.
“It's been going on for about two or three years now. I hope members are aware that the Machinery Directive in Europe is in the process of being updated and modernised to become the Machinery Regulation, and there are quite a few changes in that.”
Winter himself joined LEEA having come from a military background and the association has its own
Military Training Scheme to help ex-servicemen and women find a career in the industry.
“I left the forces fulltime in 2009. I then left the reserves in 2014. I took up a post with LEEA in 2013. I couldn't commit to the time required to do the reservist side of things. I've been on the Technical Services team now since 2018. So that's six years now,” he said.
In encouraging others to join the association he said: “LEEA itself is a global advisory trade association. We have a set audit which encourages any new member that joins us to meet those targets. And it's really to ensure that anything, whether you're manufacturing, inspecting or examining - that the standard you work to is as high as it can be. Having LEEA full membership allows you to carry the LEEA badge, deemed to be ‘the Rolls Royce of lifting’ as far as companies go. We do actually have Rolls Royce as a member as well. So, we have some very high-level companies on our books that are members of our association and they see the advantage in that.”
Click HERE to watch the video on LEEA YouTube.
For more information about LiftEx visit https://events.leeaint.com
