Meet Our Machine Safety Expert – Johan Van Eyk
When it comes to CE marking and machine safety, it’s easy to think of it as paperwork, standards, and red tape. In reality, it’s about protecting people — and making sure machines do exactly what they’re supposed to do, safely and reliably.
We caught up with Johan Van Eyk, who leads our robotics and automation work at Noreside Engineering, to chat about what that looks like in practice.
Q: Johan, what do you actually do day-to-day?
It’s a mix, to be honest. Some days I’m deep into risk assessments, other days I’m working with clients on new machine designs or reviewing safety systems.
A big part of it is making sure safety isn’t an afterthought. If you get involved early, you can design things properly. If it’s left too late, you’re usually trying to fix problems under pressure.
Q: You’re a CMSE® certified expert — what does that mean in simple terms?
It basically means I’ve been trained and certified in machine safety to an international standard through TÜV Nord.
But more importantly, it gives structure to how we approach safety — things like risk assessments, safety circuits, and making sure everything lines up with standards like ISO 12100 and ISO 13849.
Q: Where do manufacturers usually get caught out?
Timing, nearly every time.
CE marking gets pushed to the end of a project, and then suddenly there’s a scramble to get documentation together or fix safety issues that should have been designed out from the start.
That’s where costs creep in and timelines slip.
Q: So what’s the better way of doing it?
Start early and keep it practical.
Noreside Engineering doesn’t overcomplicate things, we keep the important things simple. The goal is to make the machine safe without affecting how it performs. That means working closely with the people designing and building it, not just handing over a report at the end.
Q: How important is functional safety now?
It’s huge.
Most machines now rely on control systems for safety — emergency stops, interlocks, safety PLCs. These all need to work every single time.
We design and check those systems to make sure they meet the required Performance Levels or Safety Integrity Levels, but more importantly, that they actually work in the real world.
Q: Final bit of advice for anyone starting a project?
Don’t leave safety until the end.
If you build it in from the start, everything else falls into place — compliance, documentation, even maintenance down the line.
It just makes life easier.
Engineering Safety That Works in the Real World
Johan’s approach is simple — keep it practical, get involved early, and make sure safety works in real operating conditions, not just on paper.
That’s how we approach every CE marking and machine safety project at Noreside Engineering.
If you need support with compliance or are planning a new system,
get in touch with our team.
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