Safety hub
Safety
An autoclave is a pressure vessel, operating at temperature, with a door a person can walk through. Everything on this page exists because that sentence is true.
Our position
Safety is a design requirement, not a warning label.
It is possible to build an autoclave that meets code and is still unpleasant to operate safely — interlocks that can be defeated, alarm lists nobody can triage, emergency stops that depend on software. We design against that.
Interlocks that prove, not assume
Door locking verified against measured vessel pressure rather than inferred from a valve position. The lock does not release because a sequence finished; it releases because the vessel is actually safe.
Independent trip paths
Over-temperature protection and emergency stop do not route through the control loop. If the software is the problem, the safety function still works.
Alarms a human can act on
A short, prioritised alarm list. An operator cannot triage forty simultaneous warnings, so we do not produce forty.
Safety moments
Short briefings for your shift handover
Written for the people actually standing in front of the machine. Use them, print them, put them on the board — that is what they are for.
SM-01
Stored energy after shutdown
A vessel that has finished its cycle is not automatically safe. What to verify before approaching the door, and why the gauge on the panel is not the only check.
Read briefingSM-02
The interlock is not a handle
What a door interlock is actually proving, the ways it gets defeated in practice, and why 'it has always worked' is not a safety case.
Read briefingSM-03
Exotherm: recognising runaway
The early indications that a thick laminate is generating more heat than the system is removing, and the correct response at each stage.
Read briefingSM-04
Working alone on nights
Lone-working arrangements around pressure equipment: what must be in place before a cure is left running, and when it should not be.
Read briefingSM-05
Hot surfaces and burn risk
Where surface temperatures stay dangerous longest, why PPE discipline slips during unloading, and the injuries that result.
Read briefingSM-06
Near-miss reporting
The incident nobody logged is the one that repeats. How to make reporting frictionless enough that it actually happens.
Read briefingLegislation
What UK operators are actually held to.
Most autoclave operators are surprised by how much pressure-equipment law applies to them, and when. This is a plain-English summary, not legal advice — but it will tell you which questions to ask.
- PSSR 2000 — written scheme of examination, competent person, examination in accordance with the scheme
- PUWER 1998 — equipment suitable, maintained, and operators trained
- PED / UKCA — conformity assessment for pressure equipment placed on the market
- COSHH — resin systems, release agents and solvent exposure during layup and unloading
- DSEAR — where solvents or flammable atmospheres are present
This page is 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.
Ask yourself
Four questions
- Do we have a current written scheme of examination?
- When was the last examination in accordance with it?
- Who is our named competent person, and are they independent?
- Could we produce the records this afternoon if asked?
Safety news & updates
What has changed, and what it means for you
We publish when guidance changes, when an incident in our sector carries a transferable lesson, and when a piece of equipment in the field turns out to have a defect worth flagging to other operators.
UPDATE
Equipment field notices
Where we identify a defect or wear pattern with safety implications across a fleet or a component type, we publish it — including on equipment we did not build.
See noticesGUIDANCE
Regulatory changes
Plain-English notes when HSE guidance, standards or conformity requirements change in a way that affects autoclave and oven operators.
See updatesLESSONS
Incident lessons
Anonymised, transferable lessons from incidents and near-misses in composite processing. Published to be useful, not to attribute blame.
See lessonsWorried about something on your floor?
If you have a safety concern about an autoclave or oven — ours or anyone's — call us. We would rather have the conversation than read about it.