AS 4024 Conveyor Safety Upgrades
AS 4024 Conveyor Safety Upgrades
AS 4024–compliant safety upgrades for conveyors, including risk assessments, emergency stops, interlocks and safety PLC retrofits.
AS 4024 Compliant Conveyor Safety Upgrades
Most conveyor safety failures occur at interfaces—transfer zones, maintenance access points, and restart logic—where original machine safety assumptions no longer hold.
Conveyors operating in Australian industrial environments are frequently modified over their service life through layout changes, drive upgrades, throughput increases, and integration with robotic pick-and-place systems or downstream plant. These changes alter mechanical exposure, stopping performance, and control system behaviour, often without a corresponding update to the original safety design.
AS/NZS 4024:2019–compliant conveyor safety upgrades focus on aligning the current conveyor configuration with AS 4024 Safety of Machinery requirements, applicable Australian standards, and documented safety functions—rather than relying on original build intent.
Common Safety Risks In Conveyors
Conveyors present ongoing machinery safety risks due to continuous motion, exposed nip points, and frequent interaction with operators, maintenance personnel, and automated systems. Risk is amplified where conveyors interface with palletising cells, sorting systems, or shared access zones.
Common issues identified during formal risk assessments include:
- Inadequate emergency stop coverage along the conveyor length
- Machine guarding that no longer satisfies required safety distances
- Access to hazardous zones during jam clearing, belt tracking, or cleaning
- Draw-in and entanglement hazards at tail pulleys, return rollers, and take-up stations
- Control system restart behaviour that allows motion without full hazard clearance
- Safety wiring and interlocks altered during upgrades or fault rectification
- Electrical modifications no longer aligned with applicable electrical safety requirements (e.g. AS/NZS 3000 and IEC 60204-1)
These risks are typical in conveyors that have evolved incrementally rather than through controlled engineering change.
Why Old Conveyors Often Fail AS 4024 Compliance
Older conveyors often fail compliance not due to poor construction, but because their safety functions were designed around outdated assumptions.
Common compliance gaps include:
- Emergency stop circuits relying on standard PLC logic rather than safety-rated architectures
- Guarding layouts that predate current safety distance requirements
- Control systems lacking defined safety functions for fault recovery and restart
- PLC programming changes introduced without reassessing safety performance
- Electrical equipment modifications undocumented or inconsistent with Australian standards
- Absence of updated engineering drawings reflecting the as-installed condition
In many cases, the conveyor remains mechanically sound but no longer meets current safety requirements under AS 4024.
Typical Safety Upgrades For Conveyor Machines
Conveyor safety upgrades are typically delivered as targeted retrofits, allowing assets to remain production-ready while closing identified compliance gaps. Upgrade scope is defined through risk assessment and aligned with AS 4024 and relevant machinery safety expectations.
Ready To Review Your AS 4024 Safety Compliance?
Our Approach To AS 4024 Conveyor Safety Retrofits
Conveyor safety retrofits begin with a structured risk assessment aligned with AS 4024 Safety of Machinery requirements and applicable safety legislation. The assessment considers normal operation, abnormal conditions, maintenance access, and interaction with surrounding plant.
Upgrade designs are developed using updated engineering documentation and reviewed against applicable Australian standards, including machine electrical equipment requirements under IEC 60204-1. Where required, changes are verified through functional testing and, for larger systems, factory acceptance testing prior to site deployment.
When To Upgrade Or Replace Conveyors
Safety upgrades are generally appropriate where the conveyor structure, drives, and mechanical components remain serviceable and compliance gaps can be addressed through guarding and control system improvements.
Replacement may be justified where:
- Mechanical wear prevents reliable stopping or guarding effectiveness
- Conveyor geometry cannot be modified to meet safety distance requirements
- Control system limitations prevent implementation of required safety functions
In many cases, targeted upgrades allow conveyors to remain production-ready while achieving compliance with current safety requirements.
Related Safety Upgrade Solutions
Conveyor safety upgrades are commonly delivered as part of broader compliance and maintenance programs, including:
- Conveyor machine guarding and access control upgrades
- Safety PLC and control system retrofits
- Emergency stop circuit and safety wiring upgrades
- Machinery safety risk assessments and validation
These solutions support consistent application of machinery safety principles across integrated industrial systems.
Next Step
If your conveyor system has been modified, integrated with other plant, or lacks recent safety verification against AS 4024, contact us to discuss your current configuration. We can assist with risk assessment, safety validation, and the development of conveyor safety upgrades aligned with Australian standards and operational requirements.