In design, construction and use of thermal spray equipment, very often several companies or persons are involved. Then, in the most cases it isn't clear who is the responsible body for the safe use of the machines. Is it the manufacturer or the user? Is the worker liable for incidents or is the employer in charge. This paper will show some reasonable solutions for these questions with a view to the related legal aspects. It explains, especially when there are several suppliers involved for one integrated system, why the responsibility for health and safety aspects have to be defined before the equipment is put into operation.

The advantages of thermal spray technology open an increasing number of applications in several fields. However, it has to be considered that thermal spray processes contain several, partly substantial potentials of danger. As other machinery in Europe, thermal spray equipment is subject to essential health and safety requirements. This paper lists the necessary steps for the manufacturer to develop and to bring into market machinery and parts of machinery that are in conformity with the CE requirements. “CE” represents “Communauté Européenne”, the French term for the European Community. The directives, codes and legal basics, the procedure of risk assessment, the requirements to the technical documentation as well as the conditions regarding declaration and marking are discussed under the point of view of thermal spray. Some sections treat the status of modified and reconditioned machinery, the duties of users of thermal spray equipment as well as similarities and differences in the requirements in Europe to other markets.