Press release: Winners nominated: Safety Prize of the ISSA Section Machine and System Safety awarded 

© AUVA / Richard Reichhart

The global ‘Vision Zero’ initiative of the International Social Security Association is based on the premise that all accidents, injuries and work-related diseases can be prevented. A key focus is on the identification of hazards and the assessment and control of risks.

For the ISSA Section on Machine and System Safety, improving machine safety has always been a central concern. Although significant progress has already been made, there are still too many accidents with machines occurring worldwide, which not only cause human suffering but also lead to considerable costs for social security systems.

For this reason, the ISSA Section on Machinery and Systems Safety organized its ‘Safety Award’ for the second time from October 2024 to June 2025, with the aim of promoting good practice, showcasing innovations and thereby encouraging other manufacturers to follow this way.

An international jury assessed the submitted machines according to specific criteria, such as unique selling points, geographical reach, applicability, risk reduction, additional costs for the user and ergonomics. The jury examined whether innovative technology had been used and whether a cross-sector solution had been implemented. The exemplary and outstanding solutions from the three winners of the 2025 Award convinced the international jury.

The award ceremony took place as part of the AUVA Prevention Forum in Innsbruck during the opening on 19 May 2026, and the findings were explored in more detail during a ‘Deep Dive Workshop’.

The winners were:

• Kleemann – Wirtgen Group, Göppingen:

The MOBIREX MR 100 NEO mobile impact crusher is used in various recycling applications, such as the processing of concrete, construction waste and asphalt. It is flexible and can be deployed quickly, for example in confined spaces on construction sites

The innovation of the Mobirex MR 100 NEO is the ‘Lock & Turn Quick Access’, a safety device for crushers that only allows access to the crusher housing once the rotor has come to a complete standstill – quickly and easily. The crushing chamber can be opened and closed without tools. This is designed to reduce the many manual steps involved in a key transfer system.

The ‘Lock & Turn Quick Access’ system is operated entirely from ground level. This prevents non-compliance with safety guidelines and minimises potential risks.

• Maschinenfabrik Kurt Neubauer, Wolfenbüttel:

The FrySafe system offers an innovative approach to reducing fire risks in commercial kitchens. Recent findings show that around 25 per cent of all fires in commercial kitchens are attributable to deep-fat fryers, or rather their often-inadequate safety systems.

FrySafe is a self-monitoring electronic safety temperature limiter for professional deep-fat fryers. The redundant mechanism consists of two safety circuits that constantly monitor each other. Should a deviation occur for any reason, FrySafe cuts off the power supply to the heating elements. Furthermore, FrySafe monitors the minimum oil level in the frying fat, thereby preventing localised overheating of the oil near the upper heating elements.

• Sick AG, Waldkirch:

The End-of-Arm Safeguard system is an innovative, non-contact safety system for collaborative robot applications. This system enables many human-robot collaboration applications to be effectively safeguarded and thus implemented on an industrial scale.

The End-of-Arm Safeguard is mounted directly onto the robot flange and creates a protective field around the robot tool and workpiece, which moves in tandem with the robot. If the protective field is breached, the robot’s movement is reliably stopped before any pinching or collisions with the moving robot can occur.

This enables faster implementation of applications using collaborative robots and significantly reduces the costs of safety validation.

Companies benefit from enhanced safety and increased productivity.

Ewald Schemitsch from Kleemann – Wirtgen Group, Holger Burgtorf from Maschinenfabrik Kurt Neubauer and Michael Kaspar from Sick each received a glass trophy and a certificate. The awards were presented by the Section’s President, Jürgen Schulin, the Deputy Director-General of AUVA, Roland Pichler, and AUVA’s Head of Prevention, Georg Effenberger.

By holding the award ceremony at the Prevention Forum, AUVA highlighted the common objective of ISSA and AUVA to improve occupational safety and health, which, in a globalized world, shall not be stopped by national borders.