The work of product designers has to evolve in phase with the improvements made to technology and changes in regulations. They have to work on different aspects of a product such as its technological, legal, environmental and occupational safety implications. European directive 2006/42/CE promulgates safe machine design principles to prevent professional risks. These principles guide machine designers to reduce residual risks as much as the technological state of the art permits. Special machine designers are by definition confronted by a lack of specific standards relating to a priori risk analysis. The aim of this paper is to present an original approach to help them to identify hazards upstream and also throughout the design process. This approach is based on the fact that hazards are linked to the presence of energies. Hazard identification can be done through the detection of parameters linked to energy sources and flows. The approach then feeds back information to designers about potential contacts between energies and workers, to highlight the need to add preventive measures. We use the Functional-Structural Model is used to represent the machine energy architecture through the different steps of its lifecycle. Thus it is possible to identify every interface through which energies circulate. These interfaces are defined by two kinds of parameter: energetic parameters (linked to energy properties), and other design parameters. This paper first presents a detailed classification of energetic parameters that are also indicators of the hazards present in the machine. We then present logical rules for processing these energetic parameters and others, in order to increase the accuracy of the hazard identification performed. To conclude, the results obtained from using this approach during the industrial design of a supply line is detailed to validate the pertinence of its application from the earliest design stages, with improved accuracy during the subsequent design stages. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.