Machinery Safety Standards
International and European Machinery Safety Standards are documents written to act as guidelines to the specifics of machinery safety. Standards are usually used as the practical interpretation of the regulations. Working in accordance with the relevant standards is the best way of showing compliance with the Machinery Directive. Although the standards are specifically written to support the Machinery Directive they should also be used to show compliance with PUWER 98.
There are over 600 standards in total so it helps to understand the structure of the standards and which ones are applicable to your field. Click here for a full list of machinery safety standards or view a summary of key A and B standards further on this page.
There have been some significant changes in Machinery safety standards in recent years. Safety System designers are advised to embrace these changes so they are up to speed with the trends. EN ISO 13849-1 is a good example of this because it changes the way we rate the performance of a safety related control system quite considerably. It is only step in the trend shift towards more complex calculation based systems like that in EN62061:2005.
The countries of the world are working towards global harmonization of standards. This is especially evident in the area of machine safety. Global safety standards for machinery are governed by two organizations: ISO and IEC. Regional and country standards are still in existence and continue to support local requirements but in many countries there has been a move toward using the international standards produced by ISO and IEC. For example, the EN (European Norm) standards are used throughout the EEA countries. All new EN standards are aligned with, and in most cases have identical text with ISO and IEC standards.
IEC covers electrotechnical issues and ISO covers all other issues. Most industrialised countries are members of IEC and ISO. Machinery safety standards are written by working groups comprised of experts from many of the world’s industrialised countries.
The diagram below shows how the standards are broken down in to types A,B1, B2 and C. The basic rule with standards is ……….. if a type C standard exists for your machine, use it!
Otherwise a combination of type A and B standards should give you the relevant information. Type C standards on their own will not cover all aspects of your machines safety and you still refer back to some generic A and B standards such as EN ISO 14121-1 which covers risk assessment in detail.
Also Type C standards are not updated as often as A and B standards so they often do not incorporate recent progressions in technology. For example Safety Scanners better solve many presence sensing applications but are yet to be included in the relevant C standards.
Click here for a comprehensive list of Machinery Safety Standards and a summary of the most common ones used.
Click here for a list of the most common standards
There are well over 600 Machinery safety standards. To download a complete list updated June 2009 please click here or follow the link below to download the pdf document. Using Adobe reader will allow you to search for key words in the titles of all standards. A particularly useful tool when looking for Type C standard.
Useful Standards
Below are some of the key type A,B and C standards used by machine builders. The A and B standards below are essential reading for anybody involved with machine machinery safety.
Type A Standards
EN ISO 14121-1:2007 Safety of machinery - Risk assessment - Part 1: Principles, which supersedes EN 1050:1996.
EN ISO 12100-1:2003 Safety of machinery. Basic concepts, general principles for design. Basic terminology, methodology
EN ISO 12100-2:2003 Safety of machinery. Basic concepts, general principles for design. Technical principles
Type B Standards
BS EN ISO 13857 Safety of machinery. Safety distances to prevent hazard zones being reached by upper and lower limbs
BS EN ISO 13850:2006 Safety of machinery. Emergency stop. Principles for design
EN 574 Safety of machinery. Two-hand controls.
BS EN 953:1997+A1:2009 Safety of machinery. Guards. General requirements for the design and construction of fixed and movable guards
BS EN 954-1:1997 (replaced by BS EN ISO 13849-1:2006) Safety of machinery. Safety related parts of control systems. General principles for design
EN ISO 13849-1:2006 Safety of machinery. Safety-related parts of control systems. General principles for design
EN ISO 13849-2:2008 Safety of machinery. Safety-related parts of control systems. Validation
EN 981 Safety of machinery. System of auditory and visual danger and information signals.
BS EN 999:1998+A1:2008 Safety of machinery. The positioning of protective equipment in respect of approach speeds of parts of the human body
BS EN 1037:1995+A1:2008 Safety of machinery. Prevention of unexpected start-up.
EN 1088 Safety of machinery. Interlocking devices associated with guards. Principles for design and selection
EN 60204-1 Safety of machinery. Electrical equipment of machines. Specification for general requirements.
Type C Standards (Examples)
BS EN 692 Mechanical Presses – Safety
BS EN 693 Hydraulic Presses- Safety
BS EN 422 Rubber and Plastics Machines
BS EN 1034 Paper making and finishing
BS EN 415 Packaging Machines
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