The 2006/42/EC Machinery Directive, one year on: adaptation of standards now largely complete

Over the past three years, the workload of European safety standardization work has been heavy, with the adaptation of over 600 harmonized standards to the new Machinery Directive. Thanks to the exceptional efforts of all involved, this challenge has been met successfully. Now that this phase has been completed, the CEN Technical Committees (TCs) face a series of further tasks.

In CEN’s Safety of Machinery sector, preparations were made at an early stage for the work of adapting the harmonized standards to be completed swiftly. The scale of the necessary adaptations in content was admittedly small, owing to the amendments to the essential requirements of 2006/42/EC being minor. Despite this, the complex relationship between the essential requirements of the directive and the content of the standards necessitated examination in virtually every individual case.

Adaptation in practice at CEN

Implementation of the amendments in practice began in the CEN TCs in 2007. Special procedures for review and adaptation were drawn up and applied, depending upon the number of standards to be adapted, the need for adaptation of their content, and the experts available:

• For the majority of the generic (Type A and B) standards and for specific (Type C) standards governing particular machine components, formal adaptation by way of Annex Z was sufficient. This was completed more swiftly and with reduced effort by means of a “simple amendment”.
• In the case of Type C standards for complete machines, for which adaptation of the content was necessary, “technical amendment” or complete revision was necessary in most cases.
• Only in exceptional cases, for example where experts were in short supply or where thorough revision of the entire body of standards was already planned (as in the case of CEN/ TC 144, “Tractors and machinery for agriculture and forestry”), did certain TCs decide not to make any technical amendments to the standards for the time being, even though their content required adaptation. Where a transitional solution of this kind has been adopted, however, the essential requirements of 2006/42/EC which are not addressed are stated in Annex Z of the standard in question and explicitly excluded from the presumption of conformity.

Status on the effective date

Since 29 December 2009, only the new Machinery Directive may be applied. 80% of the standards had already been adapted by this date. On 18 and 29 December 2009, the European Commission published references in the Official Journal of the EU to a total of 484 harmonized standards under 2006/42/EC. Of these, 460 fell within the responsibility of CEN. With the latest publication of references in the Official Journal of the EU on 20 October 2010, the number rose to 601 (561 of these from CEN). The process of adapting standards to the new directive can therefore be regarded as having been completed.

Future key tasks

The TCs in CEN’s Safety of Machinery sector are now able to direct their attention back to the revision of existing and drafting of urgently needed new standards. Particular attention will be focussed upon the revision of standards which, owing to a formal objection, have as yet been listed in the Official Journal of the EU as harmonized standards under 2006/42/EC only subject to constraints, if at all.

An increasing number of TCs are seeking international harmonization by way of a parallel process with ISO (Vienna Agreement). Existing European standards are to serve as the basis in this case.

Where it has not yet taken place, the machine- specific Type C standards must be reviewed and if necessary updated with reference to the issue of the safety of controls. Existing Type B standards, particularly EN ISO 13849-1 (Safety-related parts of control systems), serve as a basis for this work.

It is evident that in future, the TCs will have to address other topics, such as sustainability and energy efficiency, in addition to occupational safety and health. Owing to the European Commission mandates under the Energy-related Products Directive (2009/125/EC), a firm need for action already exists for certain TCs. The particular challenge for standards developers will lie in supporting the various requirements in the individual areas to be regulated by providing consistent specifications in the product standards.

Gerhard Steiger
Gerhard.Steiger@vdma.org