Delay to Machinery Directive standard given cautious welcome
September 24th 2009 News that BS EN 954-1 will be accepted to support compliance to the European Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC for a further three years in spite of the introduction of replacement standards has been given a cautious welcome.
BS EN 954-1 has been followed for presumption of conformity to the Machinery Directive 98/37/EC for many years but two new standards – BS EN ISO 13849-1 or BS EN 62061 – were set to replace BS EN 954-1 on December 29 2009, and become the only control system standards accepted under the new European Machinery Directive.
However, because some organisations have found it difficult to prepare for the change the deadline has been extended.
Peter Still, industry standards manager at Schneider Electric, comments: “BS EN 954-1 is well understood and is seen as simple to use, but is not really rigorous enough to ensure sufficient safety integrity in many modern and complex machines. Complying with the new standards may be more time consuming, but it can achieve greater levels of safety throughout the machine’s life.”
“For most control system and machine builders, this is very good news,” said Paul Laidler of Laidler Associates, “since it gives time for the work needed to underpin the new EN 13849-1 standard to be carried out carefully and thoroughly. Nevertheless, retaining EN 954-1 does have its downside, as there are many areas that this standard doesn’t cover including, for example, programmable safety equipment, which simply didn’t exist when it was formulated.”
Derek Jones of Rockwell Automation urges: “Caution should be counselled for anyone who may think this is an extended opportunity to ignore the impending changes. It will not be clear for some time exactly what the full implication might be. Perhaps some of the best clarification will be given in the forthcoming official EU guidance document on the new Machinery Directive. That is still under preparation but it is likely to set the preference for following EN ISO 13849-1 (or EN 62061) wherever possible, as opposed to the old EN 954-1.”
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