The EU Commission has decided to extend the transition period of EN 954-1’s presumption of conformity to the new Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC by two more years. The duration of the extension is now confirmed in an amendment of the Official Journal of the EU as ending on 31st December 2011.The parallel use of EN 954-1:1996 and EN ISO 13849-1:2008 will continue until the end of the extended transition period.

However, it must be understood, that several Type "B" and "C" standards have been prepared or revised since the listing of EN ISO 13849-1 and EN/IEC 62061 in the official journal's list of harmonised standards under the machinery directive, do not include EN 954-1 as a standard giving presumption of conformity to safety related parts of control systems. Designers and manufacturers of such machines and equipment will have to select EN ISO 13849-1.

As EN954-1 is superseded and as the newer standards better reflect state of the art in Machine Safety System design, Pilz recommends that machine builders adopt these standards sooner rather than wait until the end of the transition period. In particular OEM designers of new machines with a model life of longer than two years should consider adopting the new standards immediately to avoid the cost of re-design, validation and documentation at the end of the transition period.

Contact details

electrical industry manufacturer news, e-lec.org