Last updated on April 23rd, 2015 at 04:09 pm
From our friends at MachineBuilding.net.
It is now more than a year since the new Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) came into force, but the situation is still fairly fluid in some respects. The EC Machinery Working Group meets regularly to discuss matters relating to the Directive and corresponding standards; the last meeting took place on 21/22 December. According to the Stakeholder Report published in the UK by BIS (the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills), a number of issues were discussed, which demonstrates that the Machinery Directive is not as ‘black and white’ as might be expected.
For example, EN 12635 (Industrial, commercial and garage doors and gates – Installation and use) is currently harmonised to the Machinery Directive, but the UK has raised a formal objection against this standard, as it would appear that there is scope for improvement. Other topics under discussion ranged from variable reach trucks, tail lifts and loader cranes, to stave splitters, dynamometers and ‘grey’ imports of machinery.
If you would like more information, copies of the current and previous Stakeholder Reports are available in PDF format from the UK Department of Business Information & Skills (BIS) web site.
Machinery Directive stakeholder report: February 2011 (PDF, 81 Kb)
Machinery Directive Working Group held on 1-2 June 2010, Brussels (PDF, 56 Kb)
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F.e. if you buy a garage door opener and install it yourself to your garage, you are a manufacturer and will have to declare conformity along with all the necessary paperwork, technical file etc etc. And think you are done? No, as you will be using it or handing the remote to your wife, you will need to make sure that the opener is safe to use (also for your wife). In The Netherlands that’s called making a Risc analysis and Evaluation. I guess the rules need to adapt to that sort of situations..
F.e. if you buy a garage door opener and install it yourself to your garage, you are a manufacturer and will have to declare conformity along with all the necessary paperwork, technical file etc etc. And think you are done? No, as you will be using it or handing the remote to your wife, you will need to make sure that the opener is safe to use (also for your wife). In The Netherlands that’s called making a Risc analysis and Evaluation. I guess the rules need to adapt to that sort of situations..