The safety consultant Laidler Associates is warning about imminent changes to some fundamental machine safety standards. Three EN ISO standards are being superseded and their requirements are being consolidated into one new standard, although there will be no changes to the requirements themselves.

The three standards affected are EN ISO 12100-1:2003, 12100-2:2003 and 14121-1:2007. They will be replaced by ISO 12100:2010, Safety of machinery - General principles for design - Risk assessment and risk reduction.

“Since the requirements themselves are not changing, it might seem that machine-builders and OEMs don’t need to concern themselves about the introduction of ISO EN 12100:2010,” says MD Paul Laidler (above), “but that’s not quite true. Though the requirements won’t change, the numbering relating to them certainly will, which means that any documentation that refers to individual requirements will have to be revised accordingly, if it is to be supplied with new machines.

“This will particularly affect companies with machines in series production, and companies that are currently designing machines that will not be supplied until after the new standard comes into force,” he adds.

Although documentation for machines already in use, which refers to the existing standards, will not need to be revised, documentation for all machines supplied after the change must refer to the new standard.

No date has yet been announced for the publication of ISO EN 12100:2010 in the UK, but the ISO version has been harmonised and has been published in its ISO and EN forms. BSI is in the final stages of working on the UK version and its publication is imminent.