My experience is that the machinery enforcement people around Europe do actually talk to each other rather more than the electrical lot (although I will admit that may say more about my contacts and information sources than the actual situation on the ground).
More significantly, the relationship between compliance with the standards and compliance with the directive is much less rigid under the Machinery Directive than is usually understood to be the case under the LVD or EMC Directives. This partly reflects the fact that there are a great many machines for which there are no directly applicable type C standards whereas nearly all electrical appliances have a directly applicable standard, but it is also a reflection of the fact that the Machinery Directive contains a much more detailed list of EHSRs than the LVD or EMC directives. In other words, machinery manufacturers tend to need to spend more time looking at first principles and less time relying on the standards, partly because they have more first principles to deal with and partly because they often have less helpful standards (in both senses) to guide them. Nick. At 19:07 +0100 24/9/09, John Woodgate wrote: >In message <p06240813c6e15ce92914@[192.168.1.60]>, dated Thu, 24 Sep >2009, Nick Williams <[email protected]> writes: > >>A manufacturer is free to chose alternative methods to the >>Harmonised Standards if they are prepared to make the case that >>their chosen solution provides an equivalent level of safety and >>compliance with the EHSRs. Given that there are no fundamental >>differences to the requirements of safety between the old and the >>new Machinery Directives, and that EN 954-1 has served the machine >>control system building community very well for a good number of >>years, I can see no reason why it cannot continue to be used for >>some time to come, harmonised or not, particularly in the absence >>of the component data which EN 13849-1 relies on to be properly >>applied. > >The trouble with that is that it puts you at the mercy of regulatory >authorities in every country that you sell into. And they all have >different ideas and approaches. > >Many will just look at the magic 'word' EN 954-1 and scream 'NON >COMPLIANT!!!!'. >-- - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to <[email protected]> All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc Graphics (in well-used formats), large files, etc. can be posted to that URL. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas <[email protected]> Mike Cantwell <[email protected]> For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: <[email protected]> David Heald: <[email protected]>
