Machinery Directive

98 /37/EC and its successor 2006/42/EC have special significance in terms of the functional safety of machinery. This directive, generally known as the “Machinery Directive”, is concerned with the standardization of European safety requirements on machinery.

Content:
The Machinery Directive covers the key aspects of machine safety. The contents of the Machinery Directive are as follows:

• Scope, placing on the market, freedom of movement
• Conformity assessment procedures
• CE marking
• Essential health and safety requirements
• Categories of machinery and the applicable conformity assessment procedures
• EC declaration of conformity and type-examination
• Requirements of notifi ed bodies

Validity:
The Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC replaced the previous version 98/37/EC with effect from 29.12.2009. There is no transition period.

Standards relating to the Machinery Directive:
At this point, it makes no sense to name all the standards that are listed under the Machinery Directive and are therefore considered as harmonized. As of Spring 2011, there were more than 700 standards listed directly. To then add all the standards that are relevant indirectly via the standards that are listed directly, would go far beyond the scope of this compendium. The following chapters will therefore concentrate on those standards for the Machinery Directive which are of general significance.