The European Commission recently extended the deadline for transition from EN 954-1 until December 31, 2011, providing machine builders with an additional 24 months to meet the new standards, EN ISO 13849-1 and EN/IEC 62061.
Dan Hornbeck, safety market development manager of Rockwell Automation is encouraging machine builders to comply with EN ISO 13849-1 as soon as possible.
”Early adopters not only will move ahead of the competition, but also help better protect workers and machinery,” he says. “These new standards provide functional safety guidance that helps improve safety, efficiency and sustainability – while reducing development and operational costs.”
EN 954-1, formerly the main standard for the design of safety related control systems in the "machinery safety" sector, traditionally has been followed for presumption of conformity to European Machinery Directive 98/37/EC. Newer standards EN ISO 13849-1 or EN/IEC 62061 – which provide for use of more advanced safety-control systems technologies – are in place, applicable now, and will fully replace EN 954-1 on December 31, 2011. At that time, the new control system standards will become the only ones accepted under the new European Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC.
Many global manufacturers already specify compliance with the new standards, and Rockwell Automation is helping customers meet them with technologies, products and the necessary functional safety data. Functional safety data is available in multiple forms, including a data library for use with the SISTEMA calculation tool from the BGIA (Institute for Occupational Safety and Health of the German Social Accident Insurance), and a PDF file providing data for manual calculation.
Functional safety data, including the SISTEMA calculation tool and library, can be downloaded at Rockwell’s Safety Solutions Portal, http://discover.rockwellautomation.com/functionalsafety.
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