1.1.2 · Principles of safety integration

What it requires

1.1.2 of Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 requires: fit-for-purpose, safe design throughout the lifetime (from transport to scrapping), taking foreseeable misuse into account; hierarchy: eliminate the hazard → protect → inform. The user must be able to test the safety functions. It has changed compared with Directive 2006/42/EC and applies to machinery placed on the market from 20 January 2027.

What changes compared with Directive 2006/42/EC

New: the machinery must allow the user to test the safety functions and be supplied with a description of the test procedures.

What the instruction manual must reflect

Intended use and foreseeable misuse; residual risks; required training and PPE; test procedures for the safety functions; special accessories supplied.

Official text

(a) Machinery or related products shall be designed and constructed so that they are fit for their function, and can be operated, adjusted and maintained without putting persons at risk when these operations are carried out under the conditions foreseen but also taking into account any reasonably foreseeable misuse thereof. The aim of protective measures shall be to eliminate any risk throughout the foreseeable lifetime of the machinery or related product including the phases of transport, assembly, dismantling, disabling and scrapping. (b) In selecting the most appropriate methods, the manufacturer shall apply the following principles, in the order given: (i) eliminate hazards or, if that is not possible, minimise risks (inherently safe machinery or related product design and construction); (ii) take the necessary protective measures in relation to risks that cannot be eliminated; (iii) inform users of the residual risks due to any shortcomings of the protective measures adopted, indicate whether any particular training is required and specify any need to provide personal protective equipment. (c) When designing and constructing machinery or a related product and when drafting the instructions for use, the manufacturer shall envisage not only the intended use of the machinery or related product but also any reasonably foreseeable misuse thereof. The machinery or related product shall be designed and constructed in such a way as to prevent abnormal use if such use would engender a risk. Where appropriate, the instructions for use shall draw the user’s attention to ways – which experience has shown might occur – in which the machinery or related product should not be used. (d) Machinery or related products shall be designed and constructed to take account of the constraints to which the operator is subject as a result of the necessary or foreseeable use of personal protective equipment. (e) Machinery or related products shall be designed and constructed in such a way that it is possible for the user, where applicable, to test the safety functions. The machinery or related product shall be supplied with all the special equipment and accessories, and where appropriate, with the description of specific functional test procedures, essential to enable it to be tested, adjusted, maintained and used safely.

Source: Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, OJ L 165, 29.6.2023, Annex III, 1.1.2. The sections ‘What it requires’ and ‘What the instruction manual must reflect’ are our own summary and do not replace the official text.