Deadline for EN 954-1 definitely postponed!

Presumption of conformity valid for longer period

In its latest meeting on 7th December 2009, the Machinery Working Group of the European Commission has agreed to postpone the deadline for  withdrawal of the presumption of conformity for EN 954-1 "Safety of machinery - Safety-related parts of control systems - Part 1: General principles for design".

This means that EN 954-1 will continue to be listed together with EN ISO 13849-1 (its succeeding standard) as a harmonised standard under the new Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) and will not expire on 28th December 2009. An exact date for the new deadline has not yet been fixed, but will be announced soon by the European Commission.

This postponement will help many engineering companies that have been coping with numerous problems to adapt their products to the fundamentally modified conception of the new EN ISO 13849-1.
Standardisation committees still referring in their product standards to EN 954-1 herewith will also get the chance to revise and adapt their standards accordingly.
The following general agreements made in the Machinery Working Group are considered important for the application of EN 954-1:

1. Manufacturers who apply standard EN ISO 13849-1 benefit from a presumption of conformity, even if the harmonised C-type standard relating to the machinery concerned still refers to the categories of EN 954-1;
2. Harmonised C-type standards that refer to the categories of EN 954-1 continue to confer a presumption of conformity until they are amended to refer to standard EN ISO 13849-1.

These conclusions will be recorded in the minutes of the meeting.
For any questions in this respect, please contact our Technical Director, Mr. Winfried Resch.