Posted to News on 13th Sep 2009, 11:41
EN 954-1, official confirmation of extended transition period
>>>STOP PRESS
18 December 2009: Following the official confirmation of an extended transition period for EN 954-1, CEN has now confirmed that the EN 954-1 presumption of conformity to the Machinery Directive has been prolonged for two years, up to 31 December 2011. See EN 954-1 extension confirmed as two years for more information.
>>STOP PRESS
8 December 2009: The EC Machinery Working group has agreed to extend the transition period for EN 954-1. This final decision enables EN 954-1 to provide a presumption of conformity to the (new) Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, though there has been no announcement about for how long the transition period is being extended. Read more about the EN 954-1 extension.
>STOP PRESS
24 September 2009: An announcement from the EC has effectively reversed the decision described below, so EN 954-1 will cease to give presumption of conformity to the Machinery Directive at the end of 2009, as originally planned. However, that may not be the end of the matter. Read more here.
Confirmation of extended transition period
Following press reports of a three-year extension for EN 954-1 providing a 'presumption of conformity' to the (new) Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, and a degree of confusion due to a lack of official announcements on the matter, MachineBuilding.net has now obtained confirmation that this is the case from Marie Poidevin of CEN (the European Committee for Standardization).
Marie Poidevin writes: "Indeed, the European Commission took the decision to further extend the transition period of EN 954-1 (until 31st December 2012) which has for consequence to give EN 954-1 presumption of conformity to the new MD 2006/42/EC.
"The information is not yet visible on the EC website, but the reference EN 954-1 will appear in the next OJEU list to be published for 2006/42/EC in October-November."
The reason behind this change of heart is that many manufacturers are not yet ready to apply the replacement standard EN ISO 13849-1. After discussions at the last EC Machinery working group, the European Commission took the decision to postpone the date of cessation of presumption of conformity of EN 954-1, thereby extending the transition period until the end of 2012 and removing the time pressure that machine builders have, until now, been under [NB see the 'Stop Press' link of 18 December 2009 at the top of this page, as the date has subsequently been revised and confirmed as 31 December 2011 - Ed.].
For more information, request a copy of the free MachineBuilding.net Guide to the New Machinery Directive. In addition, Schneider Electric has provided its views on the EN 954-1 extension and Laidler Associates provided this cautious welcome when the extension was first proposed.
* NB In the UK the corresponding standards are BS EN 954-1 and BS EN ISO 13849-1.
