The EU Commission is continuing to push ahead with the new version of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC, e.g. with a public survey in the summer of 2019. The VDW is closely monitoring the legislative process and has pointed out, among other things, that in the age of digitisation the demand for operating instructions in paper form is no longer up to date.
In addition to the risk assessments, which are also required by the Machinery Directive, serious changes have recently been made to the normative superstructure, particularly with regard to the aspect of functional safety.
For this reason, the VDW has thoroughly reviewed industry-standard design methods for machine tools using the methods of the demanding new control standard ISO 13849-1 and determined the achievable performance levels of existing control chains. Based on field data, the safety-related reliability could be proven several times. This finding is in line with the fact that the number of accidents involving machine tools in Germany has been constantly declining for years.
However, such proven arguments have been questioned again for some time, for example by the approach in the above survey of bringing together the issues of "safety" and "security" in the revision of the Machinery Directive. The VDW, together with the VDMA and CECIMO, has taken a negative stance on this.
These and other relevant aspects of this broad subject area will be examined from several angles in presentations by machine manufacturers, component suppliers and occupational health and safety experts. They will point out the demands placed on modern machine tools and how they are currently being met.
We cordially invite you to attend.
