Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)

Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) is the EU legislation documents applicable to the Machinery products and certain part of the machinery. It is very important documents used to comply the essential health and safety requirements for the Machinery products sold in European Union. This new directive as it is a “New Approach” directive, promotes and ensure harmonisation through a combination of mandatory health and safety requirements and voluntary harmonised standards. This directive applies to machinery as well as safety components, lifting accessories, partly completed machinery chains/ropes/webbing, and removable mechanical transmission devices.

The main objective of this directive is to ensure the safety of the machinery, minimize and eliminated the hazardous situations. The Directive prompt:

• free movement of machinery within European Union – the single market
• guarantees a high level of protection for EU workers and common citizens

Adoption of Machinery Directive

The Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) published on 9th June 2006 and became applicable on 29th December 2009. The directive was amended with regard to machinery for pesticide application by Directive 2009/127/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 October 2009 and by Regulation (EU) No 167/2013 on 5 February 2013 on the approval and market surveillance of agricultural and forestry vehicles, among others.

Product covered under Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC)

Machinery consists of an assembly of components have moving parts, joined together for a specific application powered by energy other than human or animal effort. The Directive applicable to the following type of the products:

• Packaging machinery
• Paper cutting and binding machine
• CNC machines
• Extruders
• woodworking machines
• Earth-moving machinery
• Agricultural machinery
• Textile machinery
• industrial laundry machinery
• Conveying, spraying machines etc.

Product which are not cover under Machinery Directive (2006/42/EC) are:

• lifting appliances whose speed is not greater than 0,15 m/s,
• construction site hoists,
• cableways, including funicular railways,
• lifts specially designed and constructed for military or police purposes,
• lifting appliances from which work can be carried out,
• mine winding gear,
• lifting appliances intended for lifting performers during artistic performances,
• lifting appliances fitted in means of transport,
• lifting appliances connected to machinery and intended exclusively for access to workstations including maintenance and inspection points on the machinery,
• rack and pinion trains,
• escalators and mechanical walkways.

Assessing the conformity of machinery

1. Machinery except Annex IV listed machinery, the manufacturer or his authorized representative can complies the Annex VIII for internal checks for the assessment of conformity.
2. Machinery referred in Annex IV and manufactured in accordance with the harmonized standards referred to in Article 7(2) can use following options:

• Annex VIII for internal checks for the assessment of conformity.
• Annex IX for EC type-examination procedure(by Notified Body), plus the internal checks on the manufacture as per Annex VIII
• Annex X for full quality assurance procedure.

1. If the Machinery referred in Annex IV is not manufacturer as per harmonized standards or does not have harmonised standard, conformity can be done by following means:

• the EC type-examination procedure provided for in Annex IX, plus the internal checks
• the full quality assurance procedure as per Annex X

Assessing the conformity for partial completed machinery

For partial completed machinery we can adopt following procedure for the conformity assessment:

• the technical documentation described in Annex VII, part B
• assembly instructions described in Annex VI
• a declaration of incorporation

 Conformity Procedure:

For Conformity we need to adopt four steps:

• Identify the applicable conformity module and requirements – Assess the requirements of notified body
• Identify the applicable Standards
• Testing and assessment as per standards and directive including ANNEX I Essential health and safety requirements relating to the design and construction of machinery
• Prepare the Technical Construction File and Declaration of conformity

For a Machinery, there are more than one Directive can be applicable. For example we see Injection moulding machine then with Machinery Directive other main directive applicable are Low Voltage Directive (2014/35/EU) and Electromagnetic Compatibility Directive (2014/30/EU).

 Directive Revision

The technology is changing in a past pace and one evaluation conducted on the effectiveness on the Machinery Directive and it shows that directive is relatively flexible to technological development and generally relevant, effective and efficient. However it is understand that some of the provision require better clarity and coherence with other Directives. Some of other Directive requirements need to simplify. In the view of these input a revision process is going on and in some time we may see a new machinery regulation.

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