Last edit: 24/01/2025
The Machinery Directive has the function of:
- ensuring the free circulation of machinery in the European market;
- ensuring a high level of safety for users and other exposed persons;
- promoting the integration of safety into the design, i.e. addressing the issues of safe machinery, during the product conception phase.
The Directive contains 29 articles and 12 annexes and is addressed to the Member States, which are obliged to implement its requirements in national legislation.
Scope of the Machinery Directive
The Machinery Directive covers two categories of work equipment: machinery (in a general sense, including interchangeable equipment, safety components, lifting accessories, removable mechanical transmission devices) and partly completed machinery.
The following are excluded: safety devices supplied as spare parts, machines designed for research for temporary use in laboratories, products already covered by the LVD, high voltage equipment, amusement park equipment, vehicles (with the exception of machinery mounted on vehicles).
More specifically, the Directive presents the following definitions:
‘machinery’: an assembly, fitted with or intended to be fitted with a drive system other than directly applied human or animal effort, consisting of linked parts or components, at least one of which moves, and which are joined together for a specific application;
‘interchangeable equipment’: a device which, after the putting into service of machinery or of a tractor, is assembled with that machinery or tractor by the operator himself in order to change its function or attribute a new function, in so far as this equipment is not a tool;
‘safety component’ : which serves to fulfil a safety function, which is independently placed on the market, the failure and/or malfunction of which endangers the
safety of persons and which is not necessary in order for the machinery to function, or for which normal components may be substituted in order for the machinery to function.‘lifting accessory’: a component or equipment not attached to the lifting machinery, allowing the load to be held, which is placed between the machinery and the load
or on the load itself, or which is intended to constitute an integral part of the load and which is independently placed on the market; slings and their components are also regarded as lifting accessories;‘chains, ropes and webbing’: chains, ropes and webbing designed and constructed for lifting purposes as part of lifting machinery or lifting accessories;
‘removable mechanical transmission device’ : a removable component for transmitting power between selfpropelled machinery or a tractor and another machine by joining them at the first fixed bearing. When it is placed on the market with the guard it shall be regarded as one product;
‘partly completed machinery’: an assembly which is almost machinery but which cannot in itself perform a specific application. A drive system is partly completed machinery. Partly completed machinery is only intended to be incorporated into or assembled with other machinery or other partly completed machinery or equipment, thereby forming machinery to which this Directive applies;
Preconditions for placing on the market and putting into service of machinery
In order to proceed with the placing on the market or putting into service of a machine, it is necessary to verify:
- compliance with the Essential Health and Safety Requirements: E.H.S.R (or R.E.S.S. in the italian acronym);
- the availability of the technical file and adequate information (such as instructions);
- compliance with the procedure for verifying the Conformity of the Machinery;
- the completeness of the Declaration of Conformity;
- the affixing of the CE marking.
In particular, with regard to the procedures for verifying conformity, the manufacturer (or his EU representative) must apply one of the following indications:
- when the machine is not listed in Annex IV (as a machine with a high risk for health and safety), the provisions of Annex VIII apply (the manufacturer must adopt the necessary procedures to ensure compliance with the technical documents and the Directive);
- when the machine is listed in Annex IV but is produced in accordance with the harmonized standards that cover the R.E.S.S. requirements. of Annex I, the same procedure as in the previous point can be carried out, or the procedure of Annex IX can be followed in combination with Annex VIII, or the procedure of Annex X;when the machine is listed in Annex IV and is not produced according to the harmonised standards of the
- E.H.S.R requirements of Annex I, the verification procedure of Annex IX in combination with Annex VIII or the procedure of Annex X must be followed.
Preconditions for placing partly completed machinery on the market
Before placing a partly completed machinery on the market, the manufacturer (or his EU authorised representative) must verify:
- the availability of the Technical Documentatio (Relevant Technical Documentation) and Assembly Instructions;
- the completeness of the Declaration of Incorporation.