Transition Period of EN954-1 Extended

In December 2009, the European Commission took a very important decision. The majority of European countries decided that EN954-1 remains valid for two more years until December 31st, 2011. This decision was based on the economic situation and the pressure some machine builder associations imposed upon the commission. As a result, EN954-1 will be listed under the new Machinery Directive for presumption of conformity and CE marking.

Of course, some points need to be considered when the old standard is used:

• Check in detail if a relevant C-Standard for your machine already refers to EN ISO 13849-1. In such cases presumption of conformity is not given when the old EN 954-1 is applied.
• Keep in mind that the usage of EN954-1 is limited in applications where new technologies are used (e.g. EN954-1 does not cover software).
• You need to decide if EN 954-1 is still a valid description for the technology in use, the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC clearly demands that state of the art technology is used.
• There is no change regarding the transition from the old Machinery Directive to the new Machinery Directive. This will happen on December 29th, 2009!

This has a big impact for machine builders. You can rely on the safey expertise of Omron - our sales engineers will be happy to support you in the transition from EN954-1 to EN ISO 13849-1.