Standards Development

Scope

This European Standard specifies requirements for the following hand powered lifting equipment defined in clause 3:

- Hand chain hoists;

- Lever hoists;

- Jaw winches;

- Hand powered trolleys for supporting lifting machines;

- Drum winches;

- Pulley blocks and deflection pulleys.

The significant hazards covered by this European Standard are identified in clause 4.

This European Standard does not cover hazards related to the lifting of persons.

This standard does not specify the additional requirements for:

- use in ambient temperature outside the range of - 20°C to + 50°C, however for some lifting medium the minimum temperature will be higher than -20 °C.

- hand powered lifting equipment in direct contact with food stuffs or pharmaceuticals requiring a high level of cleanliness for hygiene reasons;

- hazards resulting from handling specific hazardous materials (e.g. explosives, hot molten masses, radiating materials);

- hazards caused by operation in an explosive atmosphere.

This European Standard is applicable to hand powered lifting equipment, which are manufactured after the date of approval by CEN of this standard.

Purpose

The original standard was a compromise which sought to accommodate the varying practices throughout Europe. The UK was always concerned that it did not adequately cover the essential health and safety requirements of the Machinery Directive and was not state of the art for the UK.

Also, the quality of the standard was questionable, particularly some of the verification requirements which lacked the detail required to ensure repeatable results. The illustrations are also very poor and unrealistic. The numbers in column 1 of tables 1-6 inclusive are not explained, but are a mixture, some originating from EN 292-2 which was withdrawn in 2003 and some from EN 1050.

The new Machinery Directive introduced a technical change in EHSR 4.1.3 requiring static tests to be made on every lifting machine as a general requirement. Previously the static test was expressed only as a design requirement. The amendment to A1 to implement the new Directive did not make this change. The majority of the chain hoists on the market are now manufactured in the far east, notably China. Over the years they have evolved to become a mass-produced low cost lightweight portable tool. Some are of excellent quality; others are more variable. Experience has shown that the manufacturing quality control of some hand chain hoists, and lever hoists is not adequate to rely on type testing alone and therefore not permissible under the general rule imposed by section 4.1.3 of directive 2006/42/EC.

Finally, the standard reflects the technology of over a decade ago since when manufacture of many products within the scope has moved outside of Europe and the products and manufacturing methods have evolved with greater emphasis on portability and cost.

There are new ISO standards for fine tolerance chain (grades TH and VH) which are used by many manufacturers in preference to the European EN 818-7 grade T.

The varying practices in Europe should have converged in the last decade, but with manufacture moving out of the developed countries, the result is a greater diversity of product quality available from many more sources of supply. It is therefore an opportune time to review the standard more thoroughly.