During the European Commission Machinery Working Group which took place on 9-10 November 2016 in Brussels, FEM provided comments and actively participated in the discussions on the status of inter-changeable equipment, particularly on:
– paper by INAIL (Italian National Institute for Insurance against Accidents at work) on industrial trucks and equipment for handling loads
– INAIL papers on “fitting interchangeable equipment to forklift trucks” and “analytical procedure for a safe coupling of interchangeable equipment to a forklift truck”
As regards the first paper, FEM pointed out that to be defined as an interchangeable equipment, an attachment must bring new functions and\or introduce new risks, significantly differing from those foreseen by the industrial truck manufacturer.
On the documents on ‘fitting interchangeable equipment to forklift trucks’, FEM is of the opinion that the current procedure used for the coupling of interchangeable equipment to a forklift truck is well-established and continues to represent the safest means to define the actual capacity of a forklift truck equipped with an interchangeable equipment. Moreover, compliance with the Machinery Directive and the standard EN ISO 3691-1 is ensured. Any alternative approach (such as the analytical procedure) does not add value if it does not guarantee an equivalent level of safety.
FEM will continue keeping track of these issues, in the upcoming Machinery Working Group meetings.
