The machinery directive 2006/42 / EC requires that the safety-related control systems for machinery are designed and constructed in such a way as to avoid the occurrence of dangerous situations and in particular in such a way that a failure in the hardware or software of the system command does not create dangerous situations.

In order to satisfy this requirement, it is possible to refer to the UNI EN ISO 13849-1: 2016 standard .

This standard establishes safety requirements and a guide to the principles for the design and integration of safety-related control systems (SRP / CS), including software design.

If you want to deepen the subject, and understand what PL (Performance Levels) are and what the UNI EN ISO 13849-1 standard is for, also read the dedicated article on our blog.

Specifically, the UNI EN ISO 13849-1: 2016 standard:

• defines the main safety functions of the machines (emergency stop, interlocking of the movable guard, reset, guard locking, reduced speed, etc.);
• provides a procedure for determining the Performance Level required for each safety function (PL _r );
• describes a simplified procedure for estimating the Performance Level (PL) of safety-related control systems; this estimate takes into account the reliability of the components (MTTF _D or B _10D ), the diagnostic coverage (DC), the category of the control circuit, the measures against common cause faults (CCF);
• determines the security requirements of the software;
• it is applicable to all safety-related control systems regardless of the type of technology and energy used (electric, hydraulic, pneumatic, etc.).

In order to support companies in fulfilling the requirements of the machinery directive and the UNI EN ISO 13849-1: 2016 standard, Quadra provides services such as:

• assessment of the risks present on the machine in accordance with the UNI EN ISO 12100: 2010 standard;
• identification of safety-related control systems (electrical, electronic, pneumatic, hydraulic, etc.);
• determination of the Performance Level PL _r for each safety function;
• estimation of the Performance Level (PL) performance level, possibly through the use of the most popular software ( Sistema and Pascal);
• comparison with the required Performance Level (PL _r );
• in the event that the Performance Level (PL) is found to be inadequate, or lower than the PL_r, identification, in collaboration with the designers, of the solutions that can be adopted in order to increase the level of performance (for example by modifying the structure of the control circuit or choosing more reliable components);
• verification of the fulfillment of the requirements for the software that performs safety functions;
• validation of safety-related control systems, in compliance with UNI EN ISO 13849-1: 2016 and UNI EN ISO 13849-2: 2013 standards. Validation can be carried out by means of theoretical analyzes or by carrying out failure tests;
• validation of software with safety functions, in compliance with UNI EN ISO 13849-1: 2016 and UNI EN ISO 13849-2: 2013 standards. Validation can be done through theoretical analyzes or by carrying out failure tests.