Distributors ListContact Us
Copyrightc Line Seiki Co., Ltd. 2000- All rights reserved.
Home/Products & Services/library/Safety/About International Safety Standard ISO 12100
Safety
2025.05.26

About International Safety Standard ISO 12100

About International Safety Standard ISO 12100

The international standardization of safety (ISO/IEC Guide 51) requires machines and devices to have safety measures complying with this standard.

Based on extremely high principles, international safety standards are organized to cover a wide range of subjects, structured in a hierarchical framework with lower standards conforming to higher standards (see diagram below).

International Safety Standards (ISO/IEC) Guide 51

1. Basic Safety Standards (Type-A Standards)
2. Group Safety Standards (Type-B Standards)
3. Individual Product Safety Standards (Type-C Standards)

iso121001

Standard A, sitting at the pinnacle of international safety standards, is ISO 12100 which places a great importance on risk assessment to identify and evaluate hazards in machinery for the sake of establishing machine safety.

Currently, ISO 12100 and related knowledge are required for designing and manufacturing machinery for global use.

1. Basic Safety Standards (Type-A Standards)

Standards that deal with basic concepts and design principles commonly applicable to all machinery. It features the following three methods as requirements to ensure safety based on risk assessment:

  • Risk reduction through design (inherently safe design)
  • Risk reduction through safeguarding and complimentary protective measures
  • Risk reduction through information for use
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)

General principles for design

+
Risk assessment and risk reduction
(ISO 12100)

2. Group Safety Standards (Type-B Standards)

These are standards relating to elements commonly used in safety-related facilities (e.g. safety-related devices, electrical equipment, electronic devices) and safety-related physical quantities (e.g. temperature, safe distance).

About ISO 13849-1: 2015

Conventionally, safety was designed and evaluated based on deterministic point of view, represented by such electrical parts (non-semiconductors) as switches and relays.
However, as machinery/devices are getting more complex and software control is prevailing, such a conventional safety assessment method does not match actual environment. Thus, safety design and evaluation have been revised as ISO 13849-1:2015 incorporating the concept of IEC 62061.

As a result, MTTFd (lifetime until dangerous failure at parts level) and DCavg (detection of dangerous failure) have been added to the conventional definition based on architecture, making it possible to stochastically evaluate the reliability of safety control system, therefore, it has enabled quantitative evaluation of safety based on actual machine operation.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC)
  • Interlocking devices (ISO 14119)
  • Guards (ISO 14120)
  • Safety-related parts of control systems: design (ISO 13849-1)
  • Safety-related parts of control systems: validation (ISO 13849-2)
  • Safety distance (ISO 13857)
  • Prevention of unexpected start-up (ISO 14118)
  • Two-hand control devices (ISO 13851)
  • Pressure-sensitive protective devices (ISO 13856)
  • Permanent means of access to machinery (ISO 14122)
  • Electrical equipment of machines (IEC 60204)
  • Electro-sensitive protective equipment (IEC 61496)
  • Application of protective equipment to detect the presence of persons (IEC 62046)

 

etc.

3. Product Safety Standards (Type-C Standards)

So-called product standards that specify detailed safety requirements for specific machines.

Product examples: machine tools, industrial robots, forging machines, unmanned transport vehicles, chemical plants, transportation machinery, etc.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization)
  • Founded in 1947 with the aim of promoting the international unification and coordination of industrial standards
  • More than 160 member countries
  • Central secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland
IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission)
  • Founded in 1906 with the aim of unifying and coordinating international electrical standards
  • More than 80 member countries
  • Central secretariat based in Geneva, Switzerland

Related Products

Feel free to contact us

Please contact us
for further information.