National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 13155:2020+A1:2025, incorporating corrigendum February 2026. It supersedes BS EN 13155:2020, which is withdrawn.

The start and finish of text introduced or altered by amendment is indicated in the text by tags. Tags indicating changes to CEN text carry the number of the CEN amendment. For example, text altered by CEN amendment A1 is indicated by .

The start and finish of text introduced or altered by corrigendum is indicated in the text by tags. Text altered by CEN corrigendum February 2026 is indicated in the text by .

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee MHE/3/-/12, Crane attachments.

A list of organizations represented on this committee can be obtained on request to its committee manager.

Contractual and legal considerations

This publication has been prepared in good faith, however no representation, warranty, assurance or undertaking (express or implied) is or will be made, and no responsibility or liability is or will be accepted by BSI in relation to the adequacy, accuracy, completeness or reasonableness of this publication. All and any such responsibility and liability is expressly disclaimed to the full extent permitted by the law.

This publication is provided as is, and is to be used at the recipient’s own risk.

The recipient is advised to consider seeking professional guidance with respect to its use of this publication.

This publication is not intended to constitute a contract. Users are responsible for its correct application.

This publication has been prepared under a mandate given to the European Standards Organizations by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association. It is intended to support requirements of the EU legislation detailed in the European Foreword. A European Annex, usually Annex ZA or ZZ, describes how this publication relates to that EU legislation.

For the Great Britain market (England, Scotland and Wales), if UK Government has designated this publication for conformity with UKCA marking (or similar) legislation, it may contain an additional National Annex. Where such a National Annex exists, it shows the correlation between this publication and the relevant UK legislation. If there is no National Annex of this kind, the relevant Annex ZA or ZZ in the body of the European text will indicate the relationship to UK regulation applicable in Great Britain. References to EU legislation may need to be read in accordance with the UK designation and the applicable UK law. Further information on designated standards can be found at www.bsigroup.com/standardsandregulation.

For the Northern Ireland market, UK law will continue to implement relevant EU law subject to periodic confirmation. Therefore Annex ZA/ZZ in the European text, and references to EU legislation, are still valid for this market.

UK Government is responsible for legislation. For information on legislation and policies relating to that legislation, consult the relevant pages of www.gov.uk.

Compliance with a British Standard cannot confer immunity from legal obligations.

This British Standard was published under the authority of the Standards Policy and Strategy Committee on 31 December 2020.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 17 January 2020 and includes Amendment 1 approved by CEN on 4 May 2025.

This European Standard was corrected and reissued by the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre on 9 July 2025.

CEN members are bound to comply with the CEN/CENELEC Internal Regulations which stipulate the conditions for giving this European Standard the status of a national standard without any alteration. Up-to-date lists and bibliographical references concerning such national standards may be obtained on application to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre or to any CEN member.

This European Standard exists in three official versions (English, French, German). A version in any other language made by translation under the responsibility of a CEN member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CEN members are the national standards bodies of Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document (EN 13155:2020+A1:2025) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 147 “Cranes - Safety”, the secretariat of which is held by SFS.

This document supersedes EN 13155:2020.

The main modifications between EN 13155:2020 and EN 13155:2020+A1:2025 concern:

there are two distinct verification methods, by calculation and test or by test only. The errors associated with each of these verification methods have been rectified;
the verification by test only requires testing to the elastic condition, 2 × WLL without permanent deformation and yielded condition, 3 × WLL without releasing the load;
the verification by calculation makes allowance for lower working coefficients for certain technically justified cases;
load testing using a scaled load factor dependent on working load limit has been included to verify calculated mechanical strength.

This document has been prepared under a standardization request addressed to CEN by the European Commission. The Standing Committee of the EFTA States subsequently approves these requests for its Member States.

For the relationship with EU Legislation, see informative Annex ZA, which is an integral part of this document.

The main modifications between EN 13155:2003+A2:2009 and EN 13155:2020 concern:

general requirement to introduce the reference to EN 13001‑1 and −2 for the calculation;
vacuum lifters;
lifting magnet;
the addition to the scope of lifting insert systems for lifting prefabricated concrete products;
reduction of load changes from 20 000 to 16 000 in all clauses.

Any feedback and questions on this document should be directed to the users’ national standards body. A complete listing of these bodies can be found on the CEN website.

According to the CEN-CENELEC Internal Regulations, the national standards organisations of the following countries are bound to implement this European Standard: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Republic of North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

This European Standard shall be given the status of a national standard, either by publication of an identical text or by endorsement, at the latest by December 2025, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by December 2025.

Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject of patent rights. CEN shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

Introduction

This document has been prepared to be a harmonized standard to provide one means for non-fixed load lifting attachments used on cranes to conform with the essential health and safety requirements of the Machinery Directive, as amended.

This document is a type C standard as stated in EN ISO 12100:2010.

This document is of relevance, in particular, for the following stakeholder groups representing the market players with regard to machinery safety:

machine manufacturers (small, medium and large enterprises);
health and safety bodies (regulators, accident prevention organizations, market surveillance, etc.)

Others can be affected by the level of machinery safety achieved with the means of the document by the above-mentioned stakeholder groups:

machine users/employers (small, medium and large enterprises);
machine users/employees (e.g. trade unions, organizations for people with special needs);
service providers, e.g. for maintenance (small, medium and large enterprises);
consumers (in case of machinery intended for use by consumers).

The above-mentioned stakeholder groups have been given the possibility to participate at the drafting process of this document.

The machinery concerned and the extent to which hazards are covered are indicated in the scope of this document.

When provisions of this type C standard are different from those which are stated in type A or B standards, the provisions of this type C standard take precedence over the provisions of the other standards, for non-fixed load lifting attachments which have been designed and built according to the provisions of this type C standard.

1 Scope

This document specifies safety requirements for the following non-fixed load lifting attachments for cranes, hoists and manually controlled load manipulating devices:

plate clamps;
vacuum lifters:
1. self-priming;
2. non-self-priming (pump, venturi, turbine);
lifting magnets:
1. electric lifting magnets (battery fed and mains-fed);
2. permanent lifting magnets;
3. electro-permanent lifting magnets;
lifting beams;
C-hooks;
lifting forks;
clamps;
lifting insert systems for use in normal weight concrete,

as defined in Clause 3.

This document does not give requirements for:

non-fixed load lifting attachments in direct contact with foodstuffs 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;
hazards caused by noise;
hazards relating to the lifting of persons;
electrical hazards;
hazards due to hydraulic and pneumatic components.

For high risk applications not covered by this standard, EN 13001‑2:2021, 4.3.2 gives guidance to deal with them.

This document covers the proof of static strength, the elastic stability and the proof of fatigue strength.

This document does not generally applies to attachments intended to lift above people. Some attachments are suitable for that purpose if equipped with additional safety features. In such cases the additional safety features are specified in the specific requirements.

This document does not cover slings, ladles, expanding mandrels, buckets, grabs, or grab buckets. This document does not cover power operated container handling spreaders, which are in the scope of EN 15056.

This document is not applicable to non-fixed load attachments manufactured before the date of its publication.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 List of significant hazards

5 Safety requirements and/or protective measures

5.1 General requirements

5.2 Specific requirements for each category of attachment

6 Verification of the safety requirements and/or protective measures

7 Information for use

7.1 Instruction handbook

7.2 Marking

Bibliography

BS EN 13155:2020+A1:2025

Crane. Safety. Non-fixed load lifting attachments

Current

Published:

30 Apr 2026