National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN IEC 62046:2026. It is identical to IEC 62046:2026. It supersedes BS EN IEC 62046:2018, which will be withdrawn on 30 September 2029.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee MCE/3, Safeguarding of machinery.

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.

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 October 2026.

This European Standard was approved by CENELEC on 1 September 2026. CENELEC 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 CENELEC 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 CENELEC member into its own language and notified to the CEN-CENELEC Management Centre has the same status as the official versions.

CENELEC members are the national electrotechnical committees 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

The text of document 44/1080/FDIS, future edition 2 of IEC 62046, prepared by TC 44 "Safety of machinery - Electrotechnical aspects" was submitted to the IEC-CENELEC parallel vote and approved by CENELEC as EN IEC 62046:2026.

The following dates are fixed:

This document supersedes EN IEC 62046:2018 and all of its amendments and corrigenda (if any).

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

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

Endorsement notice

The text of the International Standard IEC 62046:2026 was approved by CENELEC as a European Standard without any modification.

In the official version, for Bibliography, the following notes have to be added for the standard indicated:

FOREWORD

The International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) is a worldwide organization for standardization comprising all national electrotechnical committees (IEC National Committees). The object of IEC is to promote international co-operation on all questions concerning standardization in the electrical and electronic fields. To this end and in addition to other activities, IEC publishes International Standards, Technical Specifications, Technical Reports, Publicly Available Specifications (PAS) and Guides (hereafter referred to as “IEC Publication(s)”). Their preparation is entrusted to technical committees; any IEC National Committee interested in the subject dealt with may participate in this preparatory work. International, governmental and non-governmental organizations liaising with the IEC also participate in this preparation. IEC collaborates closely with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in accordance with conditions determined by agreement between the two organizations.
The formal decisions or agreements of IEC on technical matters express, as nearly as possible, an international consensus of opinion on the relevant subjects since each technical committee has representation from all interested IEC National Committees.
IEC Publications have the form of recommendations for international use and are accepted by IEC National Committees in that sense. While all reasonable efforts are made to ensure that the technical content of IEC Publications is accurate, IEC cannot be held responsible for the way in which they are used or for any misinterpretation by any end user.
In order to promote international uniformity, IEC National Committees undertake to apply IEC Publications transparently to the maximum extent possible in their national and regional publications. Any divergence between any IEC Publication and the corresponding national or regional publication shall be clearly indicated in the latter.
IEC itself does not provide any attestation of conformity. Independent certification bodies provide conformity assessment services and, in some areas, access to IEC marks of conformity. IEC is not responsible for any services carried out by independent certification bodies.
All users should ensure that they have the latest edition of this publication.
No liability shall attach to IEC or its directors, employees, servants or agents including individual experts and members of its technical committees and IEC National Committees for any personal injury, property damage or other damage of any nature whatsoever, whether direct or indirect, or for costs (including legal fees) and expenses arising out of the publication, use of, or reliance upon, this IEC Publication or any other IEC Publications.
Attention is drawn to the Normative references cited in this publication. Use of the referenced publications is indispensable for the correct application of this publication.
IEC draws attention to the possibility that the implementation of this document may involve the use of (a) patent(s). IEC takes no position concerning the evidence, validity or applicability of any claimed patent rights in respect thereof. As of the date of publication of this document, IEC had not received notice of (a) patent(s), which may be required to implement this document. However, implementers are cautioned that this may not represent the latest information, which may be obtained from the patent database available at https://patents.iec.ch. IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent rights.

IEC 62046 has been prepared by IEC technical committee 44: Safety of machinery - Electrotechnical aspects. It is an International Standard.

This second edition cancels and replaces the first edition published in 2018. This edition constitutes a technical revision.

This edition includes the following significant technical changes with respect to the first edition:

restructuring of the document to aid the user;
additional information on vision and radar systems;
muting requirements have been updated;
information on whole body access has been added;
whole body access has also been covered in more detail;
alignment to changes in ISO 13855.

The text of this International Standard is based on the following documents:

Full information on the voting for its approval can be found in the report on voting indicated in the above table.

The language used for the development of this International Standard is English

This document was drafted in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, and developed in accordance with ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1 and ISO/IEC Directives, IEC Supplement, available at www.iec.ch/members_experts/refdocs. The main document types developed by IEC are described in greater detail at www.iec.ch/publications.

The committee has decided that the contents of this document will remain unchanged until the stability date indicated on the IEC website under webstore.iec.ch in the data related to the specific document. At this date, the document will be

reconfirmed,
withdrawn, or
revised.

INTRODUCTION

This document provides requirements and information on the application of sensitive protective equipment (SPE), which employs sensing devices to detect persons, in order to reduce or minimize a risk from hazardous parts of machinery, without providing a physical barrier.

The objective of this document is to assist standards writing committees responsible for developing machine standards (type-C Standards), machine designers, manufacturers and refurbishers, machine safety certification organizations, workplace authorities and others on the proper application of sensitive protective equipment to machinery.

Figure 1 shows the general context and the intended use of this document.

Clause 1 to Clause 5, Clause 7 and Clause 8 of this document apply to all sensitive protective equipment included in the scope, Clause 6 contains guidance for the application of specific kinds of sensitive protective equipment.

The principles of this document can be useful in the application of devices using other detection technologies but this document does not give specific requirements for those devices.

This document considers devices standardized in the IEC 61496 series and the ISO 13856 series. Unless a product-specific safety-related standard for devices using other sensing technologies is published, their suitability as the sole means of protection from machine hazards is unknown. The selection and use of devices for which there is no product-specific safety-related standard because their behaviour, particularly under fault conditions, is not known to be sufficiently predictable should be selected only after adequate research.

A SIL (safety integrity level, as described in IEC 62061 or IEC 61508) or PL (performance level, as described in ISO 13849‑1) is not sufficient as an indication of a device's suitability for use as a safeguard. Suitability depends on appropriate sensing means, environmental conditions especially those that can affect the detection capability, behaviour under fault conditions, etc.

1 Scope

This document specifies requirements for the selection, positioning, configuration and commissioning of sensitive protective equipment (SPE) to detect the momentary or continued presence of persons in order to protect those persons from dangerous part(s) of machinery in industrial applications. This document covers the application of electro-sensitive protective equipment (ESPE) specified in the IEC 61496 series and pressure-sensitive mats and floors specified in ISO 13856‑1.

It takes into account the characteristics of the machinery, the sensitive protective equipment, the environment and human interaction by persons of 14 years and older.

This document includes informative annexes to provide guidance on the application of sensitive protective equipment to detect the presence of persons. These annexes contain examples to illustrate the principles of this document. These examples are not intended to be the only solutions to a given application and are not intended to restrict innovation or advancement of technology. The examples are provided only as representative solutions to illustrate some of the concepts of integration of sensitive protective equipment, and have been simplified for clarity, so they can be incomplete.

It is intended that this document is used in conjunction with ISO 13855.

2 Normative references

3 Terms, definitions and abbreviated terms

3.1 Terms and definitions

3.2 Abbreviated terms

4 General overview

4.1 General

4.2 Selection of active SPE

4.3 Possibility of defeating

4.4 Positioning of SPE or detection zone(s)

5 Operational functions of sensitive protective devices

5.1 General

5.2 Trip function

5.3 Presence sensing function

5.4 Combination trip and presence sensing function

5.5 Functional testing to detect fault accumulation and undetected faults

6 Optional functions associated with the application of SPE

6.1 General

6.2 Requirements for optional functions

7 Integration with the safety-related control system

8 Inspection and test

8.1 General

8.2 Functional checks

8.3 Periodic inspection

8.4 Initial inspection and test

8.5 Application-specific tests

9 Information for use

Bibliography