National foreword

This British Standard is the UK implementation of EN 1756‑1:2021. It supersedes BS EN 1756‑1:2001+A1:2008, which is withdrawn.

The UK participation in its preparation was entrusted to Technical Committee MHE/12/4, Lifting Platforms - Tail lifts.

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

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.

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 August 2021.

This European Standard was approved by CEN on 11 July 2021.

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, 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, Turkey and United Kingdom.

European foreword

This document ( EN 1756‑1:2021) has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 98 “Lifting platforms”, the secretariat of which is held by DIN.

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 February 2022, and conflicting national standards shall be withdrawn at the latest by February 2022.

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.

This document supersedes EN 1756‑1:2001+A1:2008.

This document has been prepared under a Standardization Request given to CEN by the European Commission and the European Free Trade Association, and supports essential requirements of EU Directive(s) / Regulation(s).

For relationship with EU Directive(s) / Regulation(s), see informative Annex ZA, which is an integral part of this document.

The following significant changes, compared to the previous edition, have been made:

the introduction of new terms and changed definitions for some existing terms;
the introduction of Performance level as a concept for safety;
support for cableless mobile control systems.

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, Turkey and the United Kingdom.

Introduction

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

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, hazardous situations or hazardous events are covered are indicated in the Scope of this document.

When requirements of this type-C standard are different from those which are stated in type-A or type-B standards, the requirements of this type-C standard take precedence over the requirements of the other standards for machines that have been designed and built according to the requirements of this type-C standard.

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

While producing this document, it was assumed that:

only trained persons operate the machine;
components without specific requirements are:
- designed in accordance with the usual engineering practice and calculation codes, Including all failure modes;
- of sound mechanical and electrical construction;
- made of materials, with adequate strength and of suitable quality;
- free of defects;
harmful materials, such as asbestos are not used;
components are kept in good repair and working order, so that the required dimensions remain fulfilled despite wear;
by design of the load bearing elements, a safe operation of the machine is ensured for loading ranging from zero to 100 % of the rated possibilities and during the tests;
with the exception of the items listed below, a mechanical device built according to good practice and the requirements in this document, will not deteriorate to a point of creating a hazard without the possibility of detection;
the equipment is capable of operating correctly within a temperature range of −15 °C to +40 °C;
a negotiation takes place between the manufacturer of the tail lift and the installer for the characteristics of the supporting wheeled vehicle (see also Clause 6), the fitting of the tail lift on the vehicle and between the installer and the user relating to the specific conditions of the use, places of use of the machinery, also some of the characteristics of the vehicle, the appropriate language;
the working area is adequately lit (if lighting is not provided with the tail lift);
if the place of installation allows a vertical falling height of persons of more than 3 m notwithstanding the limited travel height indicated in the scope, means external to the machine are used to limit this falling height to 3 m.

Provision is made in this document to protect against falling hazards where the risk of falling exceeds 2 m. However, accidents statistics show that people fall from the raised tail lift during loading/unloading the vehicle also for lifting heights below 2 m. The present state of the art does not allow a proven, universal solution to the prevention of falling suitable for all tail lift applications, without the introduction of other hazards.

The European safety organisations and manufacturers are continuing to review and test such solutions. Meanwhile, methods of mitigating these risks are shown in informative Annex J. For lifts where the risk of falling exceeds 2 m, refer to the requirements of 5.2.

1 Scope

This document specifies safety requirements for design of tail lifts as defined in 3.1 for mounting on wheeled goods vehicles. It also specifies the verification of such tail lifts and the safety information that has to be provided for their use.

This document deals with the technical requirements to minimize the hazards listed in Clause 4 which can arise during the operation of tail lifts when carried out in accordance with the specifications as intended and under conditions of misuse which are reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer or his authorized representative.

It applies to tail lifts:

used for the purpose of loading and/or unloading such vehicles;
intended to be fitted, temporarily or permanently, either inside or on the front, side or rear of the wheeled vehicle;
driven either by hand or power operated;
equipped with a platform to support loads which comprise goods, an operator, or a combination of the two;
with a maximum lifting height not exceeding 3 m above ground when the platform is unloaded;
rotary type with a maximum lifting height not exceeding 2 m;
used as a link bridge when intended by the manufacturer.

NOTE A tail lift is not to be confused with a link bridge attached to a loading dock which is included within the definition of a dock leveller and is outside the scope of this document.

Loading and/or unloading operations include the use of a tail lift to lift and/or lower loads.

This document does not establish the additional requirements for:

the risk of falling when operating under 2 m height;
overloading at vehicle floor level;
drive system with lead screw and nuts;
operation in severe conditions (e.g. extreme environmental conditions such as freezer applications, high temperatures, corrosive environment, tropical environment, contaminating environments, strong magnetic fields);
operations subject to special rules (e.g. potentially explosive atmospheres);
supply by electrical networks and the electrical circuit;
power take off part of the system;
electromagnetic compatibility (emission-immunity);
static electricity problems;
handling of loads the nature of which could lead to dangerous situations (e.g. molten metal, acids/bases, radiating materials, especially brittle loads);
hazards occurring during installation, transportation, decommissioning;
hazards occurring when handling suspended loads which can swing freely;
requirement related to the use on public roads;
wind pressure in and out of use;
direct contact with foodstuffs;
earthquake;
lightning.

This document is not applicable to tail lifts manufactured before the publication of this document.

2 Normative references

3 Terms and definitions

4 List of hazards

5 Safety requirements and/or protective measures

5.1 General requirements

5.2 Working area

5.3 Manual effort

5.4 Operating speeds

5.5 Load stability

5.6 Limitations of travel

5.7 Layout of wires and pipes

5.8 Unauthorized operation

5.9 Power supply

5.10 Tail lift stowage

5.11 Crushing and shearing

5.12 Static load coefficients

5.13 Platform

5.14 Drive systems

5.15 Safety devices

5.16 Loading control

5.17 Control devices

5.18 Control positions

6 Verification of the safety requirements and/or measures

7 Information for use

7.1 General

7.2 Tail lift used as a link bridge

7.3 Inherent risks associated with improper use

7.4 Location and nature of information for use

Bibliography

BS EN 1756-1:2021

Tail lifts. Platform lifts for mounting on wheeled vehicles. Safety requirements - Tail lifts for goods

Current

Published:

31 Aug 2021