News Flash – The Landscape of SIL, Cat, & PL Changed Last Week – Comment: Breathing Room

Last week while I was writing my blog on this subject the European Union (EU) met and decided to extend EN 954-1; 1996 for up to three more years or 2012. This was announced internally in the United States to those of us who participate in standards writing on committees. EN 954-1 was scheduled to expire in October of 2009 and this importance drove last week’s blog. It seems that what motivated the EU to adopt this extension is the realization that hundreds of European products and many end users still base their safety conformance on EN 954-1 requirements including the Category hazards (B, 1, 2, 3, & 4).

Is it possible that some of the issues I spelled out last week here in the US are also evident in Europe? Is it possible that the new requirements of ISO 13849-1; 2006 are too demanding for medium and small sized companies? Is it possible that these companies realize that the higher level skill sets required for implementing these new requirements are outside their reach? Is it possible that these companies simply can’t afford to comply?

This is a major issue for global industry to address and fortunately it appears that we now have three more years to find some resolution to the many issues. At a minimum, in the coming weeks and months I predict a tsunami of provocative articles, whitepapers, and more!

Let’s hear where you sit on the issue?