The current AS 1735 series of standards has adopted many European Normalisation (EN) and/or International Standards Organisation (ISO) standards which are the mainstay for our lift, escalator, moving walk and accessible vertical transport design requirements.
Many EN standards are being developed and revised into ISO or EN/ISO standards (transitional) under a provision called the ‘Vienna Agreement.’
Furthermore, there has been changes to the requirements under European Law with regards on how the requirements for all types of plant including vertical transport.
The ‘Machinery Directive’ underpinned machinery safety across Europe since 2006, but change is coming, on 20th January 2027 it will be repealed and replaced by the Machinery Regulation (Regulation), a directly applicable law across all EU member states.
Until 20th January 2027 both the Machinery Directive and the new Regulation can be used, however the Regulation is already in force and mandatory compliance is only around the corner. Regulations expanded scope includes stricter safety provisions, cybersecurity, functional safety, ergonomics and AI.
What this means for Australia, EN standards in Europe are being revised (and ISO standards) to accommodate Regulation, and one key requirement for the development of lift, escalator, moving walk and accessible vertical transport standards is that building interface requirements will be included in design standard annexes and not specifically within the base design standard.
With all design standards needing to be revised and aligned to be compliant with the new Regulation (by 2027 in Europe), many of our current standards in the AS 1735 series will need to be considered for adoption by Standards Australia ME-004 Committee – Lift Installations.
Some of the first to be considered will be ISO 8100-1 and ISO 8100-2 which are technically equivalent to EN81-20 (AS 1735-1.2) and EN81-50 (AS 1735-1.3).
With changes from EN to ISO and the overhaul to comply with the new Regulations will mean a lot of review, possible additional annexes for Australia and adoption over the next 12 to 18 months to ensure that EU compliance requirements do not affect Australian requirements.