Remarks on New European Standard 289
Remarks on New European Standard 289

Remarks on New European Standard 289

Hans-Joachim Wickert CEO of Wickert Maschinenbau GmbH
Charimain of the Working Commitee on Presses Rubber and Plastic
Machinery Division of the German Engineering Association (VDMA)


The safety and well-being of employees is of major importance to all industrial enterprises and takes top priority. This necessitates the creation of effective safety regulations.

These safety regulations must be practice-oriented and must contain clear definitions that leave as little room for interpretation as possible.

All those involved – operators, manufacturers and supervisory bodies – should be provided with a uniform understanding of how to implement the guideline.

In the new press standard an attempt is made to specify previously disputed or unclear definitions and, furthermore, to adapt the standard to contemporary technological conventions. With advances in development, new elements are continually being used in compression and transfer moulding presses, so Standard EN289 is intended to evaluate and safeguard these new elements.

To cite an example of this, the magnetic potential difference in compression and transfer moulding presses has been re-addressed. A further point was access control for machines with safety guards. This was brought into alignment with standard EN201 in order to create homogeneous safety requirements together with similar machines, in this case injection moulding machines.

All participating parties who collaborated on the revision of Press Standard EN289 in the committee hope that the new press standard will provide users with greater clarity and that newly developed elements can be safely employed.