The Engineering Working Group (EWG) has been active in a Standards Australia project to harmonise Australian earthmoving machinery standards internationally (more information on this activity here).
This project is essentially withdrawing the vast majority of dated Australian Standards and replacing them with contemporary, international best practice standards, as appropriate.
To assist CMEIG members as this project evolves, the Engineering Working Group published the following Advisory Notice in late 2020, and the EWG is now in the process of revising this document to show these new international and Australian Standards relationships as the new aligned standards are published.
Completion of this project will mean CMEIG members have better access to international best practice standards, as well as a consistent set of design/safety requirements, reducing ‘technical’ non-conformances caused by a disparate standards development process here in Australia versus internationally.
A key benefit of this once completed, will be the reduced need for local customisation due to differing standards, except where appropriate.
Examples:
- Where Australia used to have a multitude of unique ROPS and FOPS standards (AS 2294 series) in contrast to ISO standards such as: ISO 3471:2008 – Earth-moving machinery — Roll-over protective structures — Laboratory tests and performance requirements
- ISO 3449:2005 – Earth-moving machinery — Falling-object protective structures — Laboratory tests and performance requirements.
Australia has now identically adopted these as follows:
- AS ISO 3471:2020 – Earth-moving machinery – Roll-over protective structures – Laboratory tests and performance requirements
- AS ISO 3449:2020 – Earth-moving machinery – Falling-object protective structures – Laboratory tests and performance requirements.