China Standardization Magazine had an interview with Mr Esfandiar Gharibaan, Chairman of CEN/TC 10 and Vice President of Codes and Standards in KONE Corporation. The main topic is about EU Harmonised Standards Improve Safety of Lifts, Reduce Costs and Facilitate Trade. The interview will be uploaded in three parts. Here in the following is the third part of the interview.

Why do we need so many standards? By adopting European standards, in particular EU Harmonised Standards, what benefits can it bring to lift or escalator manufacturers? How is the application of these standards in Chinas lift manufacturers or foreign lift manufacturers located in China?

Development and maintenance of standards is a time-consuming and complex process. In addition, lifts and escalators are complex machinery with many aspects, such as safety, accessibility, fire, influence by external electromagnetic fields, connectivity, maintenance, replacement, etc. Continuous technological progress regularly affects one or more aspects.

CEN/TC 10 standards are made based on the modular structure. In this structure, the main safety requirements applicable to all lifts are put into the main safety standards (EN 81-20/50). Other aspects, which may not be common for all lifts are put into auxiliary/supplementary standards. For example, specific requirements for the firefighter lifts are covered by EN 81-72. Modular structure helps the users to identify the standards applicable to their specific lift design and intended use. In addition, when due to technological or regulatory changes a specific aspect of the lift, e.g. firefighting, needs to be reviewed and updated, this will affect only the supplementary standard (EN 81-72) rather than revising the main safety standards (EN 81-20/50). Therefore, the revision of the requirements for the firefighter lifts will be done faster and affects only the firefighter lifts. The same logic applies to other supplementary standards.

Use of Harmonised Standards has many benefits. As mentioned above, installers and manufacturers must comply with the regulatory requirements. But those requirements are safety objectives and do not describe the technical specifications to fulfil those objectives. Installers and manufacturers may use own technical specification to comply with the regulatory requirements, but then they must prove that their specifications provide adequate and the state-of-the-art safety for their products. This is a very complex, time consuming and costly conformity assessment procedure.

Design according to the EU Harmonised Standards is considered to be in conformity with the regulatory requirements. Therefore, the conformity assessment procedure is highly simplified, it is shorter and more cost effective.

In any case, the EU Harmonised Standards reflect the state of the art for safety and any other specifications must be evaluated against those standards. Installers and manufacturers must consider those standards even if they decide to apply their own or other specifications.

EU Harmonised Standards are adopted by many countries outside Europe and for many years. This is especially the case with EN 81-20/50, the main safety standards for lifts. Considering the extensive use of EN 81-20/50 around the world, ISO decided to adopt those standards as the identical ISO standards, ISO 8100-1/2:2019. These ISO standards are being adopted as the national standards around the world. For example, China GB/T 7588.1/2 or India IS 17900-1/2 are based on these ISO standards. It is estimated that more than 90% of the output of the lift industry is based on ISO 8100-1/2 (or EN 81-20/50), which have been adopted as national standards, identical or with small differences.

This extensive coverage of the common specification for safety (ISO 8100-1/2 or EN 81-20/50) has many advantages. It improves safety for users and workers around the world while it improves efficiency and reduces costs for manufacturing, installation, and maintenance with benefits for all stakeholders, including owners and operators for lifts.

As Chairman of CEN/TC 10 and Vice President of Codes and Standards in KONE Corporation, can you talk about the cooperation made between China and Europe in the lift and escalator industry? What is your advice for the cooperation in the future?

Cooperation between China’s SAC/TC 196 and CEN/TC 10 began in mid-1990s with exchanging technical question and answers. That cooperation evolved into a cooperation agreement in 2005. Two TCs have been exchanging work programs and draft of the standards for comments and input as well as having regular technical exchange meetings with participation of many Chinese and European experts.

The cooperation was highly intensified during the development of EN 81-20/50 standards. SAC/TC 196 provided many comments and proposals for those standards and the two TCs had many meetings to discuss the draft of those standards. I strongly believe that these exchanges and input from SAC/TC 196 brought huge improvements to the EN 81-20/50 standards to the level that ISO decided to adopt those standards as global ISO standards. This is a unique achievement for these two TCs and the industry in general.

In 2019, the cooperation moved to a higher level by forming a joint working group. This joint working group is providing commonly agreed proposals for the safety requirements for standards as an input to ISO as well as European and Chinese standards. I truly believe that the cooperation has been mutually beneficial for China and Europe as well as the rest of the world in the form of ISO standards.

We have also achieved strong alignment of the technical requirements. Currently, European and Chinese standards are almost identical. This alignment is not only crucial for facilitating smoother trade between the two parties, but also essential for the trade worldwide. We need to make all the efforts to maintain this alignment.

Source: China Standardization Magazine, 1st issue, 2023.