New Machinery Regulation permits digital manuals

With the new Machinery Regulation 2023/1230, the provision of user information in digital form is finally being officially recognised in the mechanical engineering sector.

The present is already digital. In today’s world nothing works without access to digital information in both our private and professional lives. Manuals on computers, tablets and smartphones have already been part of technical documentation for some time. However, this fact was still not recognised by the Machinery Directive.
The long-awaited Machinery Regulation will rectify this situation. From 20 January 2027 at the latest it will be legally possible to make operating manuals for a machine available to the customer in digital form. 

Still some restrictions
It wouldn't be real legislation if there weren't also some restrictions. One provision is, for example, that it must always be possible for the customer to "print out the operating manual, download the file and save it on an electronic device". This means that printed operating manuals will still play a role in technical documentation in the future. This provision is included to ensure that the information is available even if the machine is not functional. In addition to these requirements regarding the form of the digital operating manuals, the Regulation stipulates that they must be available online for at least ten years or for the entire expected service life of the product and also be made available on paper at the customer's request.

Flexible with single source publishing
However, these requirements do not change the fact that in many cases your company can achieve considerable printing savings and make it easier to update the customer’s user documentation. DOGREL is ready to help you to take advantage of this opportunity. 
The first question to answer when digitising operation manuals is “which format should we choose”? As mentioned previously, all operating manuals will still have to be available in printed form (generally as PDF) in the future. HTML5 is also suitable for viewing on a digital display. HTML5 is responsive and can therefore display the documentation correctly on different screen sizes. It can be uploaded either online or on an integrated machine control system.
The challenge involved in this case is obvious. Although the documentation must be available in different formats, the content must remain as consistent as possible. If the texts are not carefully planned and prepared, chaos is inevitable. There is fortunately a track-proven solution to this problem – single source publishing with a professional content management system. The content management system is used to update the content with a structured source format and then export it in various target formats at the touch of a button. DOGREL has been working with various CMS systems for many years and therefore has a great deal of experience in this field.

Always available on an online platform
Unfortunately, digital documentation cannot be handed over to the customer. Although it can be integrated into the machine control system or saved on a USB storage device, the Machinery Regulation stipulates that it must also be available online. With the service portal developed by DOGREL, documents can be made available as a digital manual for downloading or for viewing in a browser. A domain and display option that is suitable for your company is selected, your customers are granted password-protected access and the documents can then be uploaded. The requirements of the Machinery Regulation are satisfied, the documentation is regularly updated and additional printing and shipping costs are saved.

Start today

Even if the Machinery Regulation has not yet come into force, it is worth getting your documentation ready now. Digital manuals are already advantageous today and effective planning is the key to a smooth transition to the new Machinery Regulation age. Contact us so that we can keep you up to date with the latest information.

Ramun Mathis
Team leader, Technical Authoring

 

References

Current examples from the fields of technical documentation, translation and spare parts catalogues which we have already completed for our customers.

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