EU Machinery Directive requirements for language. ISO 10218 and EN ISO 13849 terminology standards for cobot safety documentation and force-limit specifications.
- Documentation in the destination language
- Safety terms map to standards
- Collaborative robots raise the stakes
Documentation in the destination language
Machinery placed on the EU market must be accompanied by instructions in the official language or languages of the member state where it is put into service, determined per market.
This is a market access requirement, not a preference. Confirm the current position for each target market with your conformity assessment partner as part of launch planning rather than after it.
Safety terms map to standards
Terminology used in safety instructions relates to the wording of the governing standards. Translating those terms freely — even in a way that is accurate in general usage — breaks the link between your documentation and the standard it is meant to demonstrate conformity with.
Safety terminology is therefore mapped rather than translated, and locked in the termbase before review begins.
Collaborative robots raise the stakes
Where equipment is designed to operate near people, the instructions describing limits, guarding and permitted interaction are doing safety work directly.
This content sits at our expert-led service level with full QA audit. Operator training material and general manuals can often sit one tier lower against the same terminology.