On 20 January 2027 the Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 replaces the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. Three new elements are directly relevant to inspection robotics: cybersecurity becomes an essential safety requirement, machines with self-evolving behaviour are regulated explicitly, and for certain AI-supported safety functions the involvement of a notified body becomes mandatory. Products placed on the market before the cut-off date are protected by grandfathering.
Why a regulation and not a directive?
Because it applies directly.
A directive has to be transposed into national law by each Member State. In Germany, the Machinery Directive was transposed through an ordinance under the Produktsicherheitsgesetz (German Product Safety Act) – which meant that interpretations could differ between Member States.
A regulation applies equally in all Member States without any act of transposition. National special routes fall away, as does the delay caused by transposition deadlines. For manufacturers this simplifies access to the internal market; for operators it means uniform requirements throughout Europe.
The cut-off dates
| Date | What applies |
|---|---|
| 19 July 2023 | Regulation entered into force |
| 20 January 2024 | Provisions on notified bodies applicable |
| 20 January 2027 | Main date of application, Machinery Directive repealed |
| 2 August 2027 | Deadline for delegated acts on AI requirements |
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The last item results from the interplay with the AI Act and is a practical problem: between 20 January and 2 August 2027 the new machinery law applies, while the more specific requirements for AI components have not yet been incorporated into the annex to the Regulation.
This is not an exemption. The essential health and safety requirements apply in full during this period, including the requirements on cybersecurity and on machines with self-evolving behaviour. All that is missing is the detailed specification.
Anyone procuring during this phase should therefore not rely on the state of the law at the time of purchase, but should agree in the contract how requirements specified at a later date are to be handled.
What applies to existing equipment?
Machines placed on the market before 20 January 2027 may continue to be made available and operated. There is no obligation to retrofit.
What counts is the date of placing on the market – that is, the first making available on the Union market – not the date of commissioning at the customer's site.
For procurements running over the turn of the year, this is the decisive question: when exactly is the device placed on the market? For imports, it is the point at which the importer first makes it available on the Union market. This distinction belongs in the contract, not in the acceptance.
What is new?
Extended scope
The Regulation consistently speaks of products instead of machines. Besides machinery, it covers among other things interchangeable equipment, safety components, lifting accessories and partly completed machinery.
Of particular relevance to robotics: software can be a safety component. Control or safety software distributed on its own thus falls under the Regulation itself – not only the machine in which it runs.
Cybersecurity as a safety requirement
For the first time, machinery law contains explicit requirements on protection against tampering. Safety-relevant control functions must be protected against intentional and unintentional corruption – via software, via network connections, via interfaces.
In practice, for networked inspection robots this means: evidence that safety-relevant functions cannot be manipulated via network access, signed and verified firmware updates, documented behaviour on loss of connection, logging of safety-relevant interventions.
The protective aim differs from that of IT security law: it is not about data protection or trade secrets, but about ensuring that an attack cannot cause a physical hazard.
Self-evolving behaviour
The Regulation addresses machines whose behaviour continues to evolve after they have been placed on the market – for example through machine learning in operation.
The risk assessment must cover this behaviour. In concrete terms: the manufacturer must determine the limits of possible behaviour and ensure that the machine remains safe within these limits. A system that can change its own safety limits is not capable of conformity.
For inspection robots with learning navigation this is generally manageable, as long as the safety functions remain deterministic.
New categories with mandatory third-party involvement
The Regulation contains a list of product categories with increased risk, divided into two parts. For the categories in Part A, the involvement of a notified body is mandatory – a pure self-assessment is no longer possible.
These categories include safety technology with fully or partially self-evolving behaviour based on machine learning.
This leads to the question that belongs in every procurement and every conversation with a supplier: Does a safety function of the system rely on machine learning? If so, a notified body must have been involved, and its identification number is stated in the declaration of conformity.
How a declaration of conformity can be checked is explained in the guide to CE conformity.
Substantial modification
For the first time, the text of the Regulation sets out when a modification means that a product counts as a new machine.
Until now, this assessment relied on interpretative guidance. Now it is in the legal text: anyone who modifies a machine in such a way that a new hazard arises or an existing risk increases, without the existing protective measures being sufficient, becomes the manufacturer of the modified machine – with all the obligations that entails.
For operators who retrofit payloads or manipulators, this is the most important single point in the Regulation.
Digital operating manual
In future, operating manuals may be provided in digital form. At the user's request, the manufacturer must supply a paper version free of charge within one month.
A stricter rule applies to machines that are also used by consumers: safety-relevant information must be enclosed in paper form.
The language requirement remains unchanged: the manual must be available in the official language of the Member State in which the product is made available.
The standards problem
A point that is often missing from coverage but has practical consequences.
The presumption of conformity arises from applying harmonised standards whose references have been published in the Official Journal of the EU. For the Machinery Directive, an extensive body of such standards has grown over the years.
This body has to be revised and listed anew for the Machinery Regulation. Where a standard has not yet been listed under the new Regulation by the date of application, the presumption of conformity no longer applies to it – the manufacturer must then demonstrate directly that the essential requirements are met.
For procurements in 2027 this means: the question of which standards a manufacturer relies on, and whether these are listed under the Regulation, will for a while involve considerable effort to answer – more than before.
What operators should do now
The Machinery Regulation is product law, not operational law. For operation, occupational safety and health law and the Betriebssicherheitsverordnung (BetrSichV, German Ordinance on Industrial Safety and Health) remain decisive – workplace risk assessment, safe provision of work equipment, instruction.
Three concrete points:
Check procurements running over the turn of the year. Will the device be placed on the market before or after 20 January 2027? Both are permissible, but the choice should be made deliberately and recorded in the contract.
Assess retrofit plans in advance. Anyone who intends to fit a manipulator or additional sensors in 2027 should clarify beforehand whether this constitutes a substantial modification. The answer decides whether the operator becomes a manufacturer.
Include cybersecurity in the requirements. Also for devices procured before the cut-off date – the Regulation's requirements are a useful benchmark, regardless of whether they formally apply.
What manufacturers and importers should bear in mind
Anyone carrying out a conformity assessment in 2026 or 2027 anyway should align it directly with the Machinery Regulation. An assessment completed under the old law shortly before the cut-off date only covers products placed on the market before 20 January 2027.
It must also be checked whether the product falls into one of the categories with mandatory third-party involvement. If so, the capacity of notified bodies must be planned for – it is limited, and a rush around the date of application is foreseeable.
Importers should also note: the Regulation extends the obligations of economic operators and explicitly includes fulfilment service providers and online marketplaces. Anyone selling via platforms should reassess their own role.
Before a procurement over the turn of the year
- Date of placing on the market fixed in the contract
- For delivery after 20 January 2027: conformity assessment under the Machinery Regulation promised
- Statement on whether a safety function relies on machine learning
- Where a third party is involved: notified body with identification number in the declaration of conformity
- Harmonised standards applied named, listing under the Regulation checked
- Handling of requirements specified at a later date agreed
- Planned retrofits assessed for substantial modification
This checklist will be offered as a download once the template exists.
Sources
- Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 on machinery European Union accessed 15 August 2026
- Directive 2006/42/EC on machinery European Union accessed 15 August 2026
- Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 laying down harmonised rules on artificial intelligence European Union accessed 15 August 2026
- Regulation (EU) 2026/1744 amending Regulation (EU) 2024/1689 European Union accessed 15 August 2026
- The ‘Blue Guide’ on the implementation of EU product rules European Commission accessed 15 August 2026
- References of harmonised standards European Commission accessed 15 August 2026
Change log (1)
- 5 October 2026 Initial publication First publication of the English version.