Assembly instructions for machinery and mechanisms, Regulation 2023/1230.

Assembly instructions must contain information that must be included in the instructions for assemblers. This means that in future, assembly instructions must be aimed at two target groups: the company performing the assembly and the operator. Therefore, the structure of the assembly instructions must clearly indicate which part of the instructions is intended for which target group.

The assembly instructions must list all spare parts that are relevant to safety.

The assembly instructions must clearly indicate which section of the installation the product belongs to. This becomes a problem, for example, if a partially assembled machine is installed in a section that constantly changes its configuration.

If partially completed equipment is intended for use in equipment covered by Chapters 2–6 of Annex III (Machinery Regulation 2023/1230), the assembly instructions must also contain the relevant information to be used in the instructions for that equipment. Chapters 2–6 of Annex III regulate the following equipment:

– equipment for the food industry and related products, taking into account the requirements of Regulation 1935/2004, articles and materials intended to come into contact with foodstuffs

– equipment for cosmetic or pharmaceutical products and related products

– equipment for pharmaceutical products and related products

– hand-held or hand-guided portable equipment and related products, including portable fixing and other impact equipment

– equipment and related products for processing wood and materials with similar physical properties

– equipment and related products for applying plant protection products

– mobile equipment or related products – equipment or related

products performing lifting operations

– equipment or related products for use underground

– equipment or related products for lifting persons

The installation instructions must contain a declaration of conformity with EU requirements.

The equipment manufacturer must clearly indicate where users can find the operating instructions. The location of the instructions may be indicated by a link or QR code printed directly on the device itself, on its packaging, on any part of it, or in an accompanying document. If the manufacturer does not wish to publish the manual, the user must be provided with access codes to download it.

 The digital user manual must be in a format that the customer can download, print or save to their computer as they wish. Simply reading the text in a browser or mobile application is not sufficient. The aim is to enable users to check the information in the manual even if the manufacturer's website is unavailable due to a power failure or data transmission failure.

The availability of the operating instructions must be guaranteed throughout the entire service life of the machine.

A printed manual is physically delivered to the customer's premises, and responsibility for its availability passes to the customer. In the case of a digital manual, the situation is reversed: the responsibility for ensuring the readability of the manual throughout the service life of the equipment lies with the manufacturer. Since it is often difficult to determine the exact service life of industrial machines, the regulation sets a minimum service life of ten years for the manual. For the manufacturer, this means that they must ensure that the link to the manual is functional and that the instructions are permanently available for at least ten years.