Machine tools — Safety — Press brakes

This document specifies technical safety requirements and measures to be adopted by persons undertaking the design, manufacture and supply of press brakes which are intended to work cold metal or material partly of cold metal but which can be used in the same way to work other sheet materials (e.g. cardboard, plastic, rubber, leather) and also referred to as machines.

NOTE 1 The design of a machine includes the study of the machine itself, taking into account all phases of the “life” of the machine mentioned in ISO 12100:2010, 5.4, and the drafting of the instructions related to all the above phases.

This document covers the following types of machines (see Annex J):

hydraulic press brakes;
hydraulic servo-drive press brakes;
screw servo-drive press brakes;
belt-spring servo-drive press brakes.

The requirements in this document take account of intended use, as defined in ISO 12100:2010, 3.23, as well as reasonably foreseeable misuse, as defined in ISO 12100:2010, 3.24. This document presumes access to the press brake from all directions, deals with all significant hazards during the various phases of the life of the machine described in Clause 4, and specifies the safety measures for both the operator and other exposed persons.

NOTE 2 All significant hazards means those identified or associated with press brakes at the time of the publication of this document.

This document can also be used as a guide for the design of press brakes which are intended to be integrated in a manufacturing system.

This document deals with all significant hazards, hazardous situations or hazardous events relevant to press brakes and ancillary devices (see Clause 4) when it is used as intended and under conditions of misuse which are reasonably foreseeable by the manufacturer. This document specifies the safety requirements for press brakes defined in Clause 3.

This document does not cover press brakes which transmit energy to impart beam motion by using pneumatic means or mechanical clutch or press brakes that use combination of technologies (e.g. combined hydraulic and screw servo-drive press brake or combined hydraulic servo-drive and screw servo-drive press brake).

This document does not cover machines whose principal designed purpose is:

sheet folding by rotary action;
tube and pipe bending by rotary action;
roll bending.

This document does not cover hazards related to the use of press brakes in explosive atmospheres.

This document is not applicable to press brakes which are manufactured before the date of its publication.

This document does not cover the safety aspect of equipment for automatic workpiece loading and unloading where provided. Guidance on how to take into account additional automatic loading and unloading equipment can be found in ISO 11161:2007.

ISO

ISO 6909:2026

ISO 8980-4:2026

ISO 42503:2026

ISO 16994:2026

ISO 19383:2026

ISO 39004:2026

ISO 22785-3:2026

ISO 20223:2026

ISO 18805:2026

ISO 23150-20:2026

ISO 19697:2026

ISO 15733:2026