This publication summarises the results of a seminar (27 March 2006, Brussels), organised by ETUI-REHS to unveil its strategy for improving machinery standards through users' feedback. Under the chairmanship of Bart Samyn, Deputy General Secretary of the European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF), the five ETUI national partners - Finland, France, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom - presented the main findings of a project on forklift trucks (FLTs), together with a selection of design issues arising directly out of users' experience.
The seminar was the culmination of a five-year research project, during which ETUI was involved in two studies that developed and refined a method to acquire user knowledge on selected machines, structure it and make it available in a format usable to standard-setters. The first study investigated woodworking machinery in Italy; the second investigated FLTs in Germany and Italy.
The projects' outcomes were then used to develop a wider European project across five Member States, centred on FLTs covered by the harmonised standard EN 1726-1:1999 Safety of industrial trucks - Self-propelled trucks up to and including 10 000 kg capacity and industrial tractors with a drawbar pull up to and including 20 000 N - Part 1: General requirements.
 
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