Safety of AGV-LGVs and serviced facilities: the new regulation

On 15 October last, SBS - UCIMA’s School for the Training of Instrumental Goods - organised a training course to analyse in detail the new international standard UNI EN ISO 3691-4:2020 and to study in depth the fundamental aspects of its application in the design and use phases of automatically guided trucks. To illustrate the details to the over 50 participants, two top experts in the field, Omar Casi and Ernesto Cappelletti.

After more than 6 years of work, in July 2020 the new international standard EN ISO 3691-4:2020 Industrial trucks - Safety requirements and verification - Part 4: Driverless industrial trucks and their systems, relating to the safety of AGV/LGV and AGV/LGV serviced areas/plants, was adopted by UNI.

Automatic Guided Trucks (or AGVs) are being used more and more frequently in a variety of industrial fields, from logistics warehouses to manufacturing companies to ports.

The functions of this type of vehicle are increasingly evolving to include, for example, robotic arms capable of automatically picking up and depositing the products transported.

A fundamental characteristic of automatic guided trucks is the ability to move in spaces where people are present; consequently the safety aspects of these machines are critical; the interaction of the trucks with other machines or with product storage locations also has safety implications that are far from simple.

For manufacturers and users of this type of vehicle, it is therefore essential to have technical standards available that provide guidance on the design of the trucks and their control systems and on how to manage their interaction with the environment in which they are intended to move and with the machines with which they must interface.

The course provided an immediate and important in-depth examination of the new regulations, providing precise indications on the safety measures to be taken to ensure the safe operation of the trucks, including devices for identifying people on the route.

An important part of EN ISO 3691-4:2020 is that which defines the requirements for the preparation of operating areas, including signs and road markings on the ground, perimeter guards, sensitive devices to protect the access openings of trucks, minimum spaces for people to pass through.

Inside also information on zones and load transfer operations, particularly critical phases as physical interaction is required between the truck and other machines or with product storage stations.