"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-REHS 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-REHS 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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