When machines become safer, we all benefit – what will change from 2027 onwards

Machines influence our lives every day - usually without us even realizing it. They produce and package our food, mix medicines, check quality standards and control the flow of energy that supplies our households with electricity. However, as consumers, we usually give little thought to how these machines work on the inside and how safe they actually are. Yet a single unnoticed fault can have major consequences.

So what happens if a fault occurs in these systems that nobody recognizes immediately?

This is exactly what has happened in many incidents that have been reported in the media in the past: faulty batches of food, incorrectly dosed products, production stoppages or recalls that affect thousands of people. The processes in many plants are complex, often poorly documented and depend on the expertise of individual technical specialists. For society, this means that risks usually remain undetected for too long.

This is precisely where the new Machinery Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 (MVO) comes in. From 2027, machine manufacturers and operators will have to provide much stricter evidence: how their machines work, how risks have been assessed and how faults are prevented. Machine processes must be traceable, documented and verifiable. The use of AI will also be regulated more strictly.

The goal is clear: more safety for consumers.

If processes are described transparently and can be traced, errors can be detected earlier or, in the best case, prevented altogether. At the same time, safety also increases for those people who work directly on or with machines. Clear processes, comprehensible procedures and documented safety assessments significantly reduce risks for employees.

The new regulation therefore not only strengthens the technical safety of machinery, but also consumer protection and social trust. In a world that is increasingly characterized by automated systems, traceable machine behavior is becoming an important component of public safety. The better we understand how machines work, the better we can assess risks and take responsibility.

Austria is also making an important contribution to this development. The Styrian company Selmo Technology has been making machine processes explainable and standardized for years - long before the EU made this transparency mandatory.

Selmo CEO Markus Gruber emphasizes the importance of this change:

"Today, machines control many critical areas of our lives. If we can't understand why they do something, we can't take responsibility for their effects. The new EU regulation strengthens precisely the transparency that we need as a society."

Click here for the press article.