DIN EN 12195-1:2011-06

This European Standard has been prepared by Technical Committee CEN/TC 168 "Chains, ropes, webbing, slings and accessories - Safety" (secretariat: BSI, United Kingdom). Regarding the German collaboration, the responsible Working Committee is NA 106-01-03 AA "Chemiefaserhebebänder und Zurrgurte" ("Non-made fibre webbing and load restrain assemblies") of the Textiles and Textile Machinery Standards Committee (Textilnorm). This European Standard describes the design of various securing methods (blocking, lashing, and combinations thereof) for securing of loads for surface transport by road vehicles or parts of them (lorries, trailers, containers and swap bodies), including their transport on vessels or by rail and/or combinations thereof. Hump shunting with acceleration over 1 g during railway transport is excluded, as it is not foreseen in combined transport. This European Standard does not apply for vehicles with a total weight equal to or lower than 3 500 kg; lighter vehicles can have driving characteristics, which give higher values of acceleration on the road. For dimensioning of load securing a distinction is made between stable loads and loads liable to tilting. Furthermore, the acceleration coefficients for surface transport are given. The securing forces to be chosen for calculation to this European Standard are static forces produced by tensioning of lashings and dynamic forces, which act on the lashing as a reaction of the load movements. According to section 22, paragraph 1 of the StVO (German Traffic Regulations), the load, including equipment for securing the load and loading devices are to be stowed and secured so that they cannot slide, fall over, roll forwards and backwards even during emergency braking or sudden evasive action, in compliance with the "generally accepted technical rules". The previous edition of EN 12195-1:2003 - which is largely based on VDI 2700 - is considered in Germany to be one of the "generally accepted technical rules" in accordance with section 22 of the StVO (German Traffic Regulations). However, in the current revision, which Germany had opposed, requirements regarding safety factors have been significantly reduced. The Working Committee would like to point out the fact that the securing of loads by those legally responsible and the official control of secured loads by the responsible agencies may be open to different interpretation: It is expected that those involved in transit traffic will refer to the new EN 12195-1:2010 in terms of complying with load restraint regulations, while those involved in national traffic will refer to the technical rules that are generally accepted in Germany (at present VDI 2700 in conjunction with DIN EN 12195-1:2004), in line with established case law in Germany. In case of damage German courts and insurers are obliged to use the generally accepted technical rules (at present the principles for evaluating the correct securing of loads as laid down in VDI 2700 and EN 12195-1:2003) as a basis for determining what constitutes the correct securing of loads. It is currently unclear to what extent the new EN 12195-1:2010 will be used as a technical benchmark for evaluating correct load securing. To maintain the level of safety of secured loads that is considered in Germany as being acceptable, further information for the proper application of DIN EN 12195-1:2011-06 is given below: 1) A higher safety level than that described in DIN EN 12195-1:2011-06 can be maintained at any time; 2) The national provisions, technical rules and regulations, are to be observed, in which case a higher safety level can certainly be assumed. The Working Committee has the following additional remarks regarding load restraint requirements: The standard EN 12195-1:2010 a) is essentially not equivalent to the safety level normally expected in Germany; b) no longer includes the k-factor. Therefore, the reduction of the tension force on the side opposite the tensioning device due to loss of friction is not adequately taken into consideration; c) no longer contains uniform requirements regarding tilting (different factors and acceleration coefficients for different lashing devices); d) no longer uses dynamic friction as a basis for calculation but friction values without any verified reference; e) contains a new conversion factor f_my = 0,75 up to even 1 for direct lashing if no friction values are given in the tables; f) allows for proof of correct load restraint by means of a static inclination test that does not take dynamic influences into consideration; g) only uses low safety factors, f_s = 1,1 and f_s = 1,25, for different influencing factors.