PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, is pleased to announce the approval of its ANSI/B155.1-2016 Safety Requirements for Packaging and Processing Machinery standard as an American National Standard by the American National Standards Institute by the Board of Standards Review. The objective of the ANSI/PMMI B155.1-2016 standard is to improve the safety of packaging and processing machinery and eliminate injuries to personnel working on these systems by establishing requirements for the design, construction, reconstruction, modification, installation, set–up, operation and maintenance of processing and packaging machinery systems.

The ANSI/B155.1-2016 standard was promulgated by PMMI, an ANSI-accredited standards developing organization, as a voluntary standard to establish safety requirements for machinery. This standard guides processing and packaging machinery suppliers and users through a risk assessment process designed to ensure that reasonably foreseeable hazards are identified and corresponding risks are reduced to an acceptable level.
“Although engineers have long applied an informal risk assessment framework, the ANSI/B155.1-2016 standard defines a formal method to conduct and document the risk assessment process,” said Fred Hayes, director of technical services, PMMI. “PMMI continues to address the safety of packaging, processing and packaging-related converting machinery through its various standards and technical reports.”

The first version of this standard was approved by the PMMI membership on Sept. 27, 1972. It was approved as an American National Standard by ANSI on Aug. 6, 1973. The standard has been reviewed and revised with subsequent approvals by the ANSI Board of Standards Review in 1979, 1986, 1994, 2000, 2006 and 2011.

The ANSI/PMMI B155.1-2016 standard will be available for purchase through the ANSI webstore at webstore.ansi.org.