Articles 1 and 2 of Machinery Regulation 2023/1230: subject matter and scope, which machinery is covered and which is excluded

Direct answer: Regulation (EU) 2023/1230 applies to machinery, partly completed machinery and a closed list of related products —safety components, lifting accessories, chains and ropes, interchangeable equipment and removable mechanical transmission devices— provided they are placed on the market or put into service in the European Union. Article 2 expressly excludes 17 categories, including motor vehicles, aircraft, seagoing vessels, weapons and certain electrical products already covered by other EU harmonisation legislation. Before applying any other article of the Regulation, this scoping question must be answered first: is my product within the scope of application?

Article 1 sets out the subject matter of the Regulation: to establish health and safety requirements for the design and construction of machinery, related products and partly completed machinery, so that they can be placed on the market or put into service while ensuring a high level of protection for persons, domestic animals, property and, where relevant, the environment. The Regulation replaces Directive 2006/42/EC and will be fully applicable from 20 January 2027. Correctly determining the scope of application —what falls in and what stays out— is the first mandatory filter for any engineering or quality department before starting a conformity assessment process.

Which products fall within the scope of Article 2?

Article 2(1) sets out the material scope of the Regulation in two blocks: machinery itself and a closed list of «related products». A product only falls under the Regulation if it fits one of these categories, and only if it is not also excluded under paragraph 2 of the same article.

In addition to this list, Article 2(1) itself clarifies that the Regulation «also applies to partly completed machinery». The definitions of machinery, partly completed machinery and assembly of machinery are developed in Article 3, which we have already analysed in depth in our article on the Regulation's definitions —if you are unsure whether your product fits the technical definition of machinery before considering the scope of application, we refer you to that earlier analysis.

Which 17 categories fall outside the Machinery Regulation?

Article 2(2) sets out a closed list of exclusions. These exclusions do not mean the product is left unregulated: in most cases another piece of Union harmonisation legislation covers those risks more specifically, a principle we cover in detail in our analysis of Article 9 on specific harmonisation legislation.

The full list in Article 2(2) also includes machinery and related products designed for military or police use, lifting equipment for the raising of persons in artistic performances, vehicles exclusively for competition, seagoing vessels and mobile offshore drilling units, and mining extraction equipment. It is a closed list: it does not allow exclusion by analogy.

How do you determine whether a borderline product is in or out of scope?

In practice, the hardest cases are not the obvious ones —an industrial press obviously falls in, an aircraft obviously does not— but the hybrid or borderline products: machinery mounted on an excluded vehicle, research equipment that is later placed on the market, or devices with electrical components that could fit more than one piece of legislation.

IgeraIndustria in action: scope of application verification

Before starting any conformity assessment process, IgeraIndustria lets you ask, in plain language, whether a product falls within the scope of Regulation 2023/1230, citing the exact paragraph of Article 2 that applies.

Why does getting the scope right matter so much?

A scoping error at this initial stage propagates through the entire subsequent process: if the Machinery Regulation is applied to a product that is actually covered by other, more specific legislation —or vice versa— the conformity assessment, the EU Declaration of Conformity and the CE marking will be built on an incorrect legal basis. Recall that we have analysed in detail the mandatory content of the EU Declaration of Conformity in our article dedicated to Article 16 of the Regulation; that document loses all its value if issued under the wrong legislation.

A real case that illustrates this difficulty: a manufacturer of air filtration systems for agricultural machinery cabs took several weeks to determine whether its product should be treated as a safety component —which would require complying with Art. 2(1)(b) and Annex II point 20, which expressly covers cab filters against hazardous materials— or as a generic accessory with no CE marking obligations. The correct classification directly affected which conformity assessment procedure had to be followed.

Frequently asked questions about Articles 1 and 2

Does the list of exclusions in Article 2(2) allow interpretation by analogy?

No. It is a closed list (numerus clausus). If a product does not exactly fit one of the 17 categories described, it cannot be excluded from the Regulation merely because it resembles one of them. In case of reasonable doubt, the prudent approach is to document the analysis and, if uncertainty remains, consult the notified body or the competent market surveillance authority.

What happens with a product that has both civilian and military applications?

Article 2(2)(l) excludes machinery and related products «specifically designed and constructed» for military or police purposes. A dual-use product, originally designed for civilian use and later adapted for military use, is not automatically excluded: the exclusion requires that the original design already had that specific purpose.

Is laboratory research equipment always excluded?

Only when its use is «temporary» and strictly for research in a laboratory, under Art. 2(2)(m). If that same equipment is subsequently placed on the market for productive use or made available to third parties outside the research context, it ceases to be excluded and falls within the scope of the Regulation.

How do I distinguish a safety component from a simple spare part?

Article 2(2)(a) excludes safety components intended as identical replacement parts, supplied by the original manufacturer of the machine. If the component performs a safety function under Annex II but is placed on the market independently for first installation —not as an identical replacement— it falls within the scope of application as a related product.

How does Article 1-2 relate to Article 9 on specific harmonisation legislation?

They are complementary but distinct. Article 2 excludes entire product categories from the scope of the Regulation. Article 9, by contrast, operates within products that are already in scope, but ceases to apply partially where other Union harmonisation legislation covers a specific risk already regulated in Annex III in a more specific way. It is a risk exclusion, not a product exclusion.

Can IgeraIndustria help document the scoping decision?

Yes. IgeraIndustria generates a supporting report with the literal citation of the applied paragraph of Article 2, suitable for inclusion in the technical file and for presentation to a market surveillance inspection or a notified body.