Currently, laser processing machines that do not comply with the requirements of the European Machinery Directive are increasingly being presented at industrial trade fairs or virtually on the Internet and placed on the European market. This leads to considerable risks for the safety and health of employees or other persons during use. Economic competition, here in the European single market, is distorted by widely differing degrees of compliance with safety regulations.

Up to now, no tools have existed to enable market surveillance actors to check compliance with the safety requirements of laser processing machines in a practicable manner up to an appropriate level of detail. For this reason, a working group of experts in laser and machine safety has drawn up a checklist for assessing the safety of laser processing machines. This checklist is primarily intended to serve market surveillance authorities in Germany and Europe to check the safety of laser processing machines within the scope of the Machinery Directive 2006/42/EC. However, it can also support company purchasers of such machines.

References to the Annex I of the Essential Health and Safety Requirements (EHSRs) of the Machinery Directive can be found in the "Reference List Safety Laser Processing Machines".

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