When you’re working out do you think of standards? Surprise! Behind the scenes in all aspects of daily life, standards are hard at work. ISO 20957-1 is a good example of a standard you rely on but probably don’t know much about. So let’s take a look at the just-released 2nd Edition, “Stationary training equipment – Part 1: General safety requirements and test methods.” Yes, it’s Friday and a good time to have some fun with standards, but we’ll learn a thing or two about them at the same time. And if this is your business, all the more reason to pay attention.
ISO 20957-1 is the first of an originally planned 10 part set, reduced to 9 parts when Part 3 was “amalgamated” with Part 2 after input from CEN, the European standards body. As the overview document, it’s the first in the set to be revised — the new update replaces the 1st Edition, which has been technically modified. The other parts look stable for now.
The series covers safety for stationary exercise equipment of all types. This Part 1 is the overview standard that should be used in conjunction with all the others. It’s a great example of a performance document and is classic in it’s structure.
You’ll find a foreword and an introduction at the beginning of the standard. These will provide you with the committee rationale for the development of the document and other administrative information. The first real technical section is the scope paragraph, which provides specific technical information on the standard and when it is appropriate to use it (and when it’s not appropriate as well.)
Next comes the normative references section — we’d call this “referenced standards” in U.S. publications. These are the documents that will be called out in the body of the standard. For example, if you are to have a criteria for the use of one aspect of your product, the test to confirm this may be found elsewhere. Rather than republish information (not advised due to copyright issues and concerns about data going out of date), the standard with the needed info is referred to instead.
And as you’ll find in many other standards, the third section is definitions. Here again is a section that may reference another standard, since there are many terminology documents out there. But in order to make sure all parties are talking about the same thing, the technical terms used are clearly defined one way or another so all users have the same level of understanding.
The bulk of ISO 20957-1 consists of definition of the classes of equipment covered, safety requirements and test methods. These sections change from document to document depending on the material covered and the needs of the information being transmitted. However, this division of the material into distinct classes is not uncommon. And safety and testing requirements are a main focus of many of these types of standards.
So the next time you’re on a treadmill or elliptical, using the rowing machine or exercise bike, or working through the circuit using the strength building equipment, you now know what standards keep those machines safe and effective. The ISO 20957 is behind the scenes, protecting you while you’re working out!
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