Standards Australia's Technical Committee, ME-063 - Earth-moving Equipment, is responsible for the preparation and development of Australian Standards relating to earth-moving machinery such as crawlers, backhoes, dump trucks etc. There are currently 68 Australian Standards within this portfolio, which are mainly adoptions of corresponding International Standards.
Most of these Australian Standards were published in 1988 and since then a lot of the corresponding ISO Standards have been modified or even withdrawn. Consequently, the committee has decided to update the Australian versions by taking the same action as the International committee (ISO/TC 127) and to bring the documents into line with their corresponding international editions. Some Australian earth-moving standards will therefore be withdrawn and many others will be republished this year.
The majority of the Australian earth-moving machinery standards could be subdivided into 9 headings as follows; Nomenclature (AS 2951 series), Basic shapes and dimensions (AS 2952 series), Human dimensions (AS 2953 series), Rated loads and volumetric ratings (AS 2954 series), Tests and measurements (AS 2955 series), Instrumentation and operator's controls (AS 2956 series), Operation and maintenance (AS 2957 series), Safety (AS 2958 series) as well as Protective structures (AS 2294 series). There are also standards on laboratory testing of guards and on seat belts fitted to such machinery.
Readers are advised to keep informed as to the latest status of the revisions by contacting the Project Manager or through the Standards Australia website. http://www.standards.org.au/
ME-063 also has two Working Groups that are currently developing standards for the repair and maintenance of wheels, rims and tyres used on 'off-the-road' earth-moving machinery and for quick hitches that are attached to excavator and backhoe arms. These projects will be available for public comment within the next few months.
Standards Australia’s project managers’ facilitate committees comprised of experts representing a broad cross section of industry and the community, such as governments, industry bodies, trade and professional associations, academia and consumer groups.