Standards & Guidelines Working Group 03.04.2025 in Nuremberg

The "Standards & Guidelines" Working Group met once again as part of the VFA General Assembly in early April. Over the course of two intensive hours, the 74 volunteer members received a comprehensive update on current developments in standards, guidelines, and committee activities.

VFA President Achim Hütter began with an overview of the current progress on ISO 8100-1/2. At the beginning of 2024, around 2,750 comments had been submitted, which have since been reviewed and addressed in numerous meetings.The ISO standards are expected to be published by the end of 2025, with harmonisation anticipated in the first half of 2026. Hütter also outlined the upcoming schedule and highlighted key changes. Once the final draft is available, the members of the Standards Working Group will review and discuss the content in their respective subgroups. Hütter encouraged active engagement with the upcoming changes.

He then provided updates on the latest topics from the Committee for Operational Safety (ABS PG2) and the German Committee for Lifts (DAfA).

Dr. Tobias Brendel reported on two new VDI guideline projects: VDI-MT 2168 “Lifts – Qualification of Personnel” and VDI 4702 “Lift 4.0 – Interfaces.”

Peipei Wang, Consultant for Standards and Guidelines at VFA-Interlift, then spoke about the strategic importance of patents for companies. In addition to current developments—such as the fact that nearly 80% of new patents are filed by multinational corporations—she also emphasized the potential benefits of systematic patent research.

Anne Zerno, also Consultant for Standards and Guidelines at VFA-Interlift, provided a concise overview of the key points in the EK-ZÜS Resolution B-002-Rev. 4 and the planned revision of TRBS 1115. She took a critical stance on the new requirements, such as confirmation of a successfully implemented information security management system or an established cybersecurity procedure for existing systems.

Ralf Gebhardt of Telegärtner Elektronik GmbH then addressed the upcoming challenge posed by the scheduled shutdown of the 2G mobile network in June 2028. Currently, around 50% of lifts in Germany still operate with 2G technology. This gives the industry only 39 months to replace the affected hardware—equating to roughly 500 devices per day.

Finally, Franz Watzke, Consultant for Standards and Guidelines at the VFA, provided updates on the latest developments in the VFA Standards Database and the ongoing evaluation of the Lifts Directive 2014/33/EU. The public consultation concluded in February 2025; a statement from the European Commission is expected in the third quarter.

To close the session, Achim Hütter thanked all participants for their dedication and invited them to the next Standards Working Group meeting on 13 November 2025 in Hamburg.

Further information:

VFA-Interlift e.V., Christella Herzog, Süderstraße 282, 20537 Hamburg, www.vfa-interlift.de