Overview
ISO/TR 20218-1:2018 - "Robotics - Safety design for industrial robot systems - Part 1: End-effectors" is a Technical Report from ISO that provides guidance on the safe design, manufacture and integration of end-effectors (end-of-arm tooling) for industrial robot systems. The document supplements the system-level requirements in ISO 10218‑2:2011 and applies to both traditional and collaborative robot applications where end-effector characteristics (shape, surfaces, forces, temperature, residual material) significantly affect operator safety.
Key topics and technical requirements
The report focuses on practical safety guidance rather than prescriptive limits. Major technical topics include:
- Risk assessment for end-effectors
- Identification of hazards associated with end-effectors and workpieces
- Estimation, evaluation and documentation of initial and residual risks
- Consideration of accessibility, intended and reasonably foreseeable misuse, and lifecycle phases
- Limits and specification of end-effector performance
- Use limits (automatic, manual, hand‑guiding, collaborative)
- Space, time and payload limits (movement, exchange times, centre of gravity)
- Functional limits (grasping force, vacuum suction, magnetic attraction, friction, temperatures)
- Safety requirements and risk reduction measures
- Design measures: shape, surfaces and compliant features to reduce injury risk
- Protective devices and safety-related functions and control performance
- Application design considerations and user-implemented risk reduction
- End-effector categories and considerations
- Gripper designs (grasp-type, vacuum, magnetic) and their specific hazards
- Application-specific end-effectors and hand-guiding devices
- End-effector exchange systems (tool changers): safety and exchange-time considerations
- Verification, validation and information for use
- Testing, validation of safety measures and required user instructions and documentation
- Informative annexes
- Practical risk assessment examples, gripper designs, and hazard tables
Practical applications and users
ISO/TR 20218-1:2018 is targeted at:
- End-effector designers and manufacturers producing grippers, vacuum or magnetic tools, welding/spray guns and tool changers
- System integrators and robot application designers performing risk assessments and selecting end-effectors for manufacturing cells
- Safety engineers and compliance officers who validate safety-related control performance and user information
- Use cases include assembly, pick-and-place, material handling, collaborative human-robot workstations and automated tool changing.
Related standards
Keywords: ISO/TR 20218-1:2018, end-effectors, robot safety, industrial robot systems, risk assessment, grippers, tool changers, ISO 10218-2, collaborative robots.