Glossary · Safety information
Information for use
In machine safety, information for use is the safety-related information supplied to users of a machine, including instructions, warnings, markings and training requirements. Under ISO 12100 it is the third step of risk reduction and informs users about residual risks that design and safeguarding could not remove.
- Technical documentation
- Standards
In one sentence
Information for use covers instructions, warnings, markings and training needs, and informs users about the residual risks of a machine.
Example
For a packaging line, the information for use includes the operating manual, the warning labels on the sealing jaws, the marking of lifting points and the requirement that operators be trained before cleaning the line.
Explained in context
Context cards connect this term with others to answer one question. Also in British English and German.
- Documenting foreseeable misuse without making it an optionHow do instructions describe reasonably foreseeable misuse without presenting it as a way to use the product?UKDeutsch
- Where a warning belongs: safety chapter or before the taskShould a warning go into the safety chapter or directly before the step it concerns?UKDeutsch
- Instructions for use: one manual or a set of information products?Do "instructions for use" mean one user manual or a collection of documents?UKDeutsch
- Internal and external technical documentation: what "external" really meansDoes "external documentation" mean documentation that is published?UKDeutsch
- Minimalism and structured authoringHow do minimalism and structured authoring work together?UKDeutsch
How it applies
- Machine safety: Information for use comes last in the three-step method, after inherently safe design and safeguarding. It must not compensate for design or protective measures that would be reasonably practicable.
- Technical documentation: It is more than the manual. Signs and markings on the machine, signals, accompanying documents and training requirements all count, and they must say the same thing.
- Evidence: Each residual risk in the risk assessment should map to the information that addresses it: which warning, in which section, on which label. This link is what reviewers check.
- AI and retrieval: When content is split for search or chatbots, a warning must stay attached to the task it belongs to.
Information for use vs. safeguard
A safeguard acts on the machine and reduces risk without depending on the user reading anything. Information for use depends on people noticing, understanding and following it. That is why it ranks below safeguarding and why it is never a substitute for a guard or protective device. The detailed rules for preparing it are in IEC/IEEE 82079-1; see instructions for use (IFU).