ISO 14955-1:2017 constitutes the application of eco-design standards to machine tools, mainly for automatically operated and/or numerically controlled (NC) machine tools.

ISO 14955-1:2017 addresses the energy efficiency of machine tools during the use stage, i.e. the working life of the machine tool. Environmentally relevant stages other than the use stage and relevant impacts other than energy supplied to machine tools are not within the scope and need special treatment (e.g. according to ISO/TR 14062).

Elements of eco-design procedure according to ISO/TR 14062 are applied to machine tools. Reporting of results to users and suppliers and monitoring of results are defined.

Evaluation of energy efficiency implies quantification of the resources used, i.e. energy supplied, and of the result achieved. ISO 14955-1:2017 provides guidance for a reproducible quantification of the energy supplied. It does not suggest a methodology for quantifying the result achieved due to the lack of universal criteria. The result achieved in industrial application being machined workpieces, their properties (e.g. material, shape, accuracy, surface quality), the constraints of production (e.g. minimum lot size, flexibility) and other appropriate parameters for the quantification of the result achieved are intended to be determined specifically for each application or for a set of applications.

ISO 14955-1:2017 defines methods for setting up a process for integrating energy efficiency aspects into machine tool design. It is not intended for the comparison of machine tools; also, ISO 14955-1:2017 does not deal with the effect of different types of user behaviour or different manufacturing strategies during the use phase.

Lists of environmentally relevant improvements and machine tool components, control of machine tool components and combinations of machine tool components are given in Annex A. Annex B provides an example of application of the methodology.

NOTE Certain machining processes and specific machine tools can allow significant changes in the environmental impact of machined workpieces, e.g. material reduction for aluminium cans by application of special press technology, higher performance of compressors by machining on precision form grinders^[10][13]. The environmental impact of such processes or machine tools might be less important compared to the environmental impact of the machined workpieces and their application. These changes in the environmental impact of machined workpieces are not subject of ISO 14955-1:2017, but might be important if different machining processes or different machine tools are compared related to environmental impact of products. For instance, the accuracy of a machined workpiece might be a significant parameter for the environmental impact of the workpiece in its use stage, and any attempt to compare machine tools is intended to take this into account necessarily.