Korea KCs for crushers and pulverizers: documents and a step-by-step guide

Understand the crusher and pulverizer KCs route

The process is often called ‘KCs certification’, but this category follows mandatory self-declaration. The manufacturer or importer establishes conformity and KOSHA issues a declaration certificate. KCs is the product mark; KOSHA is the agency administering the filing. Voluntary S-mark certification and periodic safety inspection of equipment in use are separate processes.

This guide uses KOSHA’s September 2022 Self-declaration and Performance Testing Guide as its main technical source, especially printed pages 3–12, 37–41 and the crusher/pulverizer checklist on pages 89–97. Current filing rules and official guidance were cross-checked on 16 October 2026, including the separate inspection duties introduced in June 2026. Printed page numbers are three lower than PDF viewer numbers. Source 1 links to a clearly identified third-party download of the KOSHA publication; use the rules applicable when you file.

Step 1: confirm the category and the 50 kg/h threshold

The general category covers machines that break materials such as rock, metal or plastic into smaller pieces or powder. KOSHA excludes food-use equipment and machines with a crushing or pulverizing capacity below 50 kg/h. Exactly 50 kg/h is not below the threshold. A motor rating alone does not establish exclusion from this self-declaration category.

Food crushers have a separate route under food-processing machinery. The handbook excludes food crushers with a drive motor of 1.2 kW or less and machines used for household purposes. Do not apply the general category’s 50 kg/h exclusion to food machinery. This article’s technical checklist concerns the general crusher/pulverizer category.

Record intended materials, rated throughput and its operating conditions, rotor or reciprocating mechanism, drive ratings, feed hopper, discharge arrangement and controls. For a granulator, shredder, mill or machine integrated into a line, confirm the legal category from its function and construction rather than its trade name. Send KOSHA a specification and layout if capacity varies by material or the equipment boundary is unclear. These are practical steps for documenting the scope decision.

Step 2: identify the applicant and define the model

Identify the manufacturer or importer responsible for filing. For imports, agree how the overseas manufacturer will provide drawings, test evidence and Korean instructions. The handbook describes limited exemptions for specified research and development, manufacture for export, qualifying S-mark certification and certain other statutory approvals. Check the actual conditions with KOSHA before claiming one; a CE mark alone is not a filing exemption.

Prepare the declaration by type, distinguished by structure, appearance, function and performance. The handbook uses kg/h for crusher and pulverizer capacity. Keep the model identifier, capacity, rotor or blade configuration, motor and safety controls consistent across the form, manual, drawings and reports. Confirm how variants with different hoppers, drives or control systems should be grouped.

Step 3: assemble the required document pack

Article 120 requires Form 48, the product description/manual and documents proving conformity with the self-declaration safety criteria. The handbook explains the technical evidence expected within that pack. Prepare the following for the actual configuration being declared.

• Self-declaration form. Complete the current Form 48 (자율안전확인 신고서), identifying the applicant, manufacturer, machine and type. Use the handbook’s example to prepare the information, then obtain the current submission form from KOSHA.
• Korean-language operating manual. Cover installation and anchoring where needed, vibration mounts, blade mounting and tightening torques, inspection and replacement of blades or rotors, cleaning and removal of residues, and safe work with the chamber open. Explain the rotor-restraint procedure, entanglement risks when feeding film, fibres or string, ejection risks from long material, and the specified eye, hearing and blade-handling protection. An English-only supplier manual does not meet the handbook’s Korean-language requirement.
• Risk-assessment results. Address every applicable crusher/pulverizer safety criterion and additional hazards of the intended materials, operating modes and maintenance tasks. Identify each hazard location, protective measure and evidence that it works; explain non-applicable items. The form on printed pages 89–97 can combine the risk assessment with test and inspection results.
• Test and inspection reports. Include applicable electrical measurements and functional checks, with the tested model, criteria, measured results and conclusion. For an external laboratory, attach evidence of its accreditation or designation for the relevant tests. Include certificates for explosion-protected electrical equipment and components where used.
• Drawings and safeguard installation details. Supply external or assembly drawings showing materials, dimensions and configuration, plus documents or photographs locating the protective measures. Include the hopper, chamber, discharge, guards and rotor restraint. Electrical and control diagrams help trace interlocks, stopping functions and restart protection to the test evidence.
• Applicant identity information. Prepare the business details. Under current Article 120(2), KOSHA checks the corporate register or sole proprietor’s business-registration certificate through administrative data sharing. A sole proprietor who does not consent must attach the document. Follow this updated rule rather than treating the 2022 handbook’s copy-submission wording as current.

Step 4: verify the crusher-specific safeguards

Use the checklist on printed pages 89–97 alongside the Hazardous Machinery Self-declaration Notice, No. 2020-37: Article 11 points to Annex 4 for crusher/pulverizer construction and safety criteria. Support the assessment with the machine’s actual design, measurements and functional checks. The following are key review areas, not a substitute for the complete criteria.

• Prevent access while the rotor is moving. Check reach through the feed, discharge, cleaning and maintenance openings. The criteria address safety distances and gaps, fixed or interlocked guards, and guard locking. Movable hoppers and discharge covers must prevent access until rotor movement has stopped. Verify run-down and access behavior rather than assuming that cutting power immediately stops the rotor.
• Restrain the rotor during maintenance. Provide the specified restraint against unintended rotor movement, including movement when loosening or removing blades changes the balance. Apply the stated exception only if the rotor drive cannot develop sufficient inertia to cause injury in those conditions. Document the restraint’s use and release conditions; an emergency-stop button does not physically restrain a rotor.
• Control feeding and ejected material. Verify chamber strength, feed arrangements or protective flaps that contain ejected material, and protection against falling or being drawn into the hopper. Powered feeding of film, fibres, string or similar material has specific trip-device requirements. Hinged hoppers must not close unexpectedly; powered hoppers have additional control requirements. Assess each arrangement against items 2–7 rather than treating a hopper as sufficient guarding by itself.
• Address noise, hazardous material and stability. Review noise at the chamber, hopper and discharge, and the measures to reduce it. Machines designed for flammable or toxic material need suitable risk-reduction measures, such as local exhaust or automatic fire suppression as appropriate. Machines not designed for such material need a warning. Check stability with the hopper open as well as closed.
• Verify emergency stopping and restart protection. Test accessible emergency stops, manual reset, safety functions in each operating mode and prevention of unexpected restart after power restoration. Item 25 specifies stop category 0, allowing category 1 where abrupt stopping would create additional risk, with associated circuit requirements. Record the chosen design and functional results.

Step 5: complete testing and close the evidence gaps

Crusher/pulverizer item 29 requires protective-bonding continuity and insulation-resistance tests. It permits omission of the withstand-voltage and residual-voltage tests; record the basis for any omission. That permission does not remove the underlying electrical design requirements. Keep the test conditions, applicable limits and measured results together, including the bonding and insulation criteria in items 20–21.

The handbook’s report table requires electrical test evidence for machinery generally and explosion-protection certificates for this category where such equipment is used. It does not impose a blanket EMC-report requirement on crushers/pulverizers. Check other applicable obligations for the actual controls and installation; do not copy the industrial-robot EMC requirement into every crusher filing.

Use an appropriately accredited or designated laboratory within its recognized scope, or the declarant’s own results where the declarant possesses the relevant test and inspection equipment. Confirm the proposed in-house route and equipment evidence with KOSHA. Overseas reports may be useful when the configuration and criteria match; the handbook also describes substitution by certification documents from a foreign body covered by a qualifying mutual-recognition agreement. Verify the current agreement and scope before relying on it.

Before filing, reconcile the form, Korean manual, drawings, assessment, test results and proposed nameplate. Resolve failed checks and repeat the affected tests. Confirm that the documents describe the machine being supplied, including its materials, throughput, hopper, drive and control versions. These document-control steps make the conformity conclusion traceable.

Step 6: file with KOSHA and obtain the declaration certificate

Use KOSHA’s current office directory to identify the team responsible for crusher/pulverizer self-declarations for the applicant’s location. Confirm its submission channel and current forms, then submit the complete pack before factory release or import. Article 120 permits electronic submission. Keep the receipt and a dated copy of everything submitted.

Article 120(3) requires KOSHA to issue Form 49, the 자율안전확인 신고증명서, within 15 days after receiving the declaration. Budget separately for engineering, testing, translation and resolving deficiencies; 15 days is not a complete project schedule. Check the issued certificate’s applicant and model details and resolve any review questions before treating the filing as complete.

The September 2022 handbook states that the declaration filing has no fee. Testing, translation, engineering changes and consulting may still cost money, so confirm current charges and obtain separate quotations. Product conformity remains the manufacturer’s or importer’s responsibility.

Step 7: apply the KCs mark and retain the conformity file

After completing the declaration, apply the prescribed KCs mark and display rules. Crusher/pulverizer item 11 requires the manufacturer’s and supplier’s names and addresses, type number, serial or machine number, the KCs mark, and a warning where the machine is not designed to process flammable or hazardous material. Use official product-marking artwork; the KOSHA corporate name and this article’s illustrative cover do not replace it.

Article 164(2) requires manufacturers and importers to retain evidence of conformity for two years. Keep the declaration certificate, submission, assessment, test reports and configuration records together. Assess later changes to the chamber, rotor, hopper, motor, materials or controls for their effect on conformity, and confirm any necessary filing update with KOSHA. Keeping the file for the machine’s service life is a useful practice beyond the statutory minimum.

After KCs: plan the separate safety inspection

Crushers and pulverizers entered the in-use safety-inspection regime on 26 June 2026. This is separate from KCs self-declaration. Inspection exclusions include capacity below 50 kg/h and drive-motor capacity below 7.5 kW, alongside specified designs, uses and protective arrangements. Review the full inspection scope in the Ministry’s current guidance. The 7.5 kW exclusion is not a self-declaration exemption: a non-food crusher rated at 100 kg/h and 5.5 kW can still require KCs filing.

For covered new installations, the ordinary timetable is a first safety inspection within three years after installation is completed, followed by inspection every two years. Existing equipment has transitional first-inspection windows. The table below follows the official guidance; retain the installation date and confirm the applicable deadline with the inspection body. The 2022 handbook predates this change.

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