Korea KCs for mixers: documents and a step-by-step guide

Understand the mixer KCs route

This process is often called ‘KCs certification’. For covered mixers, the route is self-declaration: the manufacturer or importer establishes conformity, and KOSHA receives the filing and issues a declaration certificate. Filing is compulsory for products within scope unless a specific exemption applies. KCs is the product mark; KOSHA administers the process. Voluntary S-mark certification and periodic safety inspection are separate procedures.

This guide uses KOSHA’s September 2022 Self-declaration and Performance Testing Guide as its main technical source, especially printed pages 3–4, 6–12, 37–41 and 81–88. Current filing rules and official inspection guidance were checked on 14 October 2026. Printed page numbers are three lower than PDF viewer numbers. Use the requirements in force when you file; the handbook link in Sources is a clearly identified third-party download listing of the KOSHA publication.

Step 1: confirm the mixer category and scope

The general mixer category covers machines that stir or mix contents using blades fixed to a rotating shaft. It excludes rotating-vessel mixers, air-jet agitators, food-use mixers, and machines with a mixing vessel below 200 litres or motor drive power below 1 kW. The size and power exclusions use ‘or’: either one is sufficient. A machine at exactly 200 litres and exactly 1 kW is not excluded by those two thresholds alone.

Food use does not automatically remove KCs obligations. Food mixers have a separate category under food-processing machinery. The handbook lists rotating-vessel mixers, motors of 1.2 kW or less, and household-use machines as exclusions from that category. Do not apply the general mixer’s 200-litre exclusion to a food mixer. This article’s technical checklist concerns the general mixer category; use the food-machinery criteria if that is your classification.

Prepare a specification with the vessel volume, motor ratings, shaft/blade arrangement, intended materials and operating modes. For multiple motors, removable vessels, unusual agitators or equipment supplied as part of a line, ask KOSHA to confirm the category and declared equipment boundary using drawings. Record the basis of any exclusion instead of relying on a supplier’s product name.

Step 2: identify the applicant and define the model

The responsible party is the manufacturer or importer. For imported equipment, agree who files and how the overseas manufacturer will supply drawings, reports 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. Confirm the applicable conditions before relying on one; a CE mark alone does not establish a filing exemption.

File by type, distinguished by structure, appearance, function and performance. The handbook uses motor capacity in kW for the mixer capacity field. Also document vessel volume, mixing capacity, speed range and control arrangement so the scope decision and test evidence are traceable. Agree with KOSHA how to handle variants with different vessels, motors, covers or safety controls.

Step 3: assemble the required document pack

Article 120 requires Form 48, a product description/manual and documents proving conformity with the self-declaration safety criteria. The handbook explains what that evidence should contain. Use the same applicant and model identifiers across the whole pack.

• Self-declaration form. Complete the current Form 48 (자율안전확인 신고서), including applicant, manufacturer and machine/type information. Use the handbook’s form as a preparation reference and obtain the current version for submission.
• Korean-language operating manual. Include operating methods, inspection criteria and checklists, protective-device function checks and maintenance, safe working methods, and precautions for internal cleaning and inspection. Match the instructions to the actual cover, interlocks, discharge arrangement and energy-isolation provisions. The handbook requires Korean instructions; an English-only supplier manual is insufficient.
• Risk-assessment results. Address every applicable mixer safety criterion and additional hazards of the actual machine. Identify the hazard location, protective measure and evidence of effectiveness, and justify non-applicable items. The mixer form on printed pages 81–88 can combine risk assessment with test and inspection results.
• Test and inspection reports. Supply the applicable electrical measurements and functional checks, identifying the tested configuration, criteria, results and conclusion. For an external laboratory, include evidence of accreditation or designation covering the relevant tests. Attach the appropriate certificates for explosion-protected electrical equipment and components where used.
• Drawings and safeguard details. Provide external or assembly drawings showing materials, dimensions and configuration. Include documents or photographs showing where protective measures are installed. Electrical/control diagrams should make the cover sensors, locking devices, stopping functions and restart logic traceable to the assessment and test records.
• Applicant identity information. Prepare the business details. Current Article 120(2) requires KOSHA to check the corporate register or a sole proprietor’s business-registration certificate through administrative data sharing. A sole proprietor who does not consent must attach the document. Follow this current provision rather than treating the 2022 handbook’s copy-submission wording as the latest rule.

Step 4: verify the mixer’s safeguards and electrical safety

Use the mixer checklist on printed pages 81–88 alongside the Hazardous Machinery Self-declaration Notice, whose mixer criteria are in Annex 3. This is a design and verification exercise: a completed form must be supported by the machine’s actual construction, measurements and functional results. The following points deserve particular attention.

• Openings, moving parts and safe access. Assess falls into the vessel, contact with blades and drives, ejected material, and slipping at working platforms. The checklist addresses covers or barriers at hazardous openings and guards around belts, chains and gears. Apply an exception only where its stated conditions are satisfied and the protective measures are documented.
• Cover interlocks and locking. The handbook specifies two cover-position sensors, one normally open and one normally closed, with fault detection that gives an alarm and stops operation if either fails. Closing the cover must not itself restart the blades; a separate start command is needed. It also specifies at least two cover-locking devices and delayed release after stopping to account for blade run-down. Record the actual stopping and unlocking behavior, and resolve any proposed alternative design with KOSHA before relying on it.
• Emergency stopping and unexpected restart. Check accessible emergency stops, manual reset, safety functions in every operating mode, and prevention of automatic restart after power returns. The checklist specifies stop category 0, with category 1 permitted where abrupt stopping would create an additional hazard, and gives circuit requirements for each. Test the chosen arrangement against those criteria rather than relying on the presence of a red button.
• Electrical tests and records. Mixer item 26 requires protective-bonding continuity and insulation-resistance testing. It allows the withstand-voltage and residual-voltage tests to be omitted; record the basis for any omission. That permission does not remove the underlying electrical design requirements. Have the test provider document the applicable limits, conditions and measured values, including the bonding and insulation criteria in items 17–18.
• Explosion protection and other reports. If explosion-protected electrical equipment is used, verify its suitability for the area and include the relevant certificates. The handbook’s report table requires electrical test evidence generally but does not specify a blanket EMC report for the mixer category. Check any additional obligations for the actual controls and installation instead of copying the industrial-robot EMC requirement into every mixer filing.

Step 5: confirm the testing route and close the evidence gaps

The handbook accepts results from appropriately accredited or designated test organizations within their recognized scope. It also permits the declarant’s own test results where the declarant possesses the relevant test and inspection equipment. Confirm the proposed route and equipment evidence with KOSHA before relying on in-house results. Keep the test configuration, instruments and results identifiable.

Existing overseas reports may help where their criteria and tested configuration match the mixer. The handbook describes a specific substitution route for certification documents issued by a foreign safety-certification body covered by a mutual-recognition agreement with the minister or certification agency. Verify the current agreement and product scope before using that route. A CE declaration or ISO management-system certificate is not an automatic replacement for the technical evidence.

Before submission, reconcile the form, vessel and motor specifications, drawings, Korean manual, test reports and proposed nameplate. Close failures, repeat affected tests and keep the revised evidence. This practical review helps ensure the declaration describes the machine that will actually be supplied.

Step 6: submit to KOSHA and obtain the declaration certificate

Use KOSHA’s current office directory to identify the team handling hazardous-machinery self-declarations for the applicant’s location. Confirm the accepted submission channel and current forms, then submit the complete pack before factory release or import. Article 120 expressly allows electronic documents. Keep the receipt and the submitted version of the file.

Article 120(3) sets a 15-day period from receipt for KOSHA to issue Form 49, the 자율안전확인 신고증명서. Allow separate time for design changes, testing, translation and resolving deficiencies. Check the certificate’s applicant and model details, and resolve review questions before treating the filing as complete.

The September 2022 handbook states that there is no declaration filing fee. Laboratory work, translation, engineering and consulting can still cost money; confirm current charges and obtain separate quotations. Responsibility for product conformity remains with the manufacturer or importer.

Step 7: apply the KCs mark and retain the file

After completing the declaration, apply the prescribed KCs mark and display rules. The mixer checklist calls for a visible nameplate with the manufacturer’s name and address, model/type, manufacturing date, serial number, mixing capacity, rotational speed, motor capacity, machine weight and KCs mark. Use official marking artwork; the KOSHA corporate name and this article’s illustrative cover are not product-marking artwork.

Article 164(2) requires manufacturers and importers to retain evidence of conformity for two years. Keep the declaration certificate, submitted documents, reports and configuration records together. Assess changes to the mixer, motor, cover, controls or operating limits for their effect on conformity and confirm any necessary filing update with KOSHA. Longer retention can support maintenance and later modifications.

After KCs: check the separate safety-inspection duty

Mixers entered the periodic safety-inspection regime on 26 June 2026. This concerns equipment in use and is separate from the product’s KCs declaration. Its exclusions include drive-motor capacity of 1.2 kW or less and industrial-mixer volume below 200 litres, as well as specified designs and uses. Review the complete inspection scope; do not substitute its 1.2 kW threshold for the general mixer self-declaration threshold of below 1 kW.

For covered new installations, the ordinary timetable is a first inspection within three years after installation is completed, then every two years. Existing mixers have transitional first-inspection windows based on their installation date. Record that date and confirm the deadline with the inspection body; the 2022 handbook predates this change.

• Installed before 1 March 2013. The transitional first-inspection window runs from 26 June to 25 December 2026.
• Installed from 1 March 2013 through 26 June 2023. The transitional window runs from 26 June 2026 to 25 June 2027.
• Installed from 27 June 2023 through 25 June 2026. The first inspection is due within six months from the installation’s three-year anniversary. Confirm the precise due date for your machine with the inspection body.

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