Overview
EN ISO 16119-1:2013 - "Agricultural and forestry machinery - Environmental requirements for sprayers - Part 1: General" sets out the general environmental design and performance requirements for sprayers used in agriculture, horticulture, forestry and related areas. The standard focuses on minimizing the risk of environmental contamination during normal use and foreseeable misuse, and specifies requirements for identification of sprayers and certain components and the minimum content of the instruction handbook. It applies to all sprayers defined in ISO 5681 except knapsack sprayers and is intended to be used together with the other parts of ISO 16119 that address specific sprayer types.
Key topics and requirements
- Scope and applicability: General environmental requirements for sprayer design and performance; not applicable to knapsack sprayers or sprayers manufactured before publication.
- Environmental protection focus: Minimise unintentional spreading of plant protection products and losses to non‑target areas.
- Design reliability: Sprayers and components must permit intended use in line with the instruction handbook and allow immediate stopping of pesticide application from the operator’s position.
- Inspections and testability: Provision for connecting measuring instruments (adapters) to verify correct functioning.
- Calibration & application rate: Easy, accurate and repeatable adjustment of volume application rate; requires means for calibration, adjustment and control, accurate measuring systems and readable instruments.
- Distribution and deposition: Requirement for suitable distribution and deposition characteristics - transversal, longitudinal and vertical evenness and even flow to distribution means.
- Loss minimization: Design measures to reduce losses during and after application.
- Indication & marking: Provisions for indicating the pesticide in use and marking of nozzles/filters as relevant.
- Instruction handbook: Minimum content requirements to support correct, environmentally responsible operation and foreseeable misuse instructions.
Applications - who uses this standard
- Manufacturers and designers of agricultural and forestry sprayers - for product design, marking and manuals.
- Certification bodies and test laboratories - to evaluate environmental performance and conformity with ISO 16119 series.
- Equipment purchasers, fleet managers and agronomists - to specify machines with reduced environmental impact and clear operational guidance.
- Service technicians and trainers - to support calibration, inspection and maintenance best practice.
- Regulators and policy makers - for harmonised technical criteria that support environmental objectives and EU directives (see Annex ZA).
Related standards
- ISO 5681 - Vocabulary for crop protection equipment
- ISO 10625 - Nozzle colour coding
- ISO 19732 - Sprayer filters colour coding
- ISO 4254-6 - Safety requirements for sprayers (safety is covered here, environmental aspects in ISO 16119-1)
- ISO 19932 - Knapsack sprayers (safety and environmental aspects)
EN ISO 16119-1:2013 is the foundational, SEO-relevant reference for anyone involved in the environmental design and use of agricultural and forestry sprayers.
